I am also going to cover the decking boards with styrofoam insulation and then cover it with rugs hoping to keep the cold air out from underneath.
This year too we are going to cover the porch with those clear plastic panels hoping when the sun is shinning it will warm the porch during the day. This worked really well and they were as snug as a bug in a rug. It helps generate heat from the cats body. Then I bought me some batting the kind you use to make Hotpads and placed on the inside. So, this past winter I took 2 styrofoam coolers taped the lids, turned them up upside down so the lid was on the bottom and cut out a small opening. It caused my electric bill go up and I had to think of something else to keep them warm that would raising my electric.
In 2010 I decided not this year, so I put a heat lamp over the table outside on the porch and they huddled under that. We moved to WV in 09 and it was a bad winter, so I let 13 cats stay in the house that winter. I have about 7 outside cats now and have tried different things to keep them warm during the winter. Here's my dealings with keeping cats warm during the winter. You might ask at your local shelter about that, they'll probably be happy at your efforts to help keep the population down.
#Weathercat twitter free
Thanks to everyone who helps these poor cats stay warm and fed! Also, I volunteer at a pet shelter and we have a spay/neuter program for strays, you (or we) trap them and it's free to get them spayed/neutered, and then they get released back to where they were trapped. I also place old pillows under some heating pads (I have 4 heating pads now) and some also up in the loft where the cats love to lounge around, I think they feel safe up there as they're away from me when I walk into the garage.
#Weathercat twitter how to
Also, last winter I puzzled over how to keep the canned food and water I leave out every day from freezing (I also leave out dry food), this year I got one of those heated dog bowls, which are huge, and I set two small bowls inside it, one with water and one with canned food, and it works great, neither the food nor the water has ever frozen. I turned them on in October and haven't had to touch them, they just stay on. But I found it to be worth it when I saw how the cats loved them, and I am using them for a second year now. It costs me about 20 cents a month for electricity for each one, but you do need to buy the kind of heating pads that stay on all the time, 24/7, they cost about $30 each at Walmart. I put a heating pad set on lowest setting and covered with a towel inside each cat bed, the cats love them. Here's an idea that might work for some folks: I keep cat beds in my detached garage (I keep my 22 year old car in my driveway so the garage is just for the cats, I keep both garage doors slightly open for them). Note: The storage container cat houses are re-used each year. About the only time they wanted to come out on those days were to eat and then they went back into to the houses to sleep. The inner storage houses had old clothes/blankets, etc, so even on the coldest of days (near –20F) the cats were warm and cozy. The photo above shows the deterioration on the right side where kittens used it for climbing to the roof – all of the cats like using the roof to lay in the Sun or play, especially the kittens. The ‘condo’ has ledges on each level for eating & sleeping and extended sides for protection from rain and snow. The fronts are open so that the storage container “houses” can be removed for cleaning. The outer walls of the condo are created from one 4 x 8 sheet 1½ ” extruded Styrofoam insulation. The ‘cat condo’ consists of two 18 gallon storage container “houses” measuring 18”W x 25”L x 14”H. The shelters last throughout the winter months and I get rid of them each Spring at the end of the rainy season, about the time when many of the cats start wandering off. During the winter months the weather can be wet and cold (with a fair amount of snow), so about seven years ago my wife asked me to create shelters for the feral cats. Our neighborhood seems to have more than our share of homeless cats and my wife tends to feed all that show up. This tutorial will show how to make an Outdoor Cold Weather 'Cat Condo'.
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