Babycat's Drinking Problem

Babycat is my boyfriend's 17 year old tabby. Despite how strange this looks, this is how she normally drinks. We're not sure why she does it, but one theory is that she's protecting the water from the other cats while she drinks.

• Category

  Pets & Animals

[onekinkstar]

Too much cute! My cats have a Drinkwell fountain to drink from, though they still demand the faucet or a bowl occasionally. I can't imagine what this Baby might do if faced with flowing water. Does she have any interest in the sink?

[findeerror]

: She does not really have any interest in the sink at all... I suppose that's not too surprising given her drinking posture!

[kubbur87]

this actually is a bit cleaver to do, let me explain: cats do have problem seeing the level of the water, so they use theyr feet, but if they use one of the frontal foots its so mutch pressure for the other frontal foot, so she found a way to eliminate the stress

[findeerror]

So she's using reflection to guide her to the surface of the water. That makes sense... thanks for the insight!

[azn4anime]

I tend to put my foot in my water when I drink too, it keeps all those other pesky humans away!

[LacyPu]

Our 10 yr old female cat does this too! I was just searching to see if anyone else's cats do this. Our cat is very skiddish and sometimes I think she may have problems seeing. As others have said i could likely be a protective instinct or vision..sometimes think she was weened/taken from mother too soon.

[WhiteLongSword7]

At first I thought she passed out on her drinking bowl or something. I thougt, "She definitely has a "drinking" problem."

[POOH9857]

so cute

[brttnyt]

Where was youtube 17 years ago when this started. I would love to see a kitten do this, but she's cute too.

[pokemonknights1]

AWWwWwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!

[chirpchia]

How could those two people dislike this video!? It's so cute & innocent! ^_^

[Jeff Grigg]

Cats seem to practice voodoo naturally: Whatever behavior they were engaged in when something good happens, they tend to do it again when wanting that good thing to happen, or when experiencing the good thing. So they can link behaviors to experiences rather arbitrarily. ^-^

[dinibobini]

Looking at how her leg covers her neck it could be a "throw-back" (evolutionary extinct) attempt at protecting her vulnerability to attack. Dogs and cats go for the jugular on feeding attacks as far as I have seen.

In addressing the water level thing; I had a cat that I know had vision problems and I would constantly find a piece of food floating in the water. I just knew what it was for and since she's passed I don't find food in the water anymore. I have other cats, they don't do it.

[sealaughin]

I had a blind cat (he died last February, just short of his 16th birthday). He would tap the surface of the water with his paw to keep from getting a snootful when he took a drink. I also wonder if someone - or possibly another kitten - pushed her head into the water when she was drinking. All my cats are rescues, and I've seen some weird behavior stemming from abuse, even in cats I got as kittens. Don't know where you got her, but maybe someone thought it funny to push her nose in...

[kittybchatatWW]

And I thought I was the only one with a cat with a drinking problem!!! Actually, I think Babycat has my Chase beat. Chase's drinking position is only slightly less strange. Guess I'll have to get a video of it! Thanks for sharing! (And yes, I do think it has to do with finding the level of water. If Chase tries to drink normally, he invariably get it in his nose and chokes!)