Pros: Sturdy, holds plenty of readily available water, easy to use, convenient, inexpensive
Cons: Water gets dirty easy, can get annoying to clean often
The Bottom Line: This is a wonderful product to use if you’re short on time or go away often for short periods of time. However, daily fresh water is still the best.
I used to like to go away for long weekends to visit family and friends. This always left the question of who would take care of my two cats, especially in terms of water. I couldn’t depend on my roommate to do this all the time because that wouldn’t be fair. The majority of my friends are allergic to cats, so they certainly couldn’t help. No, I needed something that would be able to provide my little devils with good automatic supply of drinking water. I needed something that I could that would not spill or knock over easily, empty quickly or cost a fortune.
I remembered seeing something at my local Petsmart that might fit the bill. So, off to Petsmart I went for a little shopping. After a quick look around, I located what I needed in the water and food bowl aisle. Petsmart offered several different automatic waterers but I decided on the Petmate Le Bistro Watering System. It has worked out great and I only paid about $13.99.
The Le Bistro is available in large, medium and small. Having only two cats to care for, I chose the small, which is suggested for small animals. The clear plastic bottle is shaped like a water cooler bottle and holds one gallon of water. One gallon of water could easily last a week with my two cats. The bottle fits snugly into a durable, weighted plastic base. The plastic base also comes in various colours, such as gray, white and dark blue, so you can find something to fit your fancy.
It is very simple to use Le Bistro. The instructions (which are also in French and Spanish) are located on a sticker on the bottom of the plastic base state:
-Remove and fill water bottle.
-Turn bottle over onto base and snap into place.
-Refill with fresh water when needed.
Once the bottle is snapped into the base, the water fills a reservoir at the back of the plastic base and then pours through a small hole into the front bowl. The small hole is located at the bottom of the divide, so it only fills the front as much as gravity allows. The sturdy design makes sure that it is not easily knocked over. Unless you have some rambunctious cats like I do, the spillage will remain at a minimum.
I used to use the Le Bistro Waterer in place of my cats’ regular water bowl. It seemed so easy to just fill the bottle as needed, which was only every few days or so. However, I no longer find that such a wonderful idea. Though Le Bistro states that it is easy to clean, I find it more cumbersome than simply dumping a regular water bowl, rinsing it and refilling it. Leaving the water sitting for a few days creates a film on the plastic that I never found pleasant. It is also easier for the water to get dirty. I was forever finding bits of cat food and hair floating in the bowl. Granted, any other bowl can get just as dirty, but they are at least easier to clean.
To clean the Petmate Le Bistro, you just unsnap the bottle from the base and dump out any remaining water. If you’re cleaning it every few days, that’s generally a lot of water. I cleaned both the front bowl and the base reservoir of the plastic base. Unless you have a bottlebrush with a long handle, it would be very hard to clean the actual bottle. Though since there is only water in the bottle, it isn’t really necessary to clean very often. It doesn’t state anywhere on the Waterer that it is dishwasher safe, so I wouldn’t recommend cleaning it that way.
Overall, the Petmate Le Bistro Watering System does a great job of what it is supposed to do, give a good automatic water supply. This is why I give it a rating of four stars. I always use it when I go away for an extended period of time. This way, I don’t have to worry about my kitties not getting enough water or knocking the bowl over so they don’t have any water. I highly recommend it for those times that you have to be away for a few days, but don’t recommend it be used on a daily basis. I certainly would rather drink fresh, clean water everyday so why should my cats get any less? ;)
Oh, incase you’re wondering what the title means, it simply says – Le Bistro: It’s meow-nificent for my cats!
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