More Efficient Way to Heat Food

I've been feeding mostly wet, and the problem of course is that you have to refrigerate (especially so since I'm using 12oz cans).

I am trying to find a cheap way to reheat the food.

I know not to use a microwave since it destroys the taurine, and so have been using a piece of seran wrap over the plate and run hot water over it.

Seems wasteful though to discard that much plastic and have the water running until it gets hot multiple times a day.

Al Gore's book on global warming wasn't helpful in this scenario. Ideas?

What about placing the next serving in a bowl with foil( it is easy to recycle) and leave on counter( obviously if your house is at 65 in the winter it will take longer than 75 in the summer.. I have used this or a variation for decades

the other way is room temp water mixed in

I didn't know that the microwave kills the taurine. Is it okay to microwave it if the wet food isn't their only source of food throughout the day? Meaning since they still get plenty of dry food for taurine, is it okay to microwave it? I only microwave it b/c our pantry is really cold (they all split one can so no need to refrigerate...walter 1/2, thomas 1/4, nora 1/4) and they seem to eat it better (especially Nora) if it is slightly warmed for them.

We do a water bath with ours. We have some of those disposable Glad or Ziploc type square containers that are 1" or so deep. We fill them with about 1/4" or so of water and heat in the microwave for about 2 mins. Then, we set the bowls (metal) in the water and let the food heat while we mix it up. We add a couple of teaspoons of cold water to the food anyway to make it more like oatmeal consistency and this also prevents the food from being too hot. We usually leave the bowls in the water for about 2 minutes. Takes the chill off and the kitties love it! The trick is finding a microwave safe bowl or container big enough to stick your cat food bowl in.

I heat up a little bit of water in the microwave, then stir the cold food into the heated water.

Don't use a microwave! It can over heat the food and cause burns.

Put the food into a bowl and put the bowl into some hot water and let it warm up naturally. This way you have control over how hot the food gets.

I do a water bath. Since I mostly use the 3oz cans, they leftovers are never more than 1 serving and so I do not need to divide up the leftovers. I got some good lids for the 3 oz cans from petsmart and I drop the covered can of food from the refridgerator in a bowl of water that I heat in the microwave and the food's ready in about 5 mins or so.

Run hot water over dish, leave small amount of hot water in dish, put food in dish, mix with hot water, place in another dish containing hot water and let sit for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. I heat all canned food this way, whether it has been refrigerated or not.

I use two methods: one is to put the food into a gas oven, as close to the pilot light as possible. Warms it up nicely after a while. I use this method for the stray/feral cat colony I'm feeding.
For a quicker heating method, I microwave a small amount of water in a measuring type of cup (though can be any kind of cup as long as it is fairly wide) and then put the leftovers (in the can) into the measuring cup. Works well.

Originally Posted by Natalie_ca

Don't use a microwave! It can over heat the food and cause burns.

Click to expand...

Their food is mashed up and mixed thoroughly with water after it is heated up, so there are no hot spots left to burn them. Plus, I only heat them for 8-10 seconds. Just like with a baby bottle, as long as you shake it and mix it really well, there is nothing wrong with microwaving a bottle.