Keeping barn cats' water unfrozen?

[Big_Grey_hunter]

The barn where I board my horse has 3 cats who mostly live in the rafters. They have a little shelf where I feed and water them. They have one of those water bowls with a jug of water flipped into it, so they have water for a couple days if I’m not out that day.

During the winter though, the water freezes in a few hours. Every day I thaw it out while I ride, then partially fill it with warm water. All three cats drink huge amounts of the warm water, sometimes I have to add more. The rest of the day, they don’t have any water At night when everyone’s gone they can drink out of the dog’s buckets, which are usually left out over night.

Is it ok for the cats to go sometimes 12 hours without water? I’m mostly concerned about one of the cats, a fat old ex house cat who can’t hunt or outrun the dogs, so he just spends his time in the rafters sleeping and yelling at everyone. How can I slow down the freezing process for their water? BO doesn’t want heated buckets do to the fire risk.

[GoForAGallop]

Cats get most of their moisture from what they eat: mice, or canned wet food.

That being said, if they mostly rely on dry food, then it’s definitely a good thing for them to have water available 24/7. (And that’s just a good rule in general, for anything, obviously.)

Are you SURE you cannot convince her to let them have a little heated doggie dish? The risk of fire is really low.

Do you have a heated tack room that the water could be in, with a cat-door into the room?

Otherwise you could look into the microwaveable heating pads…if you can find a small enough one that you can stuff under a bowl, the seal between the bowl and the ground might trap the heat enough to keep the water above unfrozen. They make special heating pads/disks for kittens and others that last up to eight hours. If you always ride in the evening, it might be enough to keep it unfrozen overnight.

[ReSomething]

We have a heated dog dish and I can’t imagine the thing being a fire risk. Ours has run out of water more than once and not burned up. Has she ever seen one or is she just having a knee jerk reaction?

[Robin]

We had a couple barn cats and my DH felt sorry for them so
he took some scrap styrofoam blocks which were about 4" thick and fashioned a shelter with sides, roof and floor. Not
much bigger than the group of cats. The door was baffled so no cold air could blow in. The cats quickly decided this was the best place to sleep and with three cats inside it was downright toasty in there. A bowl of water in there would not have frozen overnight.

[PNWjumper]

As long as I have unfrozen horse water troughs I don’t worry about the cats. In fact, I don’t have a water dish for my barn cats…they happily drink out of the horses’ buckets and troughs (all on the ground…no hanging buckets around here). So I guess I wouldn’t worry too much about the barn cats as long as they have access to water (be it cat, dog, or horse buckets) that stays de-iced somewhere nearby.

[trubandloki]

I use one of the heated pet dishes. You can buy them almost anywhere (I saw them at Walmart).

[candyappy]

How cold does it get? You might get by with an insulated 1 gallon pail without having to plug it in. My barn cat drinks out of the calf’s bucket which is heated and at ground level. Making them drink out of a trough worries me in case they fall in.

[LauraKY]

I have a heated bowl.

[ReSomething]

If the heated bucket or bowl is totally out of the question, how about a bucket cozy? http://store.wildangelcozy.com/water-bucket-cozy/ Using that size bucket isn’t the best for cats, but it could work.

[Big_Grey_hunter]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! The biggest problem with the heated bowl is that we’d have to rig up a couple extension cords in order to reach the nearest outlet, which is across the aisle and a good distance down the aisle. The cats don’t drink out of the dog/horse buckets during the day because when the dogs are out, the cats don’t leave the rafters/ceiling of the tack room/feeding shelf. They do use the dog buckets at night, or the rare times no ones around and all the dogs are locked up.

There’s no room for a styrofoam house on their shelf, but I bet I could make a styrofoam cover for their dish, fill it with hot water, then stuff one of those microwavable pads in there. I bet that would keep it from freezing, at least for a while.

Does anyone know how washable the microwavable pads are? Specifically this one. The one cat is an ‘ex’ house cat because he poops and pees everywhere, including on their bed. If they’re washable, I may get them an extra heating pad for their beds too.

[Claddagh]

The ‘Snuggle Safe’ should work perfectly for you. I’ve used them a lot and love them. Really good product!

And yes, they are totally washable. The actual Snuggle Safe is made of heavy plastic (almost like a water bucket), completely washable. The paw print in the picture is just a removable (washable) fleece cover.

Your barn cats will be happy when it’s freezing outside!

[crosscreeksh]

Our cats will drink out of the horse water tubs by choice, but I always keep a water bucket in two of the barns for them…it makes ME feel better!! In the winter I use a large - 1 gallon thermos, that I place in a small pail - like a poltice/ 3 gallon size and last thing each evening I put hot water in the thermos. It rarely freezes hard, but I always keep a hammer close by and DH or I smash the ice frequently. Cats are very resourceful!!

[goodhors]

Maybe the microwave pads are safer, but I just read a very long post on the herbal pillows, rice heating pads and potato covers that have burst into flames during or after being heated in the mircrowave.

Some of these even combusted AFTER they were hung back up and the people left, so it burned the kitchen up!! We had one of those potato bags, which did a nice job of fixing a baked potato, until it caught fire for ME! Scary!! So this post was a big warning to NOT make these kinds of microwave things as gifts for others, on a crafting site.

I am not sure if all of the fire problems are caused by the kind of fabric or the contents being hot. I was surprised to hear about the delayed combustion case, because they fixed the potatoes, got a drink and left kitchen to eat, so fabric was in flames after being fine just hanging during that time.

Just KNOW that microwaving fabrics has cause fires in OTHER situations, so it might be a poor choice in a barn.

The Styrofoam insulated dish sounds good. My friend has had great luck with the Styrofoam bucket holders keeping water unfrozen out in paddocks. Nothing is going to keep it unfrozen for long periods, but maybe another boarder could help you with watering the cats when you can’t make it.

[Plainandtall]

My cats drink from the horse’s water buckets. As long as your horses have water and your cats aren’t infirm - I wouldn’t sweat it.

[Big_Grey_hunter]

goodhors- thanks for the warning! I’ll be sure to get a tested product, not a homemade one.

Plainandtall- The stalls are high walled with mesh in front, so the cats can’t get in the stalls

[Halt_Square]

My cats will not drink out of their own bowls. They prefer the horse buckets.

[Chief2]

If you like DIY crafts, you can try what we did.

We took a shallow pan (a dog’s water pan would work) that is a little smaller in diameter than the bottom of a Strongid C container. Then we cut the bottom of the Strongid C container off so it was one inch above the height of the pan. We place a one inch high disc of styrofoam in the base of the cut down bucket, and lined the sides with thin styrofoam stove pipe insulation (it is pink). Place the water pan into the container, and fill with very warm water. Keep it out of drafty areas, and it will stay warm for hours.

[csaper58]

We use an old Igloo, (6-Pack size) Fill with very hot water, floating on top of the water, a piece of styrofoam with a cat food can size hole to drink thru. cats will drink when water cools. Up-size for dogs.