Marginal dehydration over a lifetime puts tremendous strain on the kidneys causing them to "wear out", and kidney failure is the most common cause of illness and death in elderly cats. We believe that by maintaining adequate hydration lifelong we can lessen the likelihood of kidney failure occurring to your cat.
The best way to increase water consumption is to dramatically increase the amount of canned food consumed. We recommend that your cat receive 50 to 100% of the calories consumed be from canned food. If all canned food is offered, it becomes more important to brush teeth on a daily basis or offer CET cat chews to help maintain dental health.
Additionally having multiple bowls of fresh water around the house and offering a pet fountain will increase your pet's interest in water. Flavoring the water with broth, that has no sodium, is another option
If your cat is a dedicated dry food eater, as many cats are. Research has shown that the most successful way to get cats to consume more water is to feed them in an automatic timed feeder. Set it so that if gives very small amounts of food on a regular timed interval. Cats can tell time, s/he will come to the feeder when it is about to release food and wait. Your next step is to put a favored drinking dish, glass, margarita glass, crystal goblet or cat water fountain next to the food dish. As cats wait for food to drop they will drink a little water. They will eat the 5 kibbles or so, and then drink a little more water. When video taped this is the typical cycle cats engage in. When blood work is checked these cats consistently maintain much more adequate hydration than any other method of feeding a dry only diet.
Glacier Point for Cats - This is an extraordinary water fountain that can help your cat drink more. In research cats consumed 30 mls per pound of body weight of water per day. That is the ideal amount medically; nothing else has
ever shown that.(Some dog owners have had luck with it to.)
Dogs
We recommend that you help your dog to increase his/her water consumption. This laboratory work indicates that s/he is marginally dehydrated. Marginal dehydration over a life time puts tremendous strain on the kidneys causing them to "wear out", and kidney failure is not an uncommon cause of death among elderly dogs. We believe that by maintaining adequate hydration life long we can lessen the likelihood of kidney failure occurring to your dog.
The best way to increase water consumption is to dramatically increase the amount of water consumed with food. Dry kibble can be served with water added, or canned food is recommended. Dry food is about 15% water, while canned food is about 70 to 75% water. It is easy to see why animals eating only dry food tend toward marginal dehydration.
Additionally having multiple bowls of fresh water around the house and offering a pet fountain will increase your pet's interest in water. Flavoring the water with broth, that has no sodium, is another option.
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"wear out", and kidney failure is the most common cause of illness and death in elderly cats. We believe that by maintaining adequate hydration lifelong we can lessen the likelihood of kidney failure occurring to your cat.