My cat Gandalf rarely drinks water straight from his water bowl, even though I change it twice a day. Generally he prefers drinking from the tub, toilet or flower pots or whatever he can get. When he does drink from the water bowl he usually splashes it with his paw or sometimes rakes the brim of the bowl and than gets down to drinking with his head turned at a strange angle as though he tried to lick the side of the bowl. Is there something wrong with the water, the bowl or my cat? Or is it just one of those weird things they do that makes us love them so much? Please share your experiences

I have two maine coons and they are strange with their water. Cleo drinks with her paw. Julius scrapes away at the floor before he drinks. The breeder told me they act like this because in the wild they would clear leaves off the water before drinking. I know fresh water has a chemical smell they do not like. Mine will drink from a puddle or pond any day - im sure Gandalf is fine its just part of his character

Both Tango and Kahlua do the same thing. Kahlua likes to ´pat´ the water a few times then drinks. Tango has to drag the dish halfway across the room, spill it everywhere THEN he takes his drink. Never thought anything of it but dont see anything wrong with it. Just normal cat behavior, if there is such a thing.

Not only do many of mine drink with their paws but teach newcomers to do it too.
Aren´t cats WONDERFUL?

Julius scrapes away at the floor before he drinks.
Mambo does that too and he likes to splash his paw....but he doesn´t drink with his paw just likes to splash it in the water

maya does the same...she´s like digging with her paw -on the floor and on the water bowl..first I thought she did that when the water wasn´t very fresh, but then I noticed that she does so with fresh water as well.. I had to buy a bowl with a special basis -before that i used to find the bowl moved from its place and some water on the floor, which I didn´t like. now, with the new thingy everything is fine, she always does those "digging" moves but she´s not able to move the bowl!

The leg in the water bowl, splash…
Let guess to me ! Maine Coon ?
I have two of them : they are watery truths cats!!!

Rotka, you could try changing the type of bowl - Sophie wouldn´t drink much from steel or ceramic. Plastic is very hard to clean effectively, so most vets say not to use it. It was only when I switched to a clear glass bowl (with a heavy bottom to prevent tipping) that she started to drink more. Some cats prefer running water (a holdover from living in the wild maybe - running water is usually fresh water). If Gandalf is a running water kind of cat, there are pet drinking fountains you can buy that run water through a little pump that recirculates and oxygenates it. I had a cat that would only drink from my bathtub faucet when it was leaking - once it was fixed he had to go back to his waterbowl.

In the end, like Micini says, there are some cats that just like playing in water - Maine Coones, Turkish vans...as long as he´s drinking enough and the water is clean (changing it twice a day is a good idea if he´s sticking his paws in it) than I wouldn´t worry about it. If he´s really making a mess, you could try putting his water bowl inside a slightly larger bowl to contain the spill.

My cats Sivica and Tigrica drink from the sink They also wanna drink from the bowl but the sink is their favorite. I don´t know why do they do that but it´s just so funny Maybe your cat is just playing with water like MichyD said.

Freckles does the same, she likes to put her paw in the water first, especially if she´s eating because she used the wet paw to pick up her dry food. Sometimes she sniffs the water before drinking too. She also prefers drinking out of the sink, etc. When she was a kitten she moved her bowls all around the kitchen floor too, then we got her new bowls to spoil that fun.

Mugger always sniffs the surface of the water before he drinks, like he´s looking for the best place to start. However, his favorite is to drink from the tap - and when that´s not available, he sneaks up on his water bowl but doesn´t like if I see him drinking from it. In fact, if I catch him, he immediately stops and sits up, looking around as if it´s just a coincidence that he´s sitting at the water bowl!

I had a cat who refused to drink from her bowl infact she´d rather drink our pool water wich couldn´t b good 4 her.

Now Mish will only drink from her bowl outside and only if the waters been sitting there 4 a few days!!
Is there any explintaion as 2 why this happens!!!

Tigger likes to dip his paw into the water every now and again. He doesn´t do it all the time...just when he feels like it. It´s rather funny to watch him.

My pickles plays in his water when drinking... he dips his paws into it and tries to drag the water bowl around... i think he just has issues.. hes strange but funny, everyone has their quirks!

Mugger always sniffs the surface of the water before he drinks, like he´s looking for the best place to start. Molly does the same thing! He refuses to drink if it is less than half full. If I don´t spot THAT look and fill it up he will go and drink my drinking water from the jug on the bench.

Piper doesn´t do that, but Grendel would "dig" at the floor in front of the water and sometimes splash at it with his paw - as if he were digging to find fresher water than what was in the bowl. I´ve seen other kittas dig for water, too. Don´t worry about it! Just put a plastic placemat down and let him play in the water!

I have a fantasy that I can get a kitta fountain which provides fresh flowing water all the time - but I couldn´t maintain a regular decorative (small) fountain in my house, much less a hygenic kitta fountain. I tried the soda water bottle fountains, but the trays were so shallow that they crusted with lime in less than a week, and got scummy and were difficult to keep up to a kitta´s standards.

My mom in law´s cat, Toby, prefers to drink out of YOUR glass and even then she dips her paw in then licks it off. Goofy thing (She also won´t eat out of the food dish unless it´s full. She seems to not like to put her face down in a deep bowl.) Maybe try a shallower dish?

my julio and sootie like to drink from the tap. however this all stoppped when we got then a pet fountain. they seem to enjoy it. but my little girl sootie will carry aroung one of her toys than drop it in her water!!!any idea why she might be doing this?

Sophie does that sometimes just because she enjoys fishing them out of the water after.. Kind of like she saved it, or caught it.

Conrad only drinks water off his feet never out of the bowl. Sarah Speedle drinks like a normal cat yet all of her babies (apart from Conrad) stand with their front feet in the water as they drink. It makes such a mess but they look so very cute!!

Mugger likes to drink from the bathroom sink. I´ve been having trouble with the drain in there, it drains very slowly, so sometimes when I run the water for him, it makes a puddle. Last night, he was in the sink, and a puddle happened..... suddenly he starts shaking his left front paw because it was wet. He was shaking it and shaking it and shaking it - meanwhile, his right front paw was completely immersed in the puddle!