Frozen Water Bowls

The community cats that I have cared for over the past 4 years live in a wooded area. A recent cold snap in the single digits left all

water bowls frozen. There is no access to electrical outlets where I feed. Any ideas and or suggestions are appreciated. Also a little

water is added to their wet food daily. I have refrained from doing that with the freezing temps. Good idea or not? Thanks in advance

for your input.

Gerard

Shallow bowls in a protected sunny location may thaw in the middle of the day, but mostly you just have to keep hauling in fresh food & water daily.  In the wild, they lick snow and the drips from icicles.

Old cattlemens trick...   I take an ATV tire, fill it with rocks or gravel,

put like-sized water bowl in middle, place in sun - works OK if no power.

But now even that is not enough, its regularly hitting 0 here now, rare for S.Jersey.

Takes longer now & the water is never frozen solid. Also black bowl is best, to attract sun.

I spoke too soon, it still froze solid a couple nights, may have been days w/o much sun?

Anyway since that contraption got stolen i made one out of a styro cooler that is good down to about 25 degrees.

When it freezes it's just a thin layer that the cats seem to punch through, cause in the morning when I take it apart to clean it

I find a couple separate sheets of broken ice in the box at different levels with liquid between them. Pictures of it are in the

Thread: What do you do for stray cats during the winter?     In the     Caring for stray & feral cat section.