Cat Food and Water Dishes
It’s a good idea to try to get the same kind of food and water dishes
your cat was using at her previous home, so she’s comfortable with
them—at least at first. That said, there are some wonderful choices that
you might enjoy seeing as much as kitty will enjoy using.
You will need anywhere from one to three dishes for food and one to
two for water (aside from folding travel bowls, which you may want if
you travel with your cat). Why so many food dishes? It’s simple: one for
dry food, one for wet food, and a third in case your cat have some regular
dry food diet and a “side order” of hairball formula or other special
food. Some cats don’t mind having the two types of dry food mixed
together, while others prefer to have them separated. Think of the little
kid who doesn’t want her peas next to her mashed potatoes.
Plastic dishes can cause skin problems, so you want to avoid those.
There are cute crockery dishes and aluminum ones as well. Do not buy
the food and water bowls that are made as one piece with two sections.
Cats don’t like their food near their water. Cats need separate dishes,
cleaned daily.
Cat dishes need to be wide and shallow. A cat’s whiskers are very
sensitive and cannot be crammed into a deep bowl. It’s more natural
and comfortable for a cat to eat and drink from flat, wide dishes. Keep
the word
dish
in mind, not
bowl
when shopping for kitty.
Water should be fresh, not stale and flat. If you can splurge, a water
fountain is a wonderful addition to the kitty’s life. The water is filtered and
aerated, and cats find it fascinating to watch. The water fountain usually
encourages cats to drink more water, which is far healthier for the cat
because it helps to prevent urinary tract and kidney problems.
There are long-term feeders that you fill with food in one compact-
meant and water in another, but I think the convenience is far out-
weighed by the lack of freshness. Food will be sitting in that container for a
good long while before being released into the dish, and so will the
water.
Dish placement is very important. Cats certainly don’t want their
water or food near their litter box. That’s just common sense; you
wouldn’t want to dine in the bathroom either. The cat is more likely to
stop using her litter box than to stop eating, so just separate the two. As
for the water dishes, you should put out at least two, each in a different
part of the house. Be sure to wash all the food and water dishes every day.
