You may notice that my article does not mention of any pros of having a cat water fountain. Read on to understand why I am especially biased towards them.
1) Owners forget to clean, I mean really clean.
Having been a cat sitter for many years now, the first thing I do when I come into a home with a water fountain is to check on it's cleanliness. The reason is because although some owners clean and maintain it well, many owners actually neglect the cleaning, but just continue topping up. Now imagine you have a glass of water that you drink from, and you never wash it but keep drinking from it.
Would you? Probably not.
It gets slimy after some time, you can clearly see the dirt marks and water marks, especially if it's left in a hot environment such as a Singapore home.
So why subject your pets to that?
Often when I open up the fountain, there are a couple of things I find.
a) The filter hasn't been changed for a while, and you can see dust, dirt, hair stuck
b) Dust and food particles, or even the breaking down of the filter is found floating in the water
c) It's slimy as it hasn't been given a good scrub.
With that, I leave you with a gallery of what is actually inside your fountain that you may not have noticed.
2) It is risky if that is all you are relying on
If you do insist on using a water fountain, please do leave out a normal bowl of water. I have experienced a power shut down in a client's condo wherein the power tripped and the cat didn't have water as the fountain didn't have residual water (i.e. if you do not turn in on, no water comes out. It does not pool.)
I have also experienced water fountain malfunction (twice, in fact!) while owner was away and recently, an extension plug where the fountain was, was accidentally turned off and went unnoticed.
We may take for granted that the water fountain is always on - out of sight, out of mind or even forget to top it up.
If your pet sitter or family member isn't observant to the fact that there is a problem, it would also be detrimental to the cat.
3) It is difficult to monitor how much your cat is really drinking
When a cat falls ill, one of the obvious signs (and we know cats are masters at hiding pain and illness) is that they either do not eat or drink, or in cases of kidney, diabetes and/or liver issues, they may start to drink excessively.
A sudden empty bowl of water may be an obvious tell tale sign to take your pet to the vet, however, if you pet is constantly drinking out of a fountain with loads of water, it will be difficult to take notice.
To be objective, I suppose the benefit of having a cat water fountain is that it does encourage some cats (e.g. Bengals love running water) to drink more. However, with that said, always ensure you are on top of the regular cleaning, and I mean really scrubbing it down with your fingers or a brush, regular maintenance and please do not hate on regular water bowls!