How to Get your Cat Used to Water (4 Step Tutorial) | The Cat Butler

Best video I’ve ever seen, showing gentle training towards cats guiding them using their natural instincts! Love to see this amount of gentleness and patience into a cats care! Subscription added! Well done! And thank you!

I think it worth pointing out that this process is somewhat easier with more than one cat training at once. Cats are competitive by nature, if one is actively exploring, the other will follow suit.

Me, with absolutely terrible cat allergies: this is such good information! I better catalogue this for the future.

Also cats love being warm, so the warm water probably helps. I remember one of my dad's cats having learned this on his own, and he turned into a real maverick. You couldn't leave water in the sink before or after washing the dishes because he would dive right in.

I dont even have a cat.

This can be taken to heart for acclimating anyone to anything scary, honestly. Shoutout to all my friends with anxiety disorders.

My cat is frightened of water whenever it's bath time and this 8-minute video has given me a clear understanding about her behavior. Thank you so much! I know now what to do

Here's the non-recommended one-step method: Just about the same time that this video came out, my 14-year-old purebred silver tabby visited my back yard for her very first visit to the outdoors. She walked directly to the edge of the pool and fell straight in. Less than 60 seconds had elapsed. I had been watching her closely from a distance and dashed over, since I was sure she didn't know how to find the shallow end and exit. She was about three feet out to sea. She saw me and paddled over to me, no fuss, no panic, no noise. I lifted her out, and dripping wet she calmly walked directly back in the house and has since shown no interest in going outside.

This is how we trained our kittens, except for the last step - we bath them in a plastic wash basin. It's not deep, they know they can easily get in and out, and we put a towel at the bottom, so it's not slippery. The toys are only used during the bath, and they also get a different treat after the bath. The result is they actually enjoy their bath. It's also important to realize, cats don't usually need to be bathed. But sometimes it's inevitable. For example, my cat once jumped into a pot of meatballs in chilli tomato sauce. >.> When something like that happens, it's usually an unpleasant and stressful experience for your cat. If that's the first time ever you bath it, it will associate the bath with the bad experience. And you don't want that. So train your kittens BEFORE such an experience, so they see bath as something pleasant that helps, not that makes the trauma worse.

My cat loves playing with streams of water. So when I had to shower him (he had some skin problems so i had a special shampoo from the vet) I used a syringe as as water gun to distract him. I would let him chase water streams in the bathtub before and after showering. He didn't love being showered, but he knew that there was at least some fun involved, so there was no scratching or biting.

I was house sitting this kitten and he would just get into the shower with you and I was taking a bath one night and homie just JUMPED IN no problem , no fear , he loves water

I usually have kittens and I introduce them to early bathing so they aren't completely terrified. I usually have some treats or toys or other stuff I do to help reinforce that a bath is good. This looks better than what I do. I had a cat that would purr for the first half of his shower so I guess my training isn't the worst.

I was actually watching this video with my cat beside me and he raised his paw like he was pawing at the water too! LOL I'm definitely going to try this!

he starts at 1:32 observational learning 2:43 wet paws 3:30 fish bowl 5:27 bathtub

This dude sounds so calming, no wonder the cats feel calm af lol

Ironically, I’ve been doing this with my two boys without even realising it! The only step I didn’t do was the toys in the water. 😹 though it really started with one of them deciding he wanted to drink from the bath tap. XD he now likes to sit in the water itself while drinking and regularly goes paddling!

So cool! I'm wondering how these techniques would work on an older cat. My cat is 14 and hates water, but he does sometimes jump into the bathtub for fun.

POV: You saw a cute cat in the thumbnail and clicked even though you don't have a cat.

The amount of love and dedication in this video is just incredible. This is how innocent creatures should be treated with gentleness and respect. Thank you for creating a safe and loving place for your fur babies ❤️❤️❤️

"Cats don't like surprises and they don't like being forced", that describes me, too 😆😆😆