My MIL has outside cats. When it gets cold like this, she worries about them. They won’t come in to save their little kitty selves. She doesn’t want to use an electric heating pad in their house, but I thought one of those microwaveable heat pads would be ideal for her peace of mind (and their little paws).
Has anyone tried anything like this? How long do they stay warm? I’m thinking if she could get 6 hours or so out of it, it would be worth it.
Anyone? Any alternative ideas? Thanks!
They make low-voltage electric heating pads specifically for cats and other pets. There’s no chance of frying kitty, no matter how much she digs her claws in.
That’s an interesting idea. I found some microwaveable discs at PetSmart. They’re supposed to retain heat for 12 hours. http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT<>prd_id=845524441776038&FOLDER<>folder_id=2534374302025625&ASSORTMENT<>ast_id=2534374302023689&bmUID=1170517607456&itemNo=0&Ntt=heating+pads&In=All&previousText=heating+pads&N=2#detail
Since this is an outside sitch, I’m thinking maybe 6 hours, but we’re going to try those first. If that doesn’t work, I’m going to look at these low voltage ones. Thanks for the info!
Get a two- or three-burner Coleman stove. Put a flat stone over the top. Turn the burners on as low as they will go. Put a flame-retardent pad on top of the stone. A non-electric cat bed!
In some parts of the world, they call that a recipe.
They’re fine, unless she’s living someplace where the weather gets unreasonably cold. Do they have shelter? That’s really all that’s needed.
We had a feral cat who decided we belonged to him. He would not come indoors for other than a brief visit. This was Ottawa in winter. He grew a nice thick coat and loved to play with the snow. His paws never suffered that we could see although I think he lost an ear tip once.
He slept under our deck - he was sleeping on bare earth next to the house and was sheltered all 'round by the deck and the snow. As you may know, snow caves can be warm because they insulate the inhabitants from the cold outside.
I guess I’m a little unclear about how any heating pad can be safe for prolonged use. My mom once fell asleep with her arm on a heating pad turned to low and suffered a nasty burn. Seems the effect of the heat is cumulative or something - kind of the way you can boil water (eventually) over a candle.
At any rate, as long as kitties have shelter and plenty of food (they’ll be burning more calories, I imagine) they can survive and even thrive outdoors. We found the hardest thing was keeping him in water so we’d add warm water to his bowl twice a day.
We’re in the Chicago area. It’s fucking cold these days. She has a little house and also leaves her garage door propped open so they can go in out of the wind. They’ve been doing this for years. The discs are more for MIL and less for the cats. She worries constantly about them, even though they’ve survived worse weather, many, many times. She’s just a worrisome old woman. I’m gonna toss her a bone.
Have you considered something like this? Since it’s warmed by the pet’s own body heat, there’s no risk of burning, and you don’t have to worry about MIL slipping and hurting herself going out to collect and rewarm the disks.
I’ve worked with feral cats for years, and as long as they have a good food supply and a place to get out of the wind they will be fine. Maybe some fairly small cardboard boxes in the garage with some old blankets on top of newpaper inside.
The most important thing is food. Maybe she could try mixing kitten food 50/50 during the winter to give them some extra calories.
I understand about your MIL, though, and it is nice of you to try to make her worry less.
Hmmm…I’ve never seen this one. I wonder how effective it would be in sub-zero temperatures. I’d like to get one for my cats, even though they’re inside.
Again…they’ve been living like this for their entire lives. It’s not so much them as my MIL’s need to feel she’s helping a situation SHE would find untenable. She has to go out to get the mail; the mailbox and the kitty house are both under a little entryway shelter thingy, so she should be ok in that regard. She’s just an old cat lady type who would be freezing her ass off if she had to sleep out there, so she projects it onto the kitties.
The disc thingies are way cool. I nuked one for 5 minutes and it gets really warm. Then the heat tapers off a bit and then holds steady for 5 hours before it drops off completely within 12. I feel like I could use one myself!
Depending on the cat, a cat bed might be a great investment, a waste of money, or a pain in the ass.
Some cats pretty much won’t sleep somewhere that has a lot of cat hair. In some circumstances, and with some cats, I’ve found that means that they will only sleep in a cat bed when the cover is freshly washed. So the only way they’ll use it is if they haven’t used it.
There are other cats, like my Irving, who seem to think that the more cat hair there is, the better!
I’ve been to a couple of websites for people who care for feral cats and in their experience all the cat needs is a insulated dry place and some food and they will be fine- no need for electricity or microwavable stuff. They build shelters out of plastic storage bins with foam insulation and straw on the inside. Here is a sample page with plans and pics:winter shelters for cats
Dang it, I wanted to make this my first edit, but time expired on me. I just wanted to correctly say, “As others have already said, all the cat needs is a dry place and some food.”