Since vet stated that it might be better for them to prevent dehydration I bought a cat fountain for my girls (Catit Flower Fontain). However they seem obsessed with deconstructing it into basic parts (remove lid by tooth etc.) which, well, makes it no longer work.
I tried to weight the lid down by putting a few stones on it (that I cleaned beforehand) but now they are managing to tilt the lid anyway to stop it from working. I thought about duct tape but I don't know if it won't be toxic.
Try a different fountain.
You might like the look of that specific fountain, but it's made of lightweight plastic pieces that are assembled in a way that allows them to be easily moved by a pet (a lightweight plastic lid seated on top of the reservoir).
There are a number of different styles of fountain available, in plastic, metal, or ceramic. If you're determined to stick with a plastic fountain, look at how the pieces are assembled and try thinking like a cat--how can you push, pull, or knock this object apart? If you can't find a reasonable way, try that fountain, otherwise, keep looking around. If you decide to try a different material, you may have an easier task. Cats generally don't care to bite down on metal, and the ceramic ones are frequently too heavy for them to easily move around. They're also both easier to keep clean.
Once you find a fountain that they won't disassemble, consider how they're going to drink from it. Think about how your cats prefer to drink (do they prefer the bowl, a stream coming from the sink, or something else?) and how the fountain matches that desire of theirs. When you've found a match, make it available, but keep their still water available as well in case they still don't care for it. Some cats just don't like fountains, regardless of what cats generally seem to prefer.
Keep in mind that the aesthetics of the fountain should be the final consideration, below keeping it in one piece and making it appealing to the cats.
I used a small hand drill & some craft wire to hold it down. Doesn’t touch the water & kitty can’t rip it apart.
To stop our kitty from tipping the base, we used double-stick tape and secured the base to a 12x12 ceramic tile. We also prevented pulling out the stainless steel tray by using small pieces of duct-tape in four places (along edge and down side)
Attaching the base to the tile makes it awkward to clean, but do-able. The tray can’t be moved, so we don’t have to deal with the wet filter being removed and dragged across the room. The only thing we can’t prevent is her taking out the flower.
We have two of these fountains, and while these preventative measures make the cleaning inconvenient for us, we will continue to use them until they stop working or until we grow tired of doing this. A different fountain will be in our future, I’m sure.
I have had this problem with my CatIt water fountain. The best way I found to keep it together was some good old fashion DUCK-TAPE. Might not be the prettiest, unless you have pretty duck tape, but it sure works.
