Do you ever see your cat at the water bowl? How much water should your cat drink? Should you give your cat canned food? All of these are questions that can be answered by traveling back over 10,000 years to when cats were first domesticated. But before we go back in time, let’s first talk about how much water some different species drink.

The Near Eastern Wildcat (aka African Wildcat), the domestic cat’s ancestor, gets the majority of their water from prey. The average house cat requires approximately 1 cup of water per day. This is why the debate over canned food vs. dry food is somewhat of a heated topic. More to come later this week!

Fun fact…the kangaroo rat never has to drink water, getting its water from the super power ability to “make” water from the seeds they eat and special noses that absorb water from their breath as they exhale. On the other end of the spectrum are hummingbirds who can drink well over 100% of their body weight in water daily. That would be like a 150 pound human drinking 18 gallons of water in a day!