Make your own automatic cat tap

One of the reasons that I love cats so much is that they are, like me, very finicky - particularly regarding what they eat and drink. How many cat owners have put down a perfectly clean bowl of water, only to watch their cat turn their nose up and go and drink from the toilet or the bird bath? Mmm!! Tastes like sparrow!

Fflwff always preferred drinking from the bathroom sink, so I’d often turn the tap on for her whilst I was doing something else, turning if off when she was done. She’s a bit old now to be jumping up to the sink, but if she had her druthers that’s where she’d drink. Trouble is, it’s a bit tedious to keep getting up to turn taps on and off.

Now, thanks to the ingeniousness of Sixerdoodle Electronics, you can now make your own kittie-controlled tap, so that your moggie can have a drink as and when s/he wants without bothering you, and without wasting water. (Covered also by Make and Engadget.)

The system uses an infrared sensor to detect when the cat is near, and a 1/4 inch tube to deliver the water to the thirsty kittie. You can also set it up to detect when a human is near, so that the kittie tap doesn’t turn on when the human puts their hands in the sink.

You need to have a few plumbing and electronics skills, but if you’re including such a system in your self-build, you can always design it in from the beginning and get your tradesmen to do the work. You can order a complete kit for just $90 (about £45 at today’s exchange rate), or download the schematics and pull together the bits yourself.

This puts it roughly on a par with commercially produced cat fountains, such as the Drinkwell Platinum Pet Fountain or the Catit Drinking Fountain, but has the added advantage of never requiring a refill as it’s drawing water from the mains.

Personally, I shall definitely be including a IR sensor controlled cat drinking fountain in my house - I can very easily imagine a wet room or kitchen that includes a spout in the wall and a small bowl at about cat height, a bit like this old Roman drinking fountain:

Thanks Papalars.

I’m sure our FutureKitties would be very happy with such an arrangement.

(Thanks to Peter for the heads-up!)