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Is your cat drinking enough water? According to a study published by Royal Canin, cats need to drink or consume around 1.6 ounces of water per 2.2 pounds of body weight. In other words, an 11-pound cat should drink or consume about a cup of water a day.
While we were away, our kitty did not. Happily hydrated now, the price we paid for dehydration was a lot of heartache and a few rounds of testing to rule out early-onset kidney disease. It’s difficult to know what your cat is up to. It’s especially challenging to track their water consumption.
“One strategy to prevent dehydration is using a water source linked to software that can tell you how often your cat visits the water bowl,” offers Dr. Kelly Fishman, DVM, founder of Strut Animal Mobility Specialists and veterinary consultant for MYOS Pet. PETLIBRO says they have just the thing: a cat water fountain that actually tracks how much your cat drinks, sending you updates via an app on your smartphone.
Our two four-year-old cats drank from the PETLIBRO Dockstream Water Fountain for over a month. Here’s how it went.
How Does the PETLIBRO App-Monitoring Cat Fountain Work?
The Dockstream is a plug-in smart water fountain for cats that tracks how much water your cat drinks. It has a small footprint—just 9.1 inches wide by 6.3 inches deep by 7.5 inches tall—but holds an impressive 10 cups of water.
Here are other key features of the PETLIBRO Dockstream App Monitoring Water Fountain:
- Adjustable water flow modes
- Silent flow (23dB)
- Quad-layer filtration system
- Wi-Fi functionality and companion PETLIBRO app
- Water intake tracking
- Water level monitoring
- Maintenance push notification
- Automatic low-water shut off
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- One-year warranty
The Dockstream App Monitoring Water Fountain is available in one color: white with a faux wooden base.
Rover Test Cats Try the Dockstream
No matter their age, it’s important to ensure cats are getting enough water. “Cats are chronically dehydrated; you want to introduce extra moisture any chance you get,” said our veterinary nurse, who was inserting a needle through our cat’s stomach and into her bladder, withdrawing urine she’d surely rather have peed out.
That’s why PetLibro’s Dockstream App Monitoring Water Fountain might be a great solution. Not only does it track cats’ water intake, but it logs their intake against hydration goals—all packaged in a quiet, sleek design.
Setup is smooth—but calibration is required
The Dockstream App Monitoring Water Fountain is a two-part water fountain for cats.
The main component is a wireless ABS plastic water reservoir, which sits on a faux wood and ABS plastic base that connects to a wall plug. A stainless-steel water tray secures to the top of the water reservoir, and a filter, filter lid, and water spout connect to the lid. The pump sits inside the water reservoir.
Cats can lap up water from the tray or drink from the fountain, but their toe beans can’t reach the interior reservoir of water.
Before you fill the reservoir, the PETLIBRO app guides you through a simple step-by-step calibration process.
Note: You will need to use the PETLIBRO app rather than the PETLIBRO Lite app to set up and control the PETLIBRO Dockstream App Monitoring Water Fountain.
The Dockstream app offers an impressive range of data
When most pet parents start looking into cat water fountains, it’s because they want to encourage their cats to drink more clean water. What’s overlooked is that they still have no idea how much water their cat is actually lapping up.
The cat fountain recorded my cats’ daily water intake, which is shockingly low. According to the app, last month they drank an average of 0.10 ounces a day. That sounds concerning, I know.
However, wet cat food is 72-82% moisture. Since our cats eat wet food when we’re home, they consume 2.5-3 ounces of water a day through food alone. Additionally, we add 2-3 ounces of water to their meals. They also have a second cat water fountain upstairs (Dr. Fishman says there should be a water source on each floor or one per cat, plus one).
Still, the Dockstream App Monitoring Water Fountain let us know that our cats are a couple of ounces short. So I set a hydration goal in the app, which lets me know when they don’t meet it so I can add extra water to their diet.
The cat water fountain has two water settings: continuous and intermittent flow. The continuous flow setting keeps the water flowing constantly, while the intermittent flow setting turns the water off for 15 minutes at a time. Happy to conserve energy, I switched on intermittent flow. But rather than leaving a tray full of still water, the fountain drained the tray, leaving our cats without water every 15 minutes.
The Dockstream fountain is surprisingly easy to clean and maintain
Cat water fountains are almost always a pain to clean. There are cords to disconnect, nooks and crannies to scrub, and my socks somehow always get wet. But this one is a cinch.
The base is the only part that plugs in, so there are no cords to disconnect. Just lift the reservoir off. And the simplistic design of the tray and reservoir means there are limited crevices for grime to collect in. The reservoir isn’t dishwasher safe, and the base should never be submerged in water, but the stainless steel tray is dishwasher safe.
To help you stay on top of maintenance, the app sends notifications and reminders. This includes notices for cleaning the fountain, replacing the filter, and refilling the water. The reminders can be customized based on your preferred maintenance schedule; I set our cleaning reminder to every three days. While the water in the drinking tray stays clean thanks to the quad-layer filtration system, I’m surprised at how much gunk makes its way to the tank.
What the Dockstream Can’t Do—Yet
Despite its advantages, the Dockstream App Monitoring Water Fountain lacks a few features that could smooth out the experience. The most significant is personalized programming. This means pet parents must manually calculate their cat’s water needs based on weight and diet. Additionally, the app sends an “abnormal drinking” alert every four hours, which isn’t always accurate.
The brand told me they based “normal” drinking behavior on four PETLIBRO office cats who eat a dry food diet. When customers reported that the notification was inaccurate and/or unnecessary, the brand added an option to turn it off.
However, PETLIBRO told me they’re working on improving the fountain’s features. They say they plan to add personalized programming within the next year. This would likely ask a user questions such as their cat’s age, diet, and weight during setup. They’re also developing an algorithm to distinguish between water loss due to external factors and actual drinking by a cat.
Lastly, the hydration tracking feature doesn’t track individual cats in multi-cat households. So pet parents are left wondering which cat drank what. The brand says they hope to push multi-cat tracking updates in the future.
Recommendation: Single-cat parents can benefit, but multi-cat families may want to wait
We think the PETLIBRO Dockstream App Monitoring Water Fountain is a great choice for single-cat pet parents who want a well-designed cat water fountain that tracks water intake. It’s easy to set up and maintain, and the app makes it simple to see your cat’s water intake.
Since Dr. Fishman says you’ll need more than one fountain if your home has multiple stories, you’ll be glad to know that you can access all your PETLIBRO accessories in one application.
Because the hydration tracking feature doesn’t track individual cats in multi-cat households, the PETLIBRO Monitoring Water Fountain might not be the right investment for pet parents of more than one cat right now. That said, we look forward to future improvements, including personalization features and individual cat tracking.
Who will like the Dockstream:
- Pet parents concerned about their cat’s hydration and looking to accurately make up for deficiencies
- Those looking for a cat fountain that’s easy to clean and maintain
- Cat parents who want to encourage drinking
- Anyone in the market for a quiet, aesthetic fountain
Who may not like the Dockstream:
- Multi-cat families looking to track the hydration levels of individual cats
- Pet parents who need programming personalized to their cat’s specific hydration needs