ButteryMonkey comments on Friendly reminder to give your cats fresh water in this heat! They need fresh water just like we do :)

[–] ButteryMonkey@piefed.social 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Haha super dilution, but yeah I guess it would be!

I just assume they like the natural taste of it. The water I give them in a fountain is all RO, and they probably barely smell it or taste it, but the additional nice shit from plants and whatever makes the water taste fresh..?

(did you know most mammals can taste water, and it has a flavor? Humans can too if they pay attention and drink enough of it!)

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[–] isVeryLoud@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Do you think they may be tasting the chlorine in their water bowl? I've read somewhere that mammals can generally taste chlorine in the water, humans included though we're used to it. Your fish tank likely has no chlorine in it and is "moving water" thanks to the filter.

I know my dog prefers filtered water to tap water because he's a little prince.

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[–] ButteryMonkey@piefed.social 1 point 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

For my home, no, that’s not possible. They get RO(reverse osmosis, second to distilled in purity, or third if you count lab-created) water which filters that sort of thing out. They don’t like the pure water tho, and prefer the tanks.

But in general, perhaps; that’s certainly what I taste when I drink tap water these days (have used RO for over a decade now for all my water needs except tooth brushing - what a weird term for such a weird concept…).

I have a lead pipe feeding my house so all my tanks are filled from the RO, as is all animal water (chickens, quail, cats)

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[–] isVeryLoud@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

Yeah that would definitely rule it out. Your original theory may be correct, fishtank water contains more minerals and microorganisms.

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[–] ButteryMonkey@piefed.social 2 points 1 year ago*

Yeah I think it just smells and tastes more like what they naturally expect.

And honestly works for me because I don’t have to deal with the shit that crops up in managed fountains. They get algae and thick blooms of slime bacteria/mold. Not amazing for health unless it’s a very easy fountain to clean (most are the opposite)

But have a 5-10 gallon tank with a half inch of topsoil an inch of sand, and a bunch of cute plants.. maybe some freshwater shrimp and scuds to clean up the plant waste.. you are golden for pet water because shit you can leave that for several days and they won’t dramatically reduce levels.

If you don’t have fish, a simple bubble-driven sponge filter is the way to go.

And any saliva bacteria or whatever just gets consumed by the micro and macrobiotic, rather than forming bacteria mats that offput harmful nonsense in the water.

Win-win.

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