Does your cat drink saltwater?

StrategicReef · #1 01/02/2008, 03:26 AM

I was curing some rocks for a few weeks and one of my cats has finally decided to stick his head in and drink out of it. He is not the brightest one.. Has anyone have a cat that drinks SW?

Pea-brain · #2 01/02/2008, 08:20 AM

No, but it can cause dehydration and digestion problems.....

Dan

nauticac4 · #3 01/02/2008, 09:31 AM

yes both of my idiot cats drink the saltwater I spill on the floor. Don't know why but they do

Sk8r · #4 01/02/2008, 09:45 AM

A little salt in their diet, ok, no worse than our eating olives. A habit, or a huge, huge lot---ultimate kidney damage, as I understand.

It's why they tell shipwrecked sailors drinking seawater is suicide.

tkeracer619 · #5 01/02/2008, 10:09 AM

Mine hates salt water.

He did fall into the sump though when It was still filling with RO

that was amusing

icebox · #6 01/02/2008, 10:15 AM

Our cat has not tried to drink the water since I threw a pillow across the room and knocked him into the tank.

He never climbed on top of the tank again after that. (Wait a moment, he did not talk to me again after that either.)

amike5 · #7 01/02/2008, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by icebox
Our cat has not tried to drink the water since I threw a pillow across the room and knocked him into the tank. He never climbed on top of the tank again after that. (Wait a moment, he did not talk to me again after that either.)

Haha, thats funny.

My cat didn't like saltwater at first, but now it will sneak a couple licks here and there. I have also caught the cat licking up spilled calcium chloride from the carpet as well.

Mattmcf · #8 01/02/2008, 11:14 AM

careful, there is an article of a guy whose dog who drank some water from a container that had been used to frag some zoos and the dog died in less than 10 mins...

Pea-brain · #9 01/02/2008, 11:32 AM

And another one where a guy mixed some salt water in a blender and forgot to rinse it. Made his daughter seriously sick when his wife used it to make something for her.

Dan

icebox · #10 01/02/2008, 11:39 AM

You hear this, and then I think how many times I used my mouth to start a syphon and ended up with a huge mouthfull of water.... Anyway back to the topic at hand.

Pea-brain · #11 01/02/2008, 11:44 AM

Lol been there, but how often do you actually swallow that mouthful of water

?

Dan

mattjfishman · #12 01/02/2008, 01:23 PM

Uh..... why would you be using a blender to mix saltwater anyway?

Twz · #13 01/02/2008, 01:58 PM

Yepp both of my cats drink from the sump when i leave the door open they just get really thirsty =D

Appaloosa1224 · #14 01/02/2008, 02:24 PM

My room mate's ferret always tries to drink the saltwater, but then she sneezes

Does anyone have dogs that prefer fish food to dog food? Mine hates dog food, but always eats dropped fish food.

kipher · #15 01/02/2008, 02:30 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mattmcf
careful, there is an article of a guy whose dog who drank some water from a container that had been used to frag some zoos and the dog died in less than 10 mins...

I read that story, bad stuff. However, believe in that story the dog actually ate a zoo frag though (or atleast bit a frag), and died from the Palyotoxin. (spelling?) Not quite the same thing as a cat drinking tank water....but the potential is there for the cat to get into a similar bad scenario.

kc9dre · #16 01/02/2008, 02:42 PM

I traded my cat for a dogfish. problem solved...

dendro982 · #17 01/03/2008, 08:03 AM

Nope, tasted once on the paw, and disapproved.
Have to watch the top-off water with dechlorinator, though.

MinibowMatt · #18 01/03/2008, 08:17 AM

I just lost one of our cats. he was young, and in perfect health (6yrs).
I found him dead nearby my sump. I have no indication that he was poisoned or otherwise hurt by my tank, but I figured i would put it out here...
BTW- I never saw him drinking the SW..

GreshamH · #19 01/03/2008, 01:33 PM

Quote:

As to ingestion, the rat LD-50 dose for sodium chloride is 3 grams per kilogram of body weight. ("LD-50" stands for "lethal dose 50%", the dose which kills 50% of rats.) For a 220 pound man (100 kg) that would be 300 grams, which is just shy of 12 ounces. The lowest published lethal dose (LDlo) for humans is one third of that.

MinibowMatt · #20 01/03/2008, 01:57 PM

so if a cat was to die(from SW ingestion) at the LD of rats, my cat would have needed to ingest approx. 9 ounces of salt to die.... (if I did my math right)
unlikely...

MiddletonMark · #21 01/03/2008, 02:14 PM

My cat loves to lick my hands after they've been in the tank.

For the minimal saltwater [salt residue?] that remains after I towel my hands off .... I'm not too concerned.

If she started drinking the water [esp after hearing how common dehydration/poor-fluid-intake can be in cats from our vet] ... I'd find a way to stop that behavior.

J. Montgomery · #22 01/03/2008, 02:17 PM

Earlier this week, my cat licked the saltwater I had aerating in a bucket. He took a step back and had a look on his face like, "What The . . . ?" I don't think he liked it!

My cats will try to lick my hands and arms after they've been in the tank.

DT's_Reef · #23 01/03/2008, 02:31 PM

One of my cats will take a few "slups" out of the bucket when I'm mixing saltwater and reacts to it like it's ordinary water.

My other cat will stick his head in the dry saltwater mix bag and lick the edges, which I discourage, but he manages to succeed once in a while.

aaronc · #24 01/03/2008, 03:18 PM

My cat has been eyeing up the sump but hasn't stuck its head in yet. I'm pretty sure he will.

Aaron