Been many many moons since my boys were small but I remember this one. When they suck on the bottle it still creates a backwash of saliva into the bottle. Its not necessarily bad but the saliva starts breaking it down even while refridgerated. Back in the day I used to feed them right out of the baby food jars. Same principle. Saliva would get transfered from the spoon into the food. Go to get it the next day and what used to be sort of thick was now thin and runny....it was breaking down. jackie

Thanks for the advice Greg :) I did pick up a soil moisture meter. After doing some more reading up about the drip lines, and finding one resource saying to "think more in hours rather than minutes", I had set the system to run for 45 min. three times a week. It's only run once since I set it, and that was on Wed. I used the meter in the soil both this morning and just a few minutes ago, and it was reading wet. So looks like I need to back it off some. I'll not run it at all tomorrow as scheduled (unless the meter reads dry, which I highly doubt it will since it's reading so wet), and also change it so when it runs next it's only on for 30 min. I may need to change the days I'm watering now that I got it too wet already. So I'll keep checking with the meter and adjust as needed. It'll take a bit to get the timing down so I've got the soil keeping just moist fairly steadily (adjusting as the weather gets hotter), but for now it is good to know that the water is getting down deep. I like the drip method rather than the soaker hose, as the water is going directly to each plant and not to other areas (and definitely don't want to encourage weeds to grow - they don't need any help!). Marj

My personal experience says that how much a cat drinks is a very individual thing (dogs too). My male cat is one who will beg to have the faucet turned on to a drip, and he'll drink until he gets water logged and barfs. He'll also "swim" in a fresh bowl of water, and again drink until he's sloshing and throwing up water. He has done this since he was a little kitten and it doesn't indicate any problems. IMO, as long as your cat has been thoroughly checked over by a vet, what you really worry about is *a change in behavior*. A few weeks back, my boy cat was suddenly not drinking to excess and playing in the water as he's done all his life (he's 14 now)- that was a serious change in habit, so off to the vet we went and he was sick with elevated kidney values. He's since gotten better and had a good blood panel, so we are not sure what was going on with him- not ruling out kidney problems, but he is back to his original habits and health. My girl cat never drank much water- at least not like he does. When she started drinking much more water suddenly, and drinking it from weird places- like licking all the water from the shower floor after someone had bathed- that was again a change of habit. She does have kidney disease and the change of increased drinking was a clear sign of that. My late dog could drain a large water bowl in one sitting. She drank a lot and peed a lot, and it was never a health issue- at least not one that was ever found over the course of 14 years.

Posted by aptosca: "If I drink too much liquids it makes me nauseous. I told that to the Urologist and he looked at me strangely like I was crazy. " You can DIE from drinking too much water. It has happened to people. Too much water throws the electrolyte balance off. Posted by loggerbaby: "i read somewhere you can literally drown yourself by drinking too much water." No. No, you cannot "drown" by drinking too much water. There is no way to consume so much water that your lungs fill up with water. The body does not work that way. If someone dies because their lungs are filled with fluid, it is solely due to a bacterial infection of the lungs, like pneumonia or some other malady - not because they drank a lot of water. ----------- Drinking more water than your body needs won't make your hair shiny like so many people think. Nor will it make your skin look young and your nails grow faster. It won't help you lose weight or get smarter. One should listen to their body's cues. Drink water when you are thirsty. Drink water shortly before any strenuous activity like swimming or Yoga where you know you will be sweating to keep the body cool. That water needs to be replaced. Drinking water that has caffeine added to it (iced tea/coffee) in an attempt to rehydrate, sort of defeats the purpose. Caffeine is a diuretic and causes the body to rid itself of the water and actually can cause dehydration no matter how many gallons of ice tea are drank. This is the same reason that a person can die of thirst on a life raft in the middle of the ocean. People scratch their heads and wonder in amazement how someone could die of thirst in the middle of the ocean. >>Its because the ocean is salty.I can't tell you how many times I've seen people dump salt on their food because in their mind, they think that since the salt causes them to drink more water, that they are "doing the body good". ------------ A guy in my neighborhood died from drinking too much water. Here is a fairly recent news story about the woman who drank too much water in a contest and died immediately afterward. The radio station got sued because the station KNEW that the stunt was dangerous. A woman who identified herself as a nurse called in live, on the show and said the contest should stop because someone could die. The DJ laughed and hung up on her. Woman dies from drinking too much water. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16614865/ Here is a link that might be useful: Wii contest