why do cats hate water so much?

[SNOWBALL]

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Because they can't swim ldo

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why can't cats be free?

[tame_deuces]

Cats can love water if you start to bathe them and make them used to water when they are very small.

[BigBuffet]

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Cats can love water if you start to bathe them and make them used to water when they are very small.

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Older cats can learn to at least tolerate water. My wife and I adopt adult cats from shelters. I run warm water in the tub with cat bath soap) and then turn the faucet off. The I slowly place the cat in the water.

I believe the sound of the water running is scary to them. And cold water does not feel good.

I would recomend clipping their claws before giving them a bath the first time...

[tame_deuces]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Cats can love water if you start to bathe them and make them used to water when they are very small.

[/ QUOTE ]

Older cats can learn to at least tolerate water. My wife and I adopt adult cats from shelters. I run warm water in the tub with cat bath soap) and then turn the faucet off. The I slowly place the cat in the water.

I believe the sound of the water running is scary to them. And cold water does not feel good.

I would recomend clipping their claws before giving them a bath the first time...

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The clipping claws things is probably a good idea, though I have never done it. I don't think there are curse words invented yet that can catch the meaning of the look you get from a unhappy soaking wet cat looking at his bather.

[CORed]

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Cats can love water if you start to bathe them and make them used to water when they are very small.

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Several years ago, I went swimming at a hot springs pool. There was a resident cat there who was very friendly and outgoing. She would come up to people at the edge of the pool to be petted, and didn't mind at all that you were petting here with a wet hand or that she was standing on the wet pool deck. She would get pretty wet in the process, purring the whole time.

[billygrippo]

some cats enjoy swimming. the bengal cat for example, but they are like small tigers.

[Piers]

Don't they get cold as their fur no longaer acts as insulator?

[uDevil]

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Don't they get cold as their fur no longaer acts as insulator?

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Plausible. Water has much larger thermal conductivity than air (~23x) and transfers heat to the environment as it evaporates, so they lose body heat quickly. This would be more of a problem for small cats (larger surface to volume ratio) than for Bengal tiger sized kitties.

[JammyDodga]

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Does anyone know this? Do their ancestors also hate water? I am assuming it is an evolutionary reason. Maybe it has something to do with lions being so vulnerable to certain water based predators like alligators.

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[ ]House cats are descended from lions
[ ]You get alligators in africa

Fail.

[DVaut1]

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I am assuming it is an evolutionary reason.

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http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1139518

"Further analysis revealed that cats were domesticated in the Near East, probably coincident with agricultural village development in the Fertile Crescent. Domestic cats derive from at least five founders from across this region, whose descendants were transported across the world by human assistance."

So yes, if this study is to be believed, domestic cats are the direct descendants of the African Wildcat, which evolved in arid climates of Africa and the Middle East.

So there might be some kind of evolutionary reason, but I would tend to doubt it. As other's have mentioned, I don't think it's a normative trait of cats that they hate water, and the fact that people think cats hate water is probably due to the way that humans try to bathe their cats (which almost certainly frightens them), like some other posters have said.