You will know where to put the water, how often to renew it, what a fountain actually brings, and why an animal drinking more is not good news.
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The water bowl is the one object in the house we refill without ever thinking about it. It is also the one that says the most about an animal's health.
An animal drinks when the water is on its way. If the only bowl sits in a room it rarely crosses, or behind a door that is sometimes shut, it drinks less and nothing shows.
Several water points in different rooms cost two bowls and solve the problem without measuring anything. That matters most for cats, which drink little and in small sips, and in homes with stairs an older animal climbs less willingly.
With cats, a water bowl pressed against the food dish is often snubbed. Being near a litter tray is snubbed harder still, and that one takes no exceptions at home.
Moving the bowl a few metres away costs nothing and can be tested in a day. If intake changes, the question was geography, not taste.
Adding water over yesterday's leaves a slippery layer on the sides, the film you feel under your fingers. It builds quickly, faster in warm weather, and it carries a taste we do not pick up.
The right move is the washing-up move: empty, scrub, rinse, refill. Kibble crumbs carried back by the mouth and dust off the floor end up in there too, and they do not leave on their own.
It genuinely suits some cats, drawn to moving water, and animals you are trying to get to drink more. In those cases it can change something you can see.
It is not free of drawbacks: it makes noise, it needs regular cleaning and filter changes, and a neglected fountain is less clean than a bowl rinsed daily. Some cats avoid it altogether. An animal already drinking normally from a bowl gains nothing from one, and the money sits better elsewhere.
An animal fed on wet food takes in much of its water with the meal. The same animal moved onto dry food now has to fetch it from the bowl, and the difference shows in what disappears from the dish.
That is why a change of food shifts water intake with nothing wrong going on. Knowing it avoids two opposite mistakes: worrying about an expected rise, or too quickly excusing a rise that has no explanation.
Thirst that clearly increases and keeps up comes with situations best caught early: kidney disease, diabetes, the effect of a treatment, among others. It usually comes with more urine, which shows in the litter tray or on walks.
The most useful thing to do at home is simple: fill the bowl with the same container every time, note how many times it is refilled in a day, and keep that note with its date. Handed to a vet, that record beats the impression that it seems to be drinking a lot lately.