Best Cat Fountains for 2021
What does ‘Best’ mean as in, the best cat fountain or the best pet fountain? According to Merrium-Webster ‘Best’ means “excelling all others”.
Given that definition its pretty remarkable how many cat fountain sellers proclaim that theirs is the best, or “here are the 8 best” or “the 25 best.” When you look at those fountains they are calling the best you find what are unarguably some of the worst cat fountains on the market and those praising these dubious fountains are making a profit from the sales of them.
Best Cat Fountain?
So, what does “best” mean to them? Does it mean the cheapest? Then yes, the Catit flower fountain is probably at least one of the best. It is 100% plastic, will scratch and harbor bacteria which causes chin acne in cats It is cheaply made and does not last but it is inexpensive. There are a number of other brands for which this also applies.
Long Lasting
Does long lasting matter? It should. After all, what is the point of buying a cheap fountain if you have to replace it a few months later? And yet many of the cat fountains called the best are not long lasting, as so many of the reviews on Amazon state.
Food Safe
What about food safe? You’d think that would be near the top of anyone’s list but given that the great majority of cat fountains being called the best are mostly if not all of plastic, that to us would disqualify them of having the word, best, anywhere near a description of these fountains. Why? Because most plastic contains the carcinogen, BPA and, as mentioned above, plastic scratches and in those scratches bacteria thrive which cause a variety of ailments, chin acne, a hideous and painful disease being chief among them.
Cleaning
Many of those so called ‘best’ fountains also have many corners, nooks and crevices, which make them hard to clean and again, if not cleaned thoroughly bacteria will grow, requiring bleach, and if you don’t get the bleach odor completely out your cats won’t go near it.
Maintenance of The Best Cat Fountain
Is Easiest/least expensive to maintain Important? It turns out that many (most) of the cheaper brands of cat fountains end up costing a great deal more over several years in filter replacements and since price very definitely affects desirability of a fountain, we include it as important. That nice low upfront cost escalates to a consider sum after a few years. Just read how often the maker recommends replacing the fountain filters and how much they cost and do the math. Cheap fountains, it turns out, are expensive.
Aesthetics
Does beauty matter? Probably many purchasers and would be purchasers of cat fountains are not aware that beautiful cat fountains are available, but they are, from at last two sources. Cattaps offers some gorgeous cat fountains which are made by creatively re-purposing existing ceramics. Prices range from the high $200’s to the high $300’s. ThirstyCat Fountains also offers beautiful ceramic cat fountains which are each individually handmade in their studio in Cambridge, New York and which range in price from the mid $100’s to the low $200’s. The fountains from both these shops should last a lifetime (although replacment of components for the Cattaps fountains if probably not possible), they both are food-safe and easy to clean. We offer beautiful then, as an important attribute for cat fountains, especially as these products enter your home and contribute (or not) to the overall aesthetics of it. (Cat fountains should not be near your cats food dishes so where you place them matters.)
Conclusion
So to summarize, the most desirable cat fountains will be food safe, easy to clean, long lasting, relatively inexpensive over time and be beautiful. These will be the ‘best cat fountains’ you can buy. Do a Google search though, for cat fountains, and you will find the modifier ‘best’ used at least eight times on the first page of results. Click those links and you will find a plethora of unattractive, plastic, hard to clean, not food safe, not durable cat fountains most of which require frequent filter replacement. The selling price is low for most but the long term cost will not be. Clearly, what those businesses mean by best and what we consider the best are not even closely related.