What Can Cats Drink Besides Water?
What Can Cats Drink Besides Water?

What Can Cats Drink Besides Water?

What Can Cats Drink Besides Water?

It's nice to give fresh water to your cats with their favorite treat of fishes. But don't you agree that it can pretty bland real soon?

They probably feel mixed emotions about it. While it is just free food for them, and let's be honest- cats don't really do much work.

Cats just sleep around lazily in the coziest places. But who wouldn't want to get pampered with exotic treats every once in a while, right?

If you're wondering what option for cats there is in place of plain water, you're at the right place!

Trying out new things and exploring new treats for cats sounds great in theory, but you can run into problems real soon if you aren't careful of the ingredients. Cats have unique physiology, very different from us, and could easily get poisoned by human food.

So, it's very important that you give only those things that you know won't do any harm to your cat. 

In this article, we take a look at healthy alternatives to spice up the taste of water.

The Cat Diet

cat with food

As you already know, our furry friends are carnivores. Cats have evolutionally achieved sharp pointed teeth and physiology that is uniquely adapted for digesting animal meats.

As such, a healthy cat diet consists of fishes, pieces of chicken, dried meat and things along the line. If you're a cat owner, which you probably are- you already know about healthy cat-foods found in supermarkets.

While that probably does the trick, I like feeding my cat lots of meats and try to keep the diet varied. Since I do a lot of research before I give my cat anything new, I've almost always managed to avoid giving it an upset stomach.

Kittens eat a lot of liquid food when they're young. Most of their diet consists of their mamma's milk which is rich in nutrients. 

The cat milk is very healthy for young ones but for adult cats, it's not a viable choice. That's because apart from sourcing cat milk, which is going to be hard on it's own; cats are lactose intolerant. Your cat shouldn't consume milk or dairy products as they don't have the enzymes to process them.

Can Water Be Bad For Your Cat?

It's pretty obvious that water is something that all animals drink. Afterall, it's necessary for even little furry ones to stay hydrated.

Cats need plenty of fresh drinking water to meet their daily water intake requirements.

It's unhealthy for cats to drink polluted water as they can contract various diseases. So, you should watch out what your cat eats and monitor it's feeding habits..

What Can Cats Drink Besides Water?

Mamma's Milk

cats feeding on mammas milk

Kittens will only drink their mamma's milk till they grow up. Young ones even have enzymes to digest lactose in dairy- so they don't have any digestive issues.

However, adult cats should not be fed generous amounts of milk and if you want to feed them milk, you can opt for lactose-free milks like oat milk. Plant-based milk is a great alternative to animal-based milk it's good even for adult cats with allergies to milk.

Milk Formula

What do you do if you have a kitten to feed but her mamma is nowhere around? You feed them milk formula.

Milk formulas are specially prepared substances meant to act as milk-substitutes for regular milk. It's also very convenient as you just mix them in water according to the instructions and you can check the ingredients to see if your cat is allergic. 

While it's great for young cats, you shouldn't be feeding milk formula to adult cats. A lactose free-milk would be a much better option for them.

Goat Milk

While it may sound odd, goat milk is a great alternative for regular milk. The need for choosing alternative milks is actually because of the facts that adult milks are lactose intolerant. 

So, if you feed your furry feline dairy, it will cause them indigestion and serious digestion issues.

Goat milk has slightly lesser amounts of lactose which makes it a nice choice if you're looking for a savory liquid for your cat. You still want to limit your cat's intake of goat milk however, as it still contains some lactose as it can cause serious issues in larger amounts.

Bone Broth & Tuna

bone broth for cats

Bone broth is probably the favorite of cats and many humans alike. 

Thick savory broth is an essential part of tasty dishes like ramen or Chinese-style noodles. What's nice about bone broth is that since you're using leftovers anyway, there's no added cost. Except cooking the broth, of course, which can consume a lot of time.

Chefs usually let the broth simmer for days on end and doing that can be troublesome. So, you can buy ready-made broth at stores and skip the trouble.

You do need to lookout for labels however- as you should only get broth that says it's specifically for cats. Cats are highly allergic to certain foods like onion and garlic, and you should stay away from foods that include them.

What else can you feed cats? The most obvious answer is tuna!

tuna for cats

Cats love tuna! They can smell the wonderful aroma of canned tuna from any corner of the house. Tuna is also rich in protein and omega - 3 fatty acids which makes it a great choice for cat snack.

You just blend tuna and serve your cat the drink or add in the extract to lots of water, and that's it. You probably shouldn't overdo it as your cat can get mercury poisoning from canned tuna in large amounts.

Final Thoughts

It's nice to add variety to your furry pal's diet once in a while but you need to be careful what you feed your cat.

Water is a healthy choice and if you're going to substitute that with something, you need to make sure that it's free from chemicals that can give your cat allergies.

Watching out for lactose on the ingredients list is also a great idea as it will help you avoid foods that can give your cat a tummy ache and digestive issues.

The best way to know what works best for your cat is to experiment with different treats. Some cats prefer bone broths while some will just stick to plain water.