If you see your cat slurping water from the bathroom sink or out of the toilet, don't get angry with her. She simply is showing you how much she appreciates fresh, cool water. Perhaps you are the naughty one, not providing enough fresh water for her on a daily basis. Your cat's nutrition and cat water availability have a key role in her general health.

You want to be sure your cat's nutritional requirements are met and cat water is often left out of this equation. You check the cat food labels, making sure meat protein is the first thing on the list - not all corn or soy meal. But are you as concerned with how much water your cat drinks each day?

To be sure, vitamins, minerals, amino acids and taurine are vital to your cat's health, but don't be satisfied that you've provided her a sound nutritional framework with just cat food. The one ingredient that doesn't have to be listed in the ingredients label is the most important one of all. Water.

Think about it. You can live for years with insufficient calcium in your diet before showing any clinical signs of calcium deficiency. Try going without water for a few days and you are in big trouble.

Your Cat's Health and Cat Water Intake

Your cat's body can't process all those vitamins and amino acids just by swallowing a cup of cat chow. Water acts as a solvent and help dissolve these chemicals in order for your cat to benefit. Nutrients can't be digested and brought into the cells...Waste can't get transported out of the body...Your cat's temperature can't be controlled because the heat his body generates isn't dissipated...His organs start to fail.

When your cat doesn't drink enough water his body attempts to conserve what fluids it has in it already. He doesn't urinate or eliminate stool. His body is dying while trying to conserve his water resources.

Feline urinary tract problems, cat bladder stones and kidney problems are often linked to poor water intake. So nutrition and cat water are very much linked together.

How Much Water?

The domesticated cat lineage goes way back and originate in the African desert. Their body adapted to the dry, arid climate. That doesn't mean a cat needs less water than a dog. Individual water requirements depend on factors like: Activity level, age, environmental conditions and air temperature.

The rule of thumb is to estimate one milliliter of water for every food calorie consumed. For an adult cat, this means about 250 - 350 ml each day or 9 - 12 fluid ounces.

Depending on your cats diet, he may get a portion of this daily requirement from canned cat food. Canned cat food typically contains 78% water. A 6 ounce can of cat food might provide 130 ml of water. So if you cat eats canned cat food, he requires less supplemental water. However, dry food contains much less water so your cat's water intake should be more.

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Written by Kate Rieger using tags: and cat water, animals, cat bladder problems, cat bladder stones, h, home & family, home and family, n, natural medicines, o, P, pet, Pets, pets_and_animals

The most common symptoms of cat struvite stones or calcium oxalate stones in cats is when they you cat has blood in the urine, struggles in the litter box or cries out during urination. You may mistake this for your cat being constipated. What really is occurring is that your cat has a stone blocking his ureter or urethra and his toxic urine is backing up in his body. Read this to get some pointers on how to prevent this painful cat disorder.

Uroliths are cat bladder stones and are caused by an overload of minerals like magnesium and salts, phosphorous, calcium and ammonia concentrating in your cat's urine. Your cat's urine normally has this stuff in it, but when it becomes over saturated with them then these painful crystals form.

Normally cat struvite stones and calcium oxalate crystals build up slowly. When conditions are right, they grow faster and larger. The main condition that causes these crystals to start to grow is when your cat doesn't get enough water. He may not have a good fresh source of water or doesn't get wet canned food to add water to his diet.

There are different types of bladder stones with the two most common being: struvite and calcium oxalate. Struvite stones occur more frequently than calcium oxalate stones. The difference being in what they are composed.

The shape of struvite stones are fairly large and round. Struvite stones in cats have a different chemical composition than calcium oxalate stones. They develop because of high concentrations of minerals in your cat's urine usually because he's not drinking enough water. He may not be urinating regularly to because of a feline bladder infection. A feline urinary tract infection can cause him to stop urinating too.

Calcium oxalate stones are typically smaller than struvite stones. If you look at them you will see they have jagged edges instead of round edges. They lodge in your cats' bladder, or in his kidneys or in his urethra or ureter. The ureter is the tube that connects the kidney to the bladder. When it is blocked by a calcium oxalate stone the urine can't pass.

Don't wait around waiting for the stone to pass, because this is a lethal situation for your cat. A blockage in your cat's urinary system is an emergency. When your cat's urine is blockeded for even one day, he will be very sick, in excruciating pain and his kidneys will be damaged.

What You Can Do To Prevent Struvite Stones In Cats

You may have heard about dog's getting struvite stones and they can. The difference is that struvite stones in dogs is caused by a canine urinary tract infection, not by a concentration of minerals in the dog's urine.

There is a good chance cat bladder stones will reoccur. It is wise to plan on a preventative program so you and your cat don't have to deal with cat struvite stones again.

This definitely needs to include plenty of fresh water every day. Don't let the bowl sit around with yesterday's water. Let your cat watch you do this chore and he'll reward you by immediately lapping up the fresh water.

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Written by Kate Rieger using tags: animals, cat bladder stones, cat health care, family, feline urinary tract infection, garden, homeopathic pet care, natural pet care, Pets, struvite stones, struvites stones in cats. calcium oxalate stones