How to Tell If Your Cat Is Dehydrated
📝 Summary
Adult cats need about 150 ml water daily but dislike drinking, risking chronic dehydration and urinary disease. Check dehydration by hard dry stool pellets and small urine clumps (a healthy adult clump is a third of a palm, 1-2 a day). Judge by output not intake; use a fountain and wet or rehydrated food to boost intake.
1 Two Ways to Check
A cat needs roughly 150 ml daily but hates drinking, so owners rarely see enough intake and cats stay mildly dehydrated, raising urinary risk. Check one: the stool – when short on water the body reclaims moisture from waste, so hard dry pellets mean dehydration has started. Check two: the urine clump – using tofu litter, an adult clump should be about a third of a palm, one to two a day; a clump only ping-pong sized demands attention.
2 What to Do
Whether a cat needs water is shown by output, not intake, so the clump is the key metric. If you see the signs, raise intake or change the main diet: cats like moving water, so a fountain helps; try cans or freeze-dried food soaked in water.
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