Funny Cats Compilation
Channel: crazyPETS
Date: 30/03/2014

Funny Cats Compilation || 
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How Frequently Should I Expect My Cat to Urinate?

The frequency of urination in cats does vary depending on many factors, but it can be a useful tool in assessing how healthy they are. Of course, this is only applicable to cats who are totally confined inside or to one cat households, for obvious reasons.

Wild cats don't need to drink often because they obtain virtually all their liquid needs from their prey. You can see why this is the case when you realise that blood makes up a large part of any complex animal.

Wild cats generally don't migrate as their prey do, so need to adapt to the local conditions. This adaptation serves them well as many cats originate in climatically hostile parts of the world - semi-deserts, areas where seasonal drought is common and areas that may be far from a permanent water source, etc.

Wild cats, as with all predators, don't have a successful hunt every time. It can be as low as 1 in 20, depending on the skill of the cat and the abundance or lack of prey.

Wild male cats who are sexually active, don't always urinate simply to unload their bladder. Urine is used as a scent, marking their territory to keep other sexually mature males out. Doubtless, there are other reasons too, yet unknown to us.

All this information is relevant to your domestic cat, as none are far from their wild origins. So how does this translate into using the frequency of urination in your cat as a guide to their health?

To add to the complexity of this question, there are more aspects of your cat's life that need to be considered before coming to any conclusion. And the two main aspects are the diet and the confinement.

Let's deal with each aspect in more detail.

If a wild cat doesn't drink much, instead relying on the liquid content of their prey, then it is reasonable to assume that they will only urinate after a successful hunt, or perhaps a successful meal, as spoils can be stolen by other predators.

So when they haven't eaten for a few days, they are unlikely to urinate.

Sexually mature, entire cats (and some that aren't physically entire, but retain the habits of an entire male!) will tend to urinate less, but spray, usually small amounts frequently.

Now comes the unnatural part of the equation; the diet and the confinement.

Confining a cat indoors all the time does have unhealthy consequences on their health, so their natural habits will be altered in some way. Lack of freedom, lack of exercise, lack of direct sunlight, lack of the Earth's energy experienced under their feet, all have impacts on domestic cats to a greater or lesser degree.

What is known is that indoor cats generally don't live as long or as healthy lives as indoor/outdoor or outdoor cats, all things being equal.

Probably none of the above are areas you have control over. However, there is one area that you do and one that impacts most heavily on the frequency of urination as well as the health of any cat. And that is the diet.

Bearing in mind that cats naturally rely on gaining most of their liquid needs from their prey, by feeding a cat dry food, you are creating a real problem.

Although most cats fed dried food do drink more than cats fed wet food, rarely do they drink enough. It is not in their nature. This means virtually all cats fed dry food will be dehydrated to some extent.

Dehydration is a serious problem as an acute condition, but far more serious when it is allowed to continue year after year. This is rarely considered when a cat is presented with a chronic illness at a veterinary clinic, because veterinarians have not been trained to consider this vitally important aspect of feline health. But it can be the cause, or one of the main causes, of the poor health.

A dehydrated cat will not urinate very often. This means they will not flush their renal system out often enough to stay healthy.

To get back to the original question of the frequency a cat urinates, it depends! But in my experience, a healthy cat, with a healthy appetite, fed a natural species-specific diet, who does not need to mark their territory, will usually have one large or two small urinations a day.

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