Is your Bengal cat peeing in the water bowl?
If so, this is a clearly undesirable behaviour that you’ll want to stop!
In this short article we are going to cover what you can do if your Bengal cat is peeing in the water bowl; let’s get this bad behavior stopped!
Rule Out Medical Issues
The first step to stopping your Bengal cat from peeing in his/her water bowl is an urgent trip to the vet.
Why?
Because peeing in “unusual” places can be a sign of a potentially serious medical problem affecting the kidneys and or bladder.
Before you look at treating any form of behavioural issue it is critical that you get your Bengal cat checked out by the vet to rule out any medical problems.
You may find that there is some kind of medical issue that is causing your Bengal to pee outside of his/her litter box.
Once you have addressed this, then you can move on to the following steps.
Ensure Access To Clean Litter
The first port of call in this situation is to ensure your Bengal has access to clean litter.
It is well known that Bengal cats hate having dirty litter, or insufficient access to litter.
With that in mind, start by ensuring that you regularly clean your cats litter. For example, it may be that he/she starts peeing in the water bowl after going to the litter box and finding it dirty. You may wish to consider getting more than one litter box (read our guide on this here).
Make sure you consult our Bengal cat litter box buyer guide, as well as our round up of the best types of litter for Bengal cats in order to find the right option for your needs.
Change The Drinking Setup
One of the easiest changes you can make is to change your cat’s drinking setup from a bowl to a “cat fountain” (basically a water dispenser).
Cats love having access to fresh water, and a fountain helps to improve water freshness by providing moving water (and many also have in-built filters).
It is going to be much harder for your Bengal to pee in a cat fountain/water dispenser, so this is well worth giving a try.
Read our guide to the best cat fountains for Bengal cats for more information on this.
Territorial Dominance
Another point to consider is that your Bengal may be peeing in his/her water bowl as a sign of territorial dominance.
This appears to be much more of an issue in multi cat households where the cats all share one water bowl.
In plain English, your Bengal may be saying through his/her behavior “back off everyone, this is my water”.
One suggestion here is to ensure that each cat (if you have multiple) has their own water bowl.
You may also want to try placing water bowls at different heights/locations, rather than in one cluster as this could still cause territorial issues.
Even if you only have one cat, experimenting with bowl placement is important as insecurity over territory could still be the cause of the issue.
Toilet Training
This is a bit of a ‘tongue-in-cheek’ suggestion, but some owners have found great success with toilet training their Bengal cat.
Teaching a cat to use a toilet is a bit of a divisive subject, as many see it as being unhygienic in itself.
However, many have commented that if a cat does pee in its water bowl, it could be a good “candidate” for toilet training.
Here’s an interesting video guide on toilet training a cat:
Conclusion
Having a Bengal cat that pees in his/her water bowl is not fun. This is undesirable, unhygienic behavior that you’ll want to stamp out ASAP.
In order to do this, there are several steps you’ll need to go through. To recap, these are:
1. Check with your vet that there are no underlying medical issues causing this behavior.
2. Ensure your Bengal has access to clean litter and an easy-to-use litter box. Consider adding an additional litter box if required. You may also want to revisit the basics of litter training.
3. Consider the impact of your Bengal trying to assert his/her territorial dominance – especially if there are other cats in your household. You may need separate bowls, and you will also want to experiment with bowl placement.
4. Try using a water dispenser (cat fountain) as opposed to a water bowl. This may be an easy, affordable fix.
5. You may even wish to try “toilet training” your Bengal!
