Time for a pop quiz. Do cats need to drink water? You are probably thinking that this is an utterly stupid question to ask as water is the building block of life on Earth. But what if I were to tell you that cats do not need to drink water? How could this possibly be?
If I were to ask you what animal doesn’t need to drink, or can go long periods of time without water, I bet that most people would say a camel. The camel is perhaps the best known animal for sustaining long periods without the need to have a drink. While camels can sustain themselves for extended periods of time without water, at least one animal can go one better. Cats.
Why cats do not need to drink water
You may have already read here that cats are unable to taste sweet things, but I bet that you didn’t know that cats don’t need to drink water. Cats have extremely efficient kidneys and can survive only on meat. The moisture in the meat is enough to keep them hydrated. This makes them one of the only animals that don’t need water to survive. But their amazing kidneys don’t stop there.
If you were to drink from the ocean, or any salt water, it would dehydrate you. In order to drink seawater you need to remove the salt from it. In fact, many cities around the world survive on desalinated seawater, and the desalination plants cost a fortune to build and run. Cats on the other hand can, if they need to, hydrate themselves with seawater with no ill effects. The kidneys of a cat are so efficient that they are able to process the high concentration of salt within the oceans water.
So the next time you ask yourself Do cats need to drink water, the answer is a firm no.
