A few months ago, Sunny suddenly decided she was no longer interested in drinking from her water bowl. Her family was confused because they’ve had her since she was a kitten and nothing else had changed, but Sunny was insistent that water bowls were out, and instead decided she would only drink from the shower faucet.
“She has trained us (yes, that’s right, trained US) to turn on the faucet in the shower,” Jessica Hall, Sunny’s mom, told The Dodo. “She’s very picky on how the water drips so we have to get it just right for her.”
Her parents didn’t want Sunny to be dependent on them whenever she wanted a drink of water, but she consistently refused to drink from her bowl — so they decided to get a little creative.
“I wanted her to have access to water even without us being there so that’s when we got the idea of using the hamster bottle,” Hall said. “We figured it’s similar to drinking from a faucet so maybe she would enjoy it. It was a long shot but definitely worth a try.”
Determined to make Sunny happy, the couple bought the hamster bottle and set it up, then tried to show Sunny how to use it.
“To train Sunny, I would find her waiting for me at the bathtub for her usual water break, lure her to the hamster bottle instead, and squeeze the top of the bottle so that water dripped out,” Hall said. “She would catch the drops like she would in the tub, and eventually I squeezed less so that she would have to lick the nozzle. I kept doing this all day periodically until finally we saw her approach the bottle on her own and drink from it. We were so excited!”
Now, Sunny loves her hamster bottle and drinks from it several times a day. For some reason she loves it so much more than her water bowl — but as long as she’s happy, her parents don’t mind one bit.
Of course, Sunny still tries to drink from the shower whenever her parents are in the bathroom — but that’s because showers are just so much fun!
