Does your cat dip its paw in the water bowl, then l**k the paw, to drink water?

Question

She is definitely an usual cat, but I totally do not get why she drinks her water this way--paw to water, then paw to mouth. Do you ever see your cat do this? Does it mean anything in particular? Or if you just want to talk about your cat, I'd love to hear anything cute or unusual your cat does. Cheers!

Answer 1

My wifes 'children' (all her cats) do this all the time. They take it a step further as well... spilling the water on purpose and l*****g it off the kitchen tile. I change my socks quite often thanks to them.

Answer 2

Several of our cats like to dip their paw in the water bowl and l**k the water off their paw.  I've always wondered how they manage to stay hydrated drinking such small amounts at one time like that but they do.  I also have those that actually scoop the water out of the water bowl and make a mess all over the floor before they drink.  Which is why I keep a rung under their water dish and change it daily.

We also keep a water dish in our bathtub which does help a lot because some times my water "throwers" will play in there and I don't have the mess to clean up.

Some of our cats won't drink unless they can drink out of a running faucet.  We have a pet fountain, that helps, but they still follow me into the bathroom expecting me to turn the water on for them.

Cats are wonderful.....and they train us well!

Answer 3

Well, to add to the stories, I have had 4 cats and all of them love to paw at their water.  My Fat Man, may he rest in peace, loved to play in the tub after I took a shower and would drink from the tub faucet too.  I've always put ice cubes in their water on a daily basis and that's always good fun!  Flash, he's my big boy at 25 lbs, loves the cubes and paws at them.  Freckles, he's my smaller boy at 17 lbs, loves to lay by the food dish and pull out one piece of food at a time and then eat it.  Talk about lazy!  My Fur Girl, she's a long hair and only 7 lbs, she thinks that the toilet is hers and no one elses.  I've had to wait for her to get done playing in the water before I was "allowed" to do my business.  They all have their own sweet and rotten personalities that I never tire of.  My Fat Man was by far the best cat that ever graced the face of this Earth.  I had to put him to sleep at  16 due do kidney failure.  He slept on my pillow every night and held my hand next to his chest and purred all night long.  Always at the ready with a warm welcome home and a quick purr, he made my life better every day.  After his death, Freckles joined our little family.  His antics and crazy sweet personality were a welcome addition.  Flash, who I saved from the pound, is a big soft loving ball of fur.  He's Daddys little helper!  Loves to help with the laundry, mainly by spralling across the washer so you can't get in it! He likes to help Daddy change the furnace filter too.  They are my children and just like kids they can be sweet and loving or they can be rotten to the core.  I think all cat owners would agree with that!

Answer 4

It's perfectly natural.  Just watch out.  When I was at the shelter the other day a cat put its paw in water and then flung it at me.

Answer 5

i think it just wants to act like a human then just l*****g its water bowel.

Answer 6

yes my cat does this. omg i didn't think there could be another out there!! i don't know why she does it, but she sure makes a dirty mess of the water! ever since she was pregnant and gave birth 2 years ago she has gotten weirder and weirder. she is a terrific cat but she has her quarks. she has random bursts of hyperness which can only be quenched with complete devotion and attention to her for at least 10 minutes, she also uses her nails quite harshly anywhere on anything when she is being stroked, and she sleeps in odd places ex: on top of the printer (where she is now), the stairs (so i trip) and my head (she loves to nuzzle my hair), and many more... she is definitely a unique

Answer 7

My cat does tht all the time not suure why? all i no its relly cute! Another thing my cat does which is odd, is ..(SOMEHOW) taked a bit of the kitty litter into its bed. its kinda bizzare. and my cat also sits on top of the cabinet bring food up there, hangs her paws off the edges eats the food, and watchs t'v, or fall asleep. or just start purring relly loudly. its sooooo cute. my cat is very unusual. and soo cute.

Answer 8

I wonder if your kitty is a Maine Coon. That breed is notorious for using its paw as a ladle for water! Lots of kitties do that. Luke Perry, my cat man, has his own saucer next to his bowl. He likes for me to put his food in his bowl so that he can take it out, put it on the saucer, then eat it! Finicky little traits like that are what makes being a cat parent fun!

Answer 9

One of my cats always puts both paws in the water before she starts drinking it. Every cat has a different way they would prefer doing things. My other cat takes each piece of food to the other side of the room to eat it and he keeps going back and forth until he is done. But the cutest story is when  I was little with a fever, and kept saying mommy can I water or mommy I want.... At his usual dinner time, my mom was distracted so she didn't feed him immediately so he started saying mommy. It was so similar to how I sounded she thought I said it and responded.

Answer 10

Yea my my kitty does that sometimes...I don't know why...I just think maybe she wants to be like us...LOL who knows what goes through their minds. Plus my kitty loves sitting in front of her water bowl and throws ll the water out of the bowl...don't know but she does it lot and she tries to swim in her water dish as well..omg!! I put just one ice cube in the water bowl and she just tries to get it...its so cute what she does it..You should try it you never know.

And me and my kitty plays tag...when I jog around the house she tries to catch me...I love playing that game with her. Well, I hoped that was a good laugh...or an awww. :) Take care

Answer 11

My cat does sometimes, I think he just wanna clean his paw. The other cat I have doesn't. The unusual thing about my male cat is he likes to sit next to me or my hubby and have one of his leg touching us. We thought he must have been a nice person in past life! And he loves yogurt and carrots! Beats me.

Answer 12

Yes, and I've always wondered why. I think they are seeing how cool the water is before they stick their tongue in it.

Answer 13

Yeah.......they like to play.  My rescued kitten who thank God was weaned when I found him.  About 3 weeks ago..........brutal rain...I never get my 1 cat in because she loves being out no matter what...winter drives her crazy....until warmer weather when she can stay out longer.  But, it was lightening so bad....I tried to get her in. BTW........this cat hangs upside down from trees and the neighbors house...and the way her teeth are she looks like a vampire.........one day the neighbor will come out and she will land on their head....lmao   I heard this young kitten cry......I was frantic trying to figure out where this was coming from kept meowing to it so it would meow back.......under a car, in a car, in a tree, in the bushes, OMG...I had no idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I kid you not.................all of a sudden for like 2 minutes............the rain stopped and lightening, and I found the kitten immediately.  I knew I had limited time to get him warm inside and out.  I didn't even know if he was weaned or if his eyes were opened as small as he was.  I screamed to wake up my son to get me towels warming up in the dryer and warm up some milk to get in him with a syringe.  Once we got him warm...,I seen he was at least 3 weeks old....eyes opened,  I put down milk for him to drink and he did, then I put some lunchmeat down to see if he would eat it...he did, then I tried the hard cat food, to see how strong his teeth were...we still soften his food and give him can food.  This kitten is a thief!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  He came in and stole our hearts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  He has 3 meows.  1  I'm hungry and want fresh food, even if it's only 30 minutes old...lol.  2.  Let me down NOW, I have to potty...lol  3.  The other cats won't play and he demands I do until he gets sleepy...lol.  OMG..........all of the many cats and kittens I have rescued and found homes for, I have never in my life got so attached so fast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

The cat we rescued a couple years ago with 3 other kittens...we kept him, found a home for 2 of them, the one accidentally got killed, which broke my heart...I was planning on keeping him.  But, We thought the black one--the one my son wanted to keep...was a girl...we named it Jetta....right before we go to get it fixed, we realized he was a boy..he's so furry, you can't tell.  I can tell the s*x of a cat the second it's born...LOL  This kitten the next day we got him, sat at the door meowing this pitiful cry because my son started school the day after we got him.  This cat doesn't meow like normal cats....he sounds like he's dying...but, this cat roars loud and will sit on the highest thing in the house like he's lion king......LOL  My son has him so spoiled, it's not funny.  We call him Yetta though.  But, the day I paid to get him fixed, which was like a week in advance...he got out and we were scared he got killed...........we couldn't find him.  I stayed up all frigion night outside trying to find this cat..........the next morning...I had my son go check at the big tree again.....my son had already accepted there was no hope.  He came in and said he was in the tree and found him.....I kid you not, you would have thought we won the lottery lol.  Joking we call Yetta fog...not f*g.........and my son makes stuff up like, he get killed by parked car, or he drown in dry pool, he get run over by car with no wheels...LOL  we just tease him to death for hiding in a tree for almost 2 days.  He has a mane......he's gorgeous black.  He has even jumped in front of my son several times and stopped dead in his tracks...and roared to my son...lol.  The cat won't fight he's a complete chicken...But, let another cat bite my son playing and my son says ouch or yetta sees it............Yetta will attack the c**p out of the cat.......OMG he's cute.

Now, the little possessed kitten we rescued and got him, his mom, and sisters all fixed....after the neighbors threw them all out in winter..........this cat who was my son's pick........was like he could understand my son jokingly saying, we're going to make him mean.....it's in a voice you know is joking.  The kitten took all the toys and hid them, get them out 1 by 1 and hit his sisters with em...lol  This d**n cat was beating up his mom, his sisters, and stole half my utensils and silverware, and my son caught him with a fork hitting his sister with it....he found the remaining hid in and behind the litter box....we threw all away but the cat was looking for them.....lol.  I told my son................ONLY say we are going to make him nice instead of saying we are going to make him mean................cause he understands it!!!!!!!!!!!!!  To this minute, if my son said, I'm going to make him mean, he will fly through the house and go after one...lol.  So, it's NOT ALLOWED to be said....although it joking.

Answer 14

I've seen all 5 of my cats do that very thing. I often see litter at the bottom of the bowl when I freshen their water. Maybe they can't always get the litter off their paws? Not sure. My oldest cat will only drink water from a bowl in the sink. So, I have to keep a bowl of water in the kitchen sink specially for her. I think that is odd, don't you?  Anyway, the paw thing is normal.

Cheers!

Answer 15

My cat does this. She even loves to splash in her water.I've had many cat's over the years who have all had their own little personalities.

My cat Mia has her own mirror she loves to take her  toys and offer them to the pretty kitty in the mirror. she will sit and stare at her own reflection for hours. LOL

Answer 16

yup. It's normal. This kind of behavior is common and can spawn from many different things. If the cat has been raised in a house with people since it was little, chances are it's seen people cup their hands to drink from a faucet or the like, and it's trying to imitate this. That's simply one of a plethora of normal, if quirky, reasons behind your cats habit

Answer 17

Oh my gosh!! My sister's cat has ALWAYS done that, and I have never heard of anyone else's cat doing it. If there's a name for it, I don't know, but her cat is at least 10 years old now and never drinks water normally.

My kitten has a toy that is a stuffed animal, about 2 inches tall, with a rattle inside. There's about a 10 inch string/elastic from its head to a little felt circle, I guess so he won't swallow the string. My cat's favorite thing to do is hold the circle of material in his mouth and run wildly all over the house, dragging the string/animal behind him between his legs. It is so funny to hear him when I'm in bed, running in and out of the bedroom dragging that poor stuffed animal.