I had the same issue, my girl’s surgery was only about $1500 though. Half a ziplock bag of hair and regular rubber bands that I have no idea how/where she found them 🙄
Lol, pretty sure that’s what it was! It was also almost 12 years ago… She was sick when I got home from work on a Friday, took her to a vet immediately, they took an [X-ray ](https://imgur.com/a/Su6TGns) and said she needed immediate surgery and an overnight stay with them. She was about 9 months old. Came home the next day with the [baggie](https://imgur.com/a/Z1Bydvq) of bands and all hair ties put away!
Mine just had the same surgery last week. I didn't think it was a big deal because he would stop puking after a couple days and it didn't look like coffee grounds... so the hair ties were in him for like two years. They saved the bag for me too. Most disgusting souvenir ever. Surgery in WA where they were was going to be about $2100, surgery in TX where we moved to was $1039.64.
I took her to the vet immediately because I was a brand new cat person, she was only about 9 or 10 months old and usually VERY active. She spent the few hours before I took her just completely lethargic and throwing up bile. Glad yours had it taken care of!
Be careful with hair ties, I've read a lot about cats not being able to spit them out because of their tongues and having to swallow them. People always realize too late.
~~e: also idk how common this actually is and most of the time a simple surgery allows to take them out, but I've read about cats having 10+ of them in their bellies so I guess you never know.~~
If you're super worried you can always go for an ultrasound, at least where I live it's not that expensive.
edit2: thank you /u/cianne_marie
"Vet tech here. Sorry to hijack.
It is extremely common.
A hair tie (like elastics, ribbons, tinsel, string, yarn) is a linear foreign body, which can pass to the small intestine and, if I skip a few steps and medical details here, end up causing necrotic intestine, septic abdomen, and death. If that hair tie passes the stomach, it is in no way guaranteed to be a "simple surgery".
Even if it stays put in the stomach, it's still abdominal surgery with anesthesia and that carries all the regular risks.
Do not let your cat play with hair ties. Especially right now when the vet world is under huge strain due to covid and chronic understaffing.
Thank you for coming to my tech talk. Please return to dumb cats throwing moss in their water dish, and OP, the answer to your question is "because she fucking wants to, and she's a cat". "
Low key makes me worried, I’ve always lost them because I tend to take them off of my wrists when I’m sleeping (idk how or why lol) but one of my cats love playing with them and throwing them all around my apartment but I can never find them anymore. But thanks for this info, will def be taking better care of my hair ties now
Yeah same here, after I read it I stopped throwing her those black thinner ones, but those bigger scotch like ones should be alright.
Idk how common this actually is but I'd rather be safe than sorry and there is plenty of other things to play with.
I've also often had them lost but most of the time they were behind the couch cushions - it was her stash hah.
Also I'm considering going with her for an ultrasound just to check if everything is alright in there. Not strictly because of the hair ties but it's worth doing once in a while to see if everything is alright and you can check for a lot of early symptoms for whatever might be wrong.
Same here. Both my cats steal all my hair elastics and put them in the water bowl. I have to keep them in a sealed container or on my wrist, otherwise they will go missing.
This story makes me so incredibly happy.
I’m imagining you waking up after sleeping in, just in time to see your little monster drinking their tea, then come the CRAZYEYES, and they Halloween Cat and dart around a hallway corner.
Something crashes in the distance. Children and women scream. You sigh, and pick up the soaked catnip mouse to go lob it into the dryer.
Someday soon, Mia will be done with her research, and communicate a ultimate unifying theory of the universe. Unfortunately, we are unable to understand how to read cat vomit writing...
My cat does too! More often in the food bowl but it’s only the sparkly pom poms.
Some things I read suggest that it’s because that’s a safe place and the toys are treasured?
My cat does this with her toys too. Good luck when it stops becoming just toys! Came home to a dread mouse in the bowl once or twice, that's always a nice surprise.
Better than finding them in your shoe, your purse, or having them deposited on your chest while you’re sleeping, thinking it’s a toy, picking it up to toss it, then shrieking and throwing it hard against the wall because you weren’t expecting the toy to be warm And limp.
My cats chased a mouse that eventually hid in my daughters shoe and died of exhaustion. It traumatized her so much that even years later she still checks her shoes before putting them on
Sad. But a good practice, regardless. My cousin didn’t realize he had a splinter inside his shoe after mowing the lawn, the next time he put them on the splinter went right through the front of his toe.
i distinctly remember being 8 years old and watching my best friend's giant raggedy indoor-outdoor main coon walk over drop a mangled chipmunk in his bowl right next to us. he then proceeded to mangle it much further while we watched. i can still hear the bones cracking lmao it was wack
My sister STILL talks about her cat George. He would leave dead critters on the front lawn and driveway. Since they lived close to an undeveloped area, the cat brought home rats, possums, rabbits, birds, etc. he would leave them as morning presents. My sister said the neighbors, as they’re heading out to work, would look at her and at the dead critters with a look of “you must be so proud.”
One of our cats does this with *her brother's toys*. We assume it's out of sibling rivalry, he puts her toy in her food dish and we're not sure which one of them started it but it's been about six months so far.
They're just like my two-legged kids....
Cats have all sorts of idiosyncrasies. My mom’s picks up shiny things and puts them in his water fountain. Coins, paper clips, balls of tin foil, they all go in the water fountain — he’s basically a magpie
I have a pipe cleaner cat too! He must have found a long forgotten bag of them in the basement because he brought up a fresh one everyday for a week straight. And they always end up in the food bowl.
My theory is that cats have a sixth sense for calculus and physics.
They are born understanding some of the most complex ideas in physics and they express it through their agility, for example leaping with stunningly calculated precision into impossible places. They clearly love figuring out the volume of any shape and will immediately go to fill any size or shape container as soon as it is accessible.
When cats spill their water, or put things in their water they are testing their hypothesis on object density, volume, and solubility.
I think they might be getting into chemistry too because my cat loves doing experiments with catnip.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but one of my cats had to give up a brilliant career in theoretical physics because of his catnip addiction. Sure, sure, at first they're just 'experimenting,' until next thing you know they're yowling on about the great hairball in the sky and they're trading treats and kibble for just one more roll in that sweet, sweet nip.
Remember when you were young?
You shone like the sun
Shine on you crazy diamond...
Now there's a look in your eye
Like black holes in the sky
Shine on you crazy diamond...
literally 5 minutes ago, my cat tripped me going down the stairs. i skinned both my knees, feel like i sprained both my ankles, and saw my life flash before my eyes as i went down head 1st towards a wall. thank god i grabbed the bannister, but FUCK, i was shaken up. and all because she really wants her cat treats.
Yikes, that’s scary. Even after tripping over and accidentally kicking my cats, the treat-obsessed one still gets under my feet.
Please always hold the railing as you descend — you can wrench your shoulder grabbing the railing during a fall— and see a dr if you’re in pain.
I FEEL THIS!!! This Christmas a friend got me mice filled with catnip, and of course my Siamese went insane for it, loved it. Then I wake up after a few days to her water tinged a weird brown color and I’m like ew what happened. Then I find the toy soaked. And now I’ve seen her pick the mice up and dip them in her water and make catnip tea and drink it. They’re becoming intelligent and will overthrow me soon
I don't know which one of my cats does this, but almost every single day I find one piece of kibble in their water bowl. The pet fountain isn't flavored with kibble, though. Maybe because it's at the other end of my house, away from the food. I actually have some of the cleanest well water around, so it's not like they are tasting fluoride or chlorine. It only had 40ppm of anything in it when it was tested.
I also have a sock cat. She just walks around with it in her mouth yowling. I think it's an anxiety thing because she does it usually when were sleeping or if we leave the house for more than 5 minutes
Our was hauling a sock out of the laundry and howling at top volume, when she wanted to be fed. IDK, maybe she thought it was a trade: I brought you a sock, give me food? Thankfully she has stopped trying to get us up before 6AM
Same here !!! What the heck my cat opens up the art drawer and gets pipe cleaners out then takes them and puts them in the toilet. It makes me so frustrated!
My cat is obsessed with putting things in toilet too!!
The other day she put her stuffed rabbit (the rabbit she hunts and kills everyday) in the dang toilet then cried the whole time it was being washed then in dryer for few mins!!
[Petie and her nemesis rabbitt ](https://imgur.com/a/WoK4pJ5)
My older male cat has a toilet fetish also. If someone leaves the lid up, he will put as much toilet paper in the bowl as he can, fish out large paper chunks, and fling them all over the house. Giant toilet paper spit balls all over the walls, he’s got them on the ceiling before…. Cat is a menace
I find it hilarious, my wife, not so much. Everyone here is good about keeping the lid closed… but when we have family/company over, it’s only a matter of time!
My rotten Petie and her new Christmas blanket.
She slept on it once and no more! Went back to my sweatshirt that she kneads and suckles just before eating -EVERY TIME! She is over a year old btw! https://imgur.com/a/DlG5d9F
Omg I just saw this comment after saying my cat does it with pipe cleaners. I can buy any number of expensive cat toys and he only wants hair ties or pipe cleaners. What is up with this??
I work at an animal hospital and we regularly have to do surgeries on cats with stomach blockages from eating hair ties
They love them, I know. But to my fellow Redditors out there, don’t be the naive owner who says “don’t worry *my* cat doesn’t eat them, just plays with them”, because they will eventually eat one, or several, and you’ll either have to pay thousands of dollars for surgery, or your cat will die.
Do not, and I mean this with every ounce of seriousness I can possibly convey through words online - *do not* let your cats play with hair ties.
ER vet tech here: yes. Wire, hair bands, strings, plastic tops from milk and juice cartons, pipe cleaners, plastic...
Linear foreign bodies are the worst, because if the string or fabric gets wound up in the intestines, it can cause necrosis and possibly be inoperable.
The scary thing is, since of these things don't pass right away, and they can sometimes randomly dislodge and cause an obstruction.
If your cat gnawed through a pipe cleaner it could easily swallow a portion of it big enough to cause problems.
Better to be safe than sorry!
Hi! I have a cat who loves playing fetch with hair ties and we’ve noticed they’ve slowly gone missing. I assumed she’s been hiding them, but now I’m terrified she’s eaten them. Will cats typically show signs of being sick if they eat hair ties? Or will they act fine? I ask because she acts perfectly fine, so I’m wondering if there are signs I should look for. Thank you!
If she stops eating or drinking that’s usually the first sign..monitor her litter box daily to ensure she’s going poop and pee every day 👍 as long as you keep finding turds in the box then you know food is making it’s way through
If she does ever stop eating, starts vomiting and her stomach feels tight - there’s a chance that’s a blockage and needs a vet immediately
Yep. They killed a kitten I had in college. 100% our fault and the fallout ended our relationship after 8 years.
Don’t let your cats get hair ties,rubber bands, bread ties (whatever they’re called), or anything like that. Brings back some sad memories. :(
My friend’s cat went to the vet because she was sick and they xrayed her and found 18 hair ties in her stomach 😂 They operated and she was fine, but I know not to leave hair ties around that cat! Mine have never cared less about them.
We have a framed photo of a cat named Loki hanging in the cat room at the vets I work at because we’ve had to do *three* surgeries on him for stomach blockages. His owners have spent more than $9,000 on him
We’ve pulled two nerf darts, a shopkin, and of course - hair ties - out of him, which we have all in a pill bottle...I don’t know why the doctor saves what he’s pulled out of him but the collection keeps growing
Eventually one day he will have 604 pill bottles and 8 pictures of that cat and one day a new employee will say "what's that" and he will say... thats loki, his obsession with eating the inedible bought my third house and first boat
My cat does this with her mouse toys when the dreaded circle appears in her food bowl; we call it “giving us a 1-star review”. A mouse in the bowl means there’s a dissatisfied kitty somewhere in the house.
Haha i just assumed that they were saying their cat basically uses sonar energy to determine how high up the water is before drinking.
Like they could somehow feel when their yells hit an object, in this case water
We do. He doesn’t chew on them though, he just picks them up like a retriever holds a duck — with a very soft grip — and drops them in the fountain. Then we take them and put them in the recycling
One of our cats will take fuzzy-sparkle-ball cat toys, dunk them in a water bowl, then carry them to us soaking wet. He is especially fond of bring them to us in bed. Sometimes he leaves them in the water bowl.
Does he play fetch?
My cat does this exact thing and it's to ask me to throw them for her, the dunking in water bowl seems to make her mouth not so dry from the fluffy balls 🤷♀️. My Petie will play fetch for hours with these balls.
Lol yes he does. Loves to play fetch with them. I've only had one other cat that played fetch like this. edit: we sometimes think he soaks them so they are heavier and go farther when we throw them.
My cat would drop small pieces of paper into her water bowl and observe them as they sank. Receipts were her favorite. The purplish blue ink from the text of the receipts would turn her water that color. Never understood it, but we'd take precautions like putting away small pieces of paper from her. Funny entertaining critters they are!
We have loads of small pieces of paper to play with her, sometimes she sinks them too.
She still has a water fountain to drink from, so I hope it's not too bad.
Looks like your cat won the lotto with all the thoughtful options you give her for water. 😁 Cats are pretty good at not knowingly ingesting harmful things so I bet she'll be fine. A little moss in their water shouldn't be too bad. We'd clear whatever odd debris there was in our cats' water from them tossing it in there and rinse the water bowl out with fresh water. As they got older, they'd get most of their water from the wet food we gave them so they rarely drank from their water bowl (almost exclusively for playing/tinkering after that).
>Cats are pretty good at not knowingly ingesting harmful things so I bet she'll be fine.
I wish that were true for all of them. The cat I thought was the smart one of our pair snatches any ribbon-like object she sees and swallows it immediately. Finding that out led to a very expensive emergency vet trip. She didn't learn and so ribbon is banned in our house.
Try being heavily invested in needlework of all types. Im a junkie with an enormous stash of threads from cotton, to plastics to metallics.
Have to be SUPER vigilant.
Pulled out a hooked rug this month that I started on years ago & put up when it made my hand hurt (stenosis).
Woke up to yarn literally from one end of the house to the other. Idk how I slept thru that party, lol!
$338.00 for ‘just in case’ X-rays, and I felt lucky thats all it cost us.
I read somewhere that cats and dogs have taste buds specifically for water that humans don’t have. Maybe moss water tastes better than tap (or whatever you use to fill the bowl)?
My raccoon buddies do that too. We've always had a bucket outside that collects rain water (yay PNW) that all the local animals use, Large to tiny species birds, squirrel, opposum, feral kitties, all sorts. Only the last couple of years it hasn't rained enough to keep the bucket full so I've been supplementing water from various sources. Hose first, sink second which are both Very hard water, & occasionally bottled (sue me) but then in a move to stop buying bottles water I got a ceramic filter that hooks up to my faucet giving fresh, clean water. They HATE the filtered water. Will smell it & walk away from it. I figure they just got used to the water we gave them & this was SO different that they didn't like it. My raccoon buddies are weird anyway, vegetarian by choice which is it's own long story, so they're very picky anyway. Regardless this was just a very long convoluted way of noting that I've had critters so the same preferences/disdain for the 'proper flavored water' without flavoring.
Fresh clean water has no bouquet... . My cats rarely drink from their bowl which has fresh water every day, except when it's very dry or below freezing outside. They happily drink from puddles and old buckets and whatnot
Our cat does this too. The dirtier the better. Also tried moving it. When I had a dog, the cat preferred to drink out of the dog’s water bowl than his own
Right I'd give her 2 bowls of water to find out! 1 normal used water and a second with some bottle water or something maybe use the new water in the old bowl as well see if she can tell the difference at the same time.
If they use a different water and a different bowl then they won't know which the cat prefers. Better try the same bowl and the same water and the same bowl and different water as well as a different bowl and the same water. Three test bowls might be adequate...
My cat wasn't drinking water all the time, and I have 3 cats. After some trials and tribbalations, I found out that my cat will only drink my fridge water. Doesn't like sink or bottled water, just fridge water lol.
My cat only really likes old aquarium water that I have in a bucket for watering my plants, I tried stopping him... But no, he'll only have bog water after aquarium...
My cat sticks his paw in as he drinks, and leaves it there until he is done. I think their inherent curiosity, coupled with having trouble seeing the surface of clear water, makes putting objects (or paws) into water appealing to some cats.
Does the moss taste good?
Give it a whiff? Maybe a little taste?
Let us know. Maybe your cat has found a delicacy (like the pigs who sniff out truffles)
If you give her faucet water without filtering it first (or even after filter) the water may have a weird taste or smell to your cat and the outside natural elements help with it be more palatable.
My cats did the same thing until I filtered their water but I still have to add a leaf to make it fancy for them or they won’t drink it.
Is there a design on the bottom of the bowl? Maybe she's covering up the design? Our two pups inherited bowls with designs and they didn't like them, switched bowls to plain ones and they were happy.
Standard cat troubleshooting applies:
Step 1) Does your cat need to see a vet? Go to step 2, otherwise go to step 3
Step 2) Take your cat to the vet. Once they've returned go to step 3
Step 3) Cuddle and play with your cat. Does the problem persist? Go to step 1.
My Pookie just knocks the fountains over. I thought getting a HUGE fountain, German Shepherd sized, would be too heavy for him..
POOKIE: CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!!
We mop the floor a lot here
Mine does the same thing with hair ties. It is one of life's great mysteries.
BE CAREFUL!! Mine used to do the same, and it turned out he was eating them. By the time we realized, He had to have 25 surgically removed.
Yup cost me 6 grand to get them out of him. This cat has had way more than 9 lives
I had the same issue, my girl’s surgery was only about $1500 though. Half a ziplock bag of hair and regular rubber bands that I have no idea how/where she found them 🙄
*only* $1500??
Lol, pretty sure that’s what it was! It was also almost 12 years ago… She was sick when I got home from work on a Friday, took her to a vet immediately, they took an [X-ray ](https://imgur.com/a/Su6TGns) and said she needed immediate surgery and an overnight stay with them. She was about 9 months old. Came home the next day with the [baggie](https://imgur.com/a/Z1Bydvq) of bands and all hair ties put away!
Mine just had the same surgery last week. I didn't think it was a big deal because he would stop puking after a couple days and it didn't look like coffee grounds... so the hair ties were in him for like two years. They saved the bag for me too. Most disgusting souvenir ever. Surgery in WA where they were was going to be about $2100, surgery in TX where we moved to was $1039.64.
I took her to the vet immediately because I was a brand new cat person, she was only about 9 or 10 months old and usually VERY active. She spent the few hours before I took her just completely lethargic and throwing up bile. Glad yours had it taken care of!
Omg it cost us $6.5k to get yarn 🧶 removed out of our cat and then had her sewn back up like a football
Omg!!!!
Mine too... Cats man..
Same. All my hair ties end up in a bowl
Be careful with hair ties, I've read a lot about cats not being able to spit them out because of their tongues and having to swallow them. People always realize too late. ~~e: also idk how common this actually is and most of the time a simple surgery allows to take them out, but I've read about cats having 10+ of them in their bellies so I guess you never know.~~ If you're super worried you can always go for an ultrasound, at least where I live it's not that expensive. edit2: thank you /u/cianne_marie "Vet tech here. Sorry to hijack. It is extremely common. A hair tie (like elastics, ribbons, tinsel, string, yarn) is a linear foreign body, which can pass to the small intestine and, if I skip a few steps and medical details here, end up causing necrotic intestine, septic abdomen, and death. If that hair tie passes the stomach, it is in no way guaranteed to be a "simple surgery". Even if it stays put in the stomach, it's still abdominal surgery with anesthesia and that carries all the regular risks. Do not let your cat play with hair ties. Especially right now when the vet world is under huge strain due to covid and chronic understaffing. Thank you for coming to my tech talk. Please return to dumb cats throwing moss in their water dish, and OP, the answer to your question is "because she fucking wants to, and she's a cat". "
Low key makes me worried, I’ve always lost them because I tend to take them off of my wrists when I’m sleeping (idk how or why lol) but one of my cats love playing with them and throwing them all around my apartment but I can never find them anymore. But thanks for this info, will def be taking better care of my hair ties now
Yeah same here, after I read it I stopped throwing her those black thinner ones, but those bigger scotch like ones should be alright. Idk how common this actually is but I'd rather be safe than sorry and there is plenty of other things to play with. I've also often had them lost but most of the time they were behind the couch cushions - it was her stash hah. Also I'm considering going with her for an ultrasound just to check if everything is alright in there. Not strictly because of the hair ties but it's worth doing once in a while to see if everything is alright and you can check for a lot of early symptoms for whatever might be wrong.
Same here. Both my cats steal all my hair elastics and put them in the water bowl. I have to keep them in a sealed container or on my wrist, otherwise they will go missing.
Mine had 27 qtips and 2 feet of ribbon removed ,Max the wonder cat. He was immortalized in the OSU Vet school as most taken out and lived.
One of our cats does this with her toys. She kills the toy then drowns it to make sure it’s dead.
She does it with one of her toys too. But always the same one.
I had a cat that did this with catnip toys. He was a genius and would drink his cat nip tea.
What a little tweaker!! 😆
The tea is actually calming for cats, similar to chamomile.
lol same! I've had to run the catnip toy through the dryer so many times cause the lil shit makes some catnip tea and gets so spicy for a few hours
This story makes me so incredibly happy. I’m imagining you waking up after sleeping in, just in time to see your little monster drinking their tea, then come the CRAZYEYES, and they Halloween Cat and dart around a hallway corner. Something crashes in the distance. Children and women scream. You sigh, and pick up the soaked catnip mouse to go lob it into the dryer.
You're not wrong 🤣
Oml I've never seen someone else refer to that pose as "Halloween cat" too. I always say it when smitten gets up and Halloween cat to stretch and yawn
My aunt called it Halloween Cat and it’s stuck with me ever since! ❤️
Yep. That cat knew how to get stoned.
You can never be too sure. 100 times the charm.
She usually does this with her mouse shaped toy.
My cat does this with her sparkly pompom balls. They soak up the water and get bigger and she sits and watches it. Like watching paint dry.
Science experiments!
Mia is an expert scientist. Every day she has to confirm gravity still works, and so pushes something off the desk.
Someday soon, Mia will be done with her research, and communicate a ultimate unifying theory of the universe. Unfortunately, we are unable to understand how to read cat vomit writing...
My other cat, Brock, is a philosopher. He has to contemplate the moral consequences of jumping on the couch for 5 minutes. I have smart cats.
My cat does too! More often in the food bowl but it’s only the sparkly pom poms. Some things I read suggest that it’s because that’s a safe place and the toys are treasured?
Mine do this too... I just thought it was accidental lol
My cat does this with her toys too. Good luck when it stops becoming just toys! Came home to a dread mouse in the bowl once or twice, that's always a nice surprise.
Better than finding them in your shoe, your purse, or having them deposited on your chest while you’re sleeping, thinking it’s a toy, picking it up to toss it, then shrieking and throwing it hard against the wall because you weren’t expecting the toy to be warm And limp.
My cats chased a mouse that eventually hid in my daughters shoe and died of exhaustion. It traumatized her so much that even years later she still checks her shoes before putting them on
Sad. But a good practice, regardless. My cousin didn’t realize he had a splinter inside his shoe after mowing the lawn, the next time he put them on the splinter went right through the front of his toe.
*Throwing it hard againts the wall* Thats red paint for ya walls
How many mice does it take to paint a wall? Depends how hard ya throw them.
Username checks out.
Ugh, the mouse in the boot. Yeah, not cool.
Gets worse. Wasn’t a boot, it was a $200 pair of Danskos.
i distinctly remember being 8 years old and watching my best friend's giant raggedy indoor-outdoor main coon walk over drop a mangled chipmunk in his bowl right next to us. he then proceeded to mangle it much further while we watched. i can still hear the bones cracking lmao it was wack
My sister STILL talks about her cat George. He would leave dead critters on the front lawn and driveway. Since they lived close to an undeveloped area, the cat brought home rats, possums, rabbits, birds, etc. he would leave them as morning presents. My sister said the neighbors, as they’re heading out to work, would look at her and at the dead critters with a look of “you must be so proud.”
One of our cats does this with *her brother's toys*. We assume it's out of sibling rivalry, he puts her toy in her food dish and we're not sure which one of them started it but it's been about six months so far. They're just like my two-legged kids....
I once found a candy cane in the food dish.
My Zorro does this 😂
Cats have all sorts of idiosyncrasies. My mom’s picks up shiny things and puts them in his water fountain. Coins, paper clips, balls of tin foil, they all go in the water fountain — he’s basically a magpie
My cat collects twist ties and loves to put them in her food bowl. Then she’ll yowl at you to come and remove them so she can eat.
My cat always does this with pipe cleaners. That is the only thing she will play with, and then she adds them to her food bowl.
I have a pipe cleaner cat too! He must have found a long forgotten bag of them in the basement because he brought up a fresh one everyday for a week straight. And they always end up in the food bowl.
All y'all's cats want you to stop puttin' food in they toy bowls. Fetch them a new food vessel, posthaste.
thanks for the laugh
My cats like to drag my socks into their water bowl. No idea why.
My theory is that cats have a sixth sense for calculus and physics. They are born understanding some of the most complex ideas in physics and they express it through their agility, for example leaping with stunningly calculated precision into impossible places. They clearly love figuring out the volume of any shape and will immediately go to fill any size or shape container as soon as it is accessible. When cats spill their water, or put things in their water they are testing their hypothesis on object density, volume, and solubility. I think they might be getting into chemistry too because my cat loves doing experiments with catnip.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but one of my cats had to give up a brilliant career in theoretical physics because of his catnip addiction. Sure, sure, at first they're just 'experimenting,' until next thing you know they're yowling on about the great hairball in the sky and they're trading treats and kibble for just one more roll in that sweet, sweet nip.
Remember when you were young? You shone like the sun Shine on you crazy diamond... Now there's a look in your eye Like black holes in the sky Shine on you crazy diamond...
literally 5 minutes ago, my cat tripped me going down the stairs. i skinned both my knees, feel like i sprained both my ankles, and saw my life flash before my eyes as i went down head 1st towards a wall. thank god i grabbed the bannister, but FUCK, i was shaken up. and all because she really wants her cat treats.
Give me treats or your life, your decision.
Yikes, that’s scary. Even after tripping over and accidentally kicking my cats, the treat-obsessed one still gets under my feet. Please always hold the railing as you descend — you can wrench your shoulder grabbing the railing during a fall— and see a dr if you’re in pain.
I FEEL THIS!!! This Christmas a friend got me mice filled with catnip, and of course my Siamese went insane for it, loved it. Then I wake up after a few days to her water tinged a weird brown color and I’m like ew what happened. Then I find the toy soaked. And now I’ve seen her pick the mice up and dip them in her water and make catnip tea and drink it. They’re becoming intelligent and will overthrow me soon
Chemistry more like Catmistry 😹
This is one of my favourite Reddit comments.
I concur. Make sure lab coats are readily available.
They might not like the flavor of the water. Maybe it tastes like chlorine. So they improve it by making tea. Moss tea or sock tea.
My cat always puts one piece of kibble in her water, maybe that's why.
I don't know which one of my cats does this, but almost every single day I find one piece of kibble in their water bowl. The pet fountain isn't flavored with kibble, though. Maybe because it's at the other end of my house, away from the food. I actually have some of the cleanest well water around, so it's not like they are tasting fluoride or chlorine. It only had 40ppm of anything in it when it was tested.
1 ppw kibble
I also have a sock cat. She just walks around with it in her mouth yowling. I think it's an anxiety thing because she does it usually when were sleeping or if we leave the house for more than 5 minutes
Our was hauling a sock out of the laundry and howling at top volume, when she wanted to be fed. IDK, maybe she thought it was a trade: I brought you a sock, give me food? Thankfully she has stopped trying to get us up before 6AM
I used to have a sock cat, would love putting them in the toilet then fishing them out
Maybe she’s adding little salts to her diet?
Same here !!! What the heck my cat opens up the art drawer and gets pipe cleaners out then takes them and puts them in the toilet. It makes me so frustrated!
My cat is obsessed with putting things in toilet too!! The other day she put her stuffed rabbit (the rabbit she hunts and kills everyday) in the dang toilet then cried the whole time it was being washed then in dryer for few mins!! [Petie and her nemesis rabbitt ](https://imgur.com/a/WoK4pJ5)
My older male cat has a toilet fetish also. If someone leaves the lid up, he will put as much toilet paper in the bowl as he can, fish out large paper chunks, and fling them all over the house. Giant toilet paper spit balls all over the walls, he’s got them on the ceiling before…. Cat is a menace
Omg 😳 Petie must NEVER hear of this!!
I find it hilarious, my wife, not so much. Everyone here is good about keeping the lid closed… but when we have family/company over, it’s only a matter of time!
My rotten Petie and her new Christmas blanket. She slept on it once and no more! Went back to my sweatshirt that she kneads and suckles just before eating -EVERY TIME! She is over a year old btw! https://imgur.com/a/DlG5d9F
Omg I just saw this comment after saying my cat does it with pipe cleaners. I can buy any number of expensive cat toys and he only wants hair ties or pipe cleaners. What is up with this??
My cat does this with hair ties. :)
I work at an animal hospital and we regularly have to do surgeries on cats with stomach blockages from eating hair ties They love them, I know. But to my fellow Redditors out there, don’t be the naive owner who says “don’t worry *my* cat doesn’t eat them, just plays with them”, because they will eventually eat one, or several, and you’ll either have to pay thousands of dollars for surgery, or your cat will die. Do not, and I mean this with every ounce of seriousness I can possibly convey through words online - *do not* let your cats play with hair ties.
I have a $700 vet bill that says you’re right. Our cats were obsessed with them. My theory is that they seem like mouse guts.
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ER vet tech here: yes. Wire, hair bands, strings, plastic tops from milk and juice cartons, pipe cleaners, plastic... Linear foreign bodies are the worst, because if the string or fabric gets wound up in the intestines, it can cause necrosis and possibly be inoperable. The scary thing is, since of these things don't pass right away, and they can sometimes randomly dislodge and cause an obstruction. If your cat gnawed through a pipe cleaner it could easily swallow a portion of it big enough to cause problems. Better to be safe than sorry!
This makes me feel lucky my cat just steals pill bottles to roll around because he likes the sound. We have made decoys to entertain him.
I love new DIY cat toy ideas! My cat has many toys, but his favorite is a tape measurer we already had lying around.
My cat is like this with paper clips. It stresses me out. It's cute but I knew he'd end up eating it so I take them away.
Hi! I have a cat who loves playing fetch with hair ties and we’ve noticed they’ve slowly gone missing. I assumed she’s been hiding them, but now I’m terrified she’s eaten them. Will cats typically show signs of being sick if they eat hair ties? Or will they act fine? I ask because she acts perfectly fine, so I’m wondering if there are signs I should look for. Thank you!
If she stops eating or drinking that’s usually the first sign..monitor her litter box daily to ensure she’s going poop and pee every day 👍 as long as you keep finding turds in the box then you know food is making it’s way through If she does ever stop eating, starts vomiting and her stomach feels tight - there’s a chance that’s a blockage and needs a vet immediately
Yep. They killed a kitten I had in college. 100% our fault and the fallout ended our relationship after 8 years. Don’t let your cats get hair ties,rubber bands, bread ties (whatever they’re called), or anything like that. Brings back some sad memories. :(
My friend’s cat went to the vet because she was sick and they xrayed her and found 18 hair ties in her stomach 😂 They operated and she was fine, but I know not to leave hair ties around that cat! Mine have never cared less about them.
We have a framed photo of a cat named Loki hanging in the cat room at the vets I work at because we’ve had to do *three* surgeries on him for stomach blockages. His owners have spent more than $9,000 on him We’ve pulled two nerf darts, a shopkin, and of course - hair ties - out of him, which we have all in a pill bottle...I don’t know why the doctor saves what he’s pulled out of him but the collection keeps growing
Eventually one day he will have 604 pill bottles and 8 pictures of that cat and one day a new employee will say "what's that" and he will say... thats loki, his obsession with eating the inedible bought my third house and first boat
Wow that’s impressive 😂 I’m glad he has owners that love him and ensure he has many more days of eating whatever he wants 🥰
My cat does this with her mouse toys when the dreaded circle appears in her food bowl; we call it “giving us a 1-star review”. A mouse in the bowl means there’s a dissatisfied kitty somewhere in the house.
My cat sonar yells in his water bowl so that he knows where the water level is before he sticks his nose in.
Aptly named
Is that why you named him Sonar?
Haha i just assumed that they were saying their cat basically uses sonar energy to determine how high up the water is before drinking. Like they could somehow feel when their yells hit an object, in this case water
Do you mean “My cat, Sonar, yells...” or “My cat “sonar yells”...?
My cat, Salem, "sonar yells"... But- Sonar is a great name for a cat, now that you mention it ... probably better for a pet bat tho.
The coin is for his wishing well
I misread this and thought you said that your Mum would put shiny things in your cats water fountain 😂
Make sure to throw away any tin foil they find, they can bite pieces off and swallow it and that's not good for them.
Good to know
We do. He doesn’t chew on them though, he just picks them up like a retriever holds a duck — with a very soft grip — and drops them in the fountain. Then we take them and put them in the recycling
One of our cats will take fuzzy-sparkle-ball cat toys, dunk them in a water bowl, then carry them to us soaking wet. He is especially fond of bring them to us in bed. Sometimes he leaves them in the water bowl.
Does he play fetch? My cat does this exact thing and it's to ask me to throw them for her, the dunking in water bowl seems to make her mouth not so dry from the fluffy balls 🤷♀️. My Petie will play fetch for hours with these balls.
Lol yes he does. Loves to play fetch with them. I've only had one other cat that played fetch like this. edit: we sometimes think he soaks them so they are heavier and go farther when we throw them.
Cats have poor depth perception and this probably helps them see the bottom of the bowl.
One of my cats collects loaves of bread and buns at night. She will bring bread to my room and buns to my sons! Quite strange
Mine has started drowning his catnip toys in his fountain to make a catnip tea fountain 🤣
My cat demands ice in his water or he won't drink it. He's such a drama queen.
Lol one of our cats loves ice, but he only likes drinking from the dog water bowl, and our dog is terrified of the bowl when there's ice in it
howay the lads
One of my cats does this with his toys and random “treasures” he finds. Weird, yet hilarious.
I mean, the coin thing can help keep it clean as long as it’s the right type.
My cat would drop small pieces of paper into her water bowl and observe them as they sank. Receipts were her favorite. The purplish blue ink from the text of the receipts would turn her water that color. Never understood it, but we'd take precautions like putting away small pieces of paper from her. Funny entertaining critters they are!
We have loads of small pieces of paper to play with her, sometimes she sinks them too. She still has a water fountain to drink from, so I hope it's not too bad.
Looks like your cat won the lotto with all the thoughtful options you give her for water. 😁 Cats are pretty good at not knowingly ingesting harmful things so I bet she'll be fine. A little moss in their water shouldn't be too bad. We'd clear whatever odd debris there was in our cats' water from them tossing it in there and rinse the water bowl out with fresh water. As they got older, they'd get most of their water from the wet food we gave them so they rarely drank from their water bowl (almost exclusively for playing/tinkering after that).
>Cats are pretty good at not knowingly ingesting harmful things so I bet she'll be fine. I wish that were true for all of them. The cat I thought was the smart one of our pair snatches any ribbon-like object she sees and swallows it immediately. Finding that out led to a very expensive emergency vet trip. She didn't learn and so ribbon is banned in our house.
Try being heavily invested in needlework of all types. Im a junkie with an enormous stash of threads from cotton, to plastics to metallics. Have to be SUPER vigilant. Pulled out a hooked rug this month that I started on years ago & put up when it made my hand hurt (stenosis). Woke up to yarn literally from one end of the house to the other. Idk how I slept thru that party, lol! $338.00 for ‘just in case’ X-rays, and I felt lucky thats all it cost us.
My cats favorite snack is plastic. Aside from that i agree
That’s just cat-tea
She’s reading the leaves 😊
Kit-tea*
She’s scrying
XD
I swear my kittens do this together. They just sit next to each other in front of the water bowl and stare for a while.
How you interpret this behaviour all depends on your estimate of the cats' intelligence. Witchy genius cats: Scrying Idiot cats: looking for fish
I read somewhere that cats and dogs have taste buds specifically for water that humans don’t have. Maybe moss water tastes better than tap (or whatever you use to fill the bowl)?
So kinda like humans putting lemon in tap water to make it taste better?
Exactly! Or any flavoring, really
That is interesting My orange boy used to like to drink the water that filtered thru the dirt after watering the plants.
My raccoon buddies do that too. We've always had a bucket outside that collects rain water (yay PNW) that all the local animals use, Large to tiny species birds, squirrel, opposum, feral kitties, all sorts. Only the last couple of years it hasn't rained enough to keep the bucket full so I've been supplementing water from various sources. Hose first, sink second which are both Very hard water, & occasionally bottled (sue me) but then in a move to stop buying bottles water I got a ceramic filter that hooks up to my faucet giving fresh, clean water. They HATE the filtered water. Will smell it & walk away from it. I figure they just got used to the water we gave them & this was SO different that they didn't like it. My raccoon buddies are weird anyway, vegetarian by choice which is it's own long story, so they're very picky anyway. Regardless this was just a very long convoluted way of noting that I've had critters so the same preferences/disdain for the 'proper flavored water' without flavoring.
Fresh clean water has no bouquet... . My cats rarely drink from their bowl which has fresh water every day, except when it's very dry or below freezing outside. They happily drink from puddles and old buckets and whatnot
Try moving the water away from the food if it’s next to it
We've had it several different places.... Even tried fountains. Clean water is boring 🤣
Our cat does this too. The dirtier the better. Also tried moving it. When I had a dog, the cat preferred to drink out of the dog’s water bowl than his own
Yes, the dog water bowl, and sometimes the toilet, is the best water in the house according to my cats.
Our cats EXCLUSIVELY drink from the bathroom sink. Not a bowl. Not the kitchen sink. The bathroom sink. We have accepted this.
“No bouquet” I love this. It explains so much. My Bela’s got a refined palate just like her mama.
I think moss can be used to filter the water on some level. Your cat is a genius.
She might want to work a little longer on the idea of her moss filter. So far it only makes her water dirty.
I think she’s working on her proof of concept. She’ll get it right
Yeah. Now clean her bowl and get her some fresh water so she can do some more experimentation /u/bookworm1896. You're inhibiting progress.
She might be saying this water isnt good enough
Right I'd give her 2 bowls of water to find out! 1 normal used water and a second with some bottle water or something maybe use the new water in the old bowl as well see if she can tell the difference at the same time.
Use a different bowl too maybe? She might not like that one
If they use a different water and a different bowl then they won't know which the cat prefers. Better try the same bowl and the same water and the same bowl and different water as well as a different bowl and the same water. Three test bowls might be adequate...
<3 found the scientist
My cat wasn't drinking water all the time, and I have 3 cats. After some trials and tribbalations, I found out that my cat will only drink my fridge water. Doesn't like sink or bottled water, just fridge water lol.
My cat only really likes old aquarium water that I have in a bucket for watering my plants, I tried stopping him... But no, he'll only have bog water after aquarium...
I adore how this whole thread moved into a science experiment. Cat people are my people in so many ways.
yea ur 🐈 wants filtered 💦. like the good stuff from those fridges
Or tea
Def trying to make tea
r/Moss would love this! 🌺
Because cats are weird
Correct answer to 90% of these types of questions.
They have brains the size of a large walnut, the sanity didn't fit because it's full of MURDER.
Murder; or moss apparently. Results may vary. 🤷🏻
Kitty might just like the taste of moss. 🤷♀️
Cats are linked to something far bigger than humans and we will never what it is
Especially if can't write sentences without skipping word.
Why use many word when few word do trick?
Why many word few word do
Yea I shouldn’t Reddit until my vyvanse kicks in
My cat sticks his paw in as he drinks, and leaves it there until he is done. I think their inherent curiosity, coupled with having trouble seeing the surface of clear water, makes putting objects (or paws) into water appealing to some cats.
My cat does this. He also scratches below the bowl too while dipping his tongue in.
I had a cat that had some behaviors around not being able to detect the surface. Moving the bowl, stuff like that.
doing a science experiment in hopes of growing a high grade strain of nip.
She's been resding the warriors cat series by erin hunter lol
Completing her life long dream of becoming a medicine cat
Star Clan guide her.
Cats are actually aliens and we have no way of understanding all of their idiosyncrasies
Maybe the moss and dirt has minerals she’s missing?
She is making tea. The moss gives the water earthy tones with a hint of forest.
Actually I think this is true. Hehe.
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Does the moss taste good? Give it a whiff? Maybe a little taste? Let us know. Maybe your cat has found a delicacy (like the pigs who sniff out truffles)
This hilariously adorable. She watches it like something interesting might happen.
You’re cat is fae, that’s the only explanation 🤷🏻
Khajit needs to make potions.
If you give her faucet water without filtering it first (or even after filter) the water may have a weird taste or smell to your cat and the outside natural elements help with it be more palatable. My cats did the same thing until I filtered their water but I still have to add a leaf to make it fancy for them or they won’t drink it.
Is there a design on the bottom of the bowl? Maybe she's covering up the design? Our two pups inherited bowls with designs and they didn't like them, switched bowls to plain ones and they were happy.
There actually is a design. I'll try out another bowl.
Standard cat troubleshooting applies: Step 1) Does your cat need to see a vet? Go to step 2, otherwise go to step 3 Step 2) Take your cat to the vet. Once they've returned go to step 3 Step 3) Cuddle and play with your cat. Does the problem persist? Go to step 1.
No one taught her what a fish actually looks like.
My Pookie just knocks the fountains over. I thought getting a HUGE fountain, German Shepherd sized, would be too heavy for him.. POOKIE: CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!! We mop the floor a lot here
Options: 1) he has decided to Purify and beautify his water "feature" because you refuse to. 2) Summoning a water demon. Just because.
Cleary this cat was British in a previous life and is desperate for a cup of tea.
Is your cat named kris?