July is National Pet Hydration Month, a good time to give some extra attention to how much water our cats are drinking. Keeping your cat properly hydrated can be critical for avoiding health problems, especially during the hot summer months. Kidney disease, heat stroke and diabetes can all be related to dehydration in cats.

How Much Water Should My Cat Drink?

According to pets.webmd.com, cats should drink about 3.5 to 4.5 ounces of water per 5 lbs. of body weight per day. Cats that eat primarily wet food may need less since the food contains extra water, but if your cat eats mainly dry food, they will need to consume water from other sources.

How Do I Encourage My Cat to Drink More Water?

It’s important to offer multiple sources of fresh water for your cat to drink from. Ideally, place water bowls in different areas of your house and keep them away from your cat’s food and litter box. Cats have an instinct telling them that water located near food or litter may be contaminated, so they may avoid these sources.

Cats need a fresh source of water in a wide, shallow bowl to prevent “whisker stress,” caused when a cat’s sensitive whiskers brush the side of the bowl. Make sure to clean your cat’s water dishes regularly to keep the water fresh.

How Do I Know How Much Water My Cat Is Drinking?

Tracking how much water your cat is drinking is probably the hardest part about keeping them hydrated. I live in a very dry climate and I’m always wondering if the cats are drinking the water in the bowl or if it’s just evaporating? Plus, I have multiple cats, so it’s hard to monitor how much each one drinks.

This is why I’m really excited about the new Felaqua® Connect from Sure Petcare. Felaqua Connect is a smart water bowl that monitors how much your cat is drinking using his or her microchip. Felaqua Connect has an integrated microchip reader that can be programmed to recognize individual cats. Via an internet hub, Felaqua connects to the Sure Petcare App, which tracks how often, when, and how much each cat drinks, highlighting changes that you might otherwise miss. The app will also alert you when the water needs to be refilled.

Felaqua Connect allows you to monitor that your cat is drinking enough water, but you can also see if your cat is drinking more water than necessary, which may be a sign of other health issues, like kidney dysfunction, and should be checked by a veterinarian right away.

The design of Felaqua Connect is very well thought out. The easy-to-fill reservoir holds 1 liter of water that flows into a wide, shallow bowl eliminating whisker stress and presenting the water in a way that is more visible and appealing to cats. There are no filters or pumps, just clean, fresh water. Both the bowl and the reservoir are dishwasher safe.

The unit is battery operated so it can be placed anywhere with no wires or cords. Four C batteries power the connection to the hub and only need to be replaced about every six months.

The new Felaqua Connect is available from surepetcare.com for $173 including the internet Hub. If you already have a Sure Petcare Hub that you are using with their other microchip connected products, you can purchase the Felaqua alone for $100 and connect it to your existing Hub.

*FTC Disclosure: Hauspanther received payment from the sponsor to feature this content.

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