Cold Weather Tips for Your Working Cats
Following best practices to care for your working cats can go a long way toward ensuring their comfort and safety outdoors in the coldest months.
Provide extra food and water to help cats stay warm
Cats can benefit from extra food during winter, so increase food portions to help them conserve energy.
Canned or wet food takes the least amount of energy to digest, meaning more energy can be spent on fighting the chill.
Be sure to provide fresh food and water daily or twice daily rather than let leftovers freeze.
Prevent food and water from freezing with these methods:
Serve wet food in plastic containers. Providing mainly dry food, which will not freeze, works for frigid temperatures, too. However, dry food takes more energy to digest.
Warm up canned food and water before serving or use heated electric bowls.
Use bowls that are deep rather than wide and place them in sunny areas to keep water from freezing. Avoid using metal bowls.
Spray insulation foam into the underside of plastic feeding dishes and water bowls to help prevent food and water from freezing as quickly.
Or, you can put a microwavable heating pad, like a Snuggle Safe, under the bowls. You can even make your own homemade heating pad by filling fabric pouches with rice, and heating it in the microwave.
If there’s a water source like a spigot, run the water slightly because it won’t freeze as fast as still water. You can also use a heated water bowl, water fountain or water bowl with a fountain feature.
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