HOW DO i KEEP FOOD WARM SO THAT IT DOESN'T FREEZE.

MY WATER BOWL WORKS GREAT, BUT I AM NOT HAVING MUCH LUCK KEEPING WET FOOD FROM FREEZING. ANY HELP WOULD BE GREAT.  I BOUGHT A COUPLE MORE HEATED DISHES BUT THEY DONT SEEM TO WORK. SHOULD i JUST FEED DRY FOOD RIGHT NOW

RICHARD

I usually don't have trouble because my outside guys are always waiting for their meals.  The food doesn't have a chance to freeze.  If yours are not on a schedule, perhaps establishing one will help.

Leaving a couple of bowls of dry would certainly help with stragglers but make sure it is taken up at night.  Otherwise, the raccoons and possums will come calling.

If you have electricity at your feeding station, do you think an electric blanket would help?  Just brainstorming here but its worth thinking about.  Of course, the cats might end up sleeping at their food stations.

if this doesn't work, then go with dry

Can you place a hand warmer thing under the bowl??

My cats are waiting at 6am and 6pm. I put the wet on top of the dry and they eat that first.  My only straggler is a very feral male that lives in the woods and he prefers the refrigerated raw food so his is okay to get cold.  I do use a heated water bowl.  I have heard people put their bowls in a cut down Styrofoam cooler with straw around it to insulate from cold for a little longer.  I have not tried that because mine eat their food before it has time to freeze.

Any advice here is what I came back to the site for today.  My ferals are rather stunned this year by this onslaught of cold weather.  They made it thru last year ok but this year has them floored.  I've set up their houses and they have a basement in an empty house with no heat but it's shelter.   But their food is a problem.  The wet freezes almost as soon as I take it outside.  And the dry freezes also and they won't eat it when it does.  And I've noticed it's so cold the other critters are not coming around to steal it either.  And my babies are so spoiled that they don't like to walk in the snow so I have to shovel a path for them from where they come around their house from their basement to the front steps where I feed them and then a path to my apt so the ones that want to eat there can get there.  Otherwise they just sit on the cold ground and look at me.  One of the tougher ones even cries this year.  I got straw in their shelters and blankets on top.  I don't know what more I can do.  There's no electricity at the house where they stay.  I was wondering if there's an inexpensive food bowl that operates with batteries that I can set up for them.  Thanks for any advice.

I bought that double bowl shown above and it works well at 10 - 15 below zero, nothing froze. Last year I bought one of those heated water bowls for 14.99, filled it with water and then found a glass bowl that fit into it just right with the water underneath for 5.00 at Walmart. It kept the food from freezing too, but quit working this year! Good luck!

Thanks.  That looks like it has to be plugged in?  I guess I can plug it in at my house but not all of them are coming over here to eat.  They are too cold to move far.

For short periods of time I have had luck heating the snuggle safe microwave discs and then placing a regular cat food bowl on top.  I also used a pyrex microwave heat pad .  It got very hot, but kept the wet food from freezing for 30-60 minutes when it was in the teens.  Your only other option is to just offer dry until the weather improves.

Could you heat up the wet food and put it in a thermos until you put down the food?
I live 30 minutes from the two very small colonies I take care of and make sure the canned food is under the car heater. If I see the cats waiting for me, I put out the wet food immediately; otherwise, I leave out dry food. Not idea, but the best I can do under the circumstances. One colony has a rubbermaid type shelter they can use; the other does not (or if I put one down, it would be thrown away immediately or stolen).

as misterwhiskers suggested above, you might want to try something like this

HotHands Hand Warmers

Thanks for all the replies.  I'm going with the body warmers for now.  They don't combust do they?  They will be around straw.  I happened to think about that and having used them on myself before, I remember, they only heat up then hold the heat and cool down.  And I don't think they get hot enough to start a fire.  The grocery store had 7 this morning that didn't have medication in them so I bought all of those.  That will either get me thru the cold spell or do until I can get out and get to a box store.  I put the food over hot water last night and that helped as the cats were hungry and it was warmer so they came out to eat.  But this morning they were in hiding for the most part again.  They aren't shy with me but their age is showing this year and they are like me.  We are old and don't move well in this weather.

demut, where did you purchase that electric heated cat bowl? I've not been able to find one small enough for my feral--the ones at Petsmart are all enormous and made for large dogs. Can you tell me the brand name?

MsAimee said:

 
demut, where did you purchase that electric heated cat bowl? I've not been able to find one small enough for my feral--the ones at Petsmart are all enormous and made for large dogs. Can you tell me the brand name?

Click to expand...

I have a 1 qt one I found at Walmart

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Farm-Innovators-Heated-Pet-Bowl-1-Quart-Blue-Dogs-Birds/14660238

I believe they have them in some stores too.

I also found my heated bowls at Walmart. They had smaller sizes and they were a lot cheaper than the ones I found at Pet Stores and Tractor Supply.

MsAimee said:

 
demut, where did you purchase that electric heated cat bowl? I've not been able to find one small enough for my feral--the ones at Petsmart are all enormous and made for large dogs. Can you tell me the brand name?

Click to expand...

i bought it off ebay or Amazon: K&H Thermo-Kitty Café

http://www.khmfg.com/catproducts/outdoor-cat-beds-pads-bowls/k-h-thermo-kitty-cafetm.html

I use a snuggle safe under thin bowl that rests in another bigger bowl that I foam insulate with spray foam and foamed for smaller inside bowl. I used gorilla tape over foam set to keep cats from being exposed to it. The snuggle safe needs microwaved every ten hours but I agree that timed feeding is the most effective strategy when possible.

Sorry to clarify, the foam formed and set to hold snuggle safe and inside bowl....