How To Keep Cats Warm Without Electricity?

[tinshopcats]

We're building a shed for our outside cats but we're not able to run electricity to it. Is there a way to keep the shed warm for them without it?

We live in Alabama and our winter temps average between late teens and early 30s.

And we can not use straw to keep them warm because for some reason they all use the bathroom in it instead of using it to keep warm.

 

[Margret]

I'm not sure you can keep the whole shed warm without major expense, starting with some good insulation. However, if you'll settle for keeping the cats warm, you need three things:

1. Some cozy bedding (blankets, cat beds that insulate from the cold floor, stuff like that).
2. The cheapest terry-cloth hand towels you can find. How many depends on how many cats you need to warm.
3. Dry rice, also the cheapest you can get, in fairly large quantities.

Traditionally you would put the rice in a sock and tie a knot at the ankle to keep it in, but in more extreme circumstances such as a cold shed in winter you're better off going with something bigger, which will hold the heat longer.

Fold each towel in half and sew around the open edges, but not quite all the way. Put in enough dry rice so that when you put it down flat you have maybe a depth of 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch, and sew the opening closed. Heat in the microwave - you'll have to determine by trial and error how long you need to heat them for, and it may help to stop midway through the process to move the hot pad (because that's what you're making) around a little bit to mix the rice so it heats more evenly.

When the hot pads are hot, put them in the bedding, making sure that there's enough bedding over each one that the cats won't burn themselves, and enough underneath each hot pad that the cold floor won't be leeching heat from it. A good size hot pad should remain warm for several hours, and when it finally cools down it won't turn into a heat sink the way a hot water bottle does. You may want to sew some kind of removable cover for each hot pad since the pad itself is clearly not washable.

Margret

 

[vyger]

By my standards Those arn't very cold temperatures. The cats grow winter coats, the ones who are used to being outside, and they do a very good job at keeping warm. We have temperatures below zero (It's already hit 7 below) and the cats do just fine. At extreme cold temperatures it is possible that they could get frosted ears. What is the bigger problem is periods of extended cold. When we go for a week or two of zero temps they can have problems from things like frost on their fur that gets crusted, and eventually melts and gets them wet. But as long as they are full size cats they don't have life threatening problems. The same cannot be said of kittens though. Litters born in the late fall outside will almost all die. They can't take the cold when they are small.

 

[1CatOverTheLine]

We're building a shed for our outside cats but we're not able to run electricity to it. Is there a way to keep the shed warm for them without it?

T tinshopcats - There are certainly other ways to heat a shed, but electricity is the simplest. Solar powered space heaters are growing in popularity, and are even sold as complete kits through Amazon, but it's simple enough to put a small solar panel on the shed roof, send the power through a DC converter to a small storage battery, and use it to run something like a Cozy Products safe chicken coop and pet heater, which requires only 200 volts, or a 500 volt oil-filled radiant unit, for larger areas.

If you don't mind the $450.00 cost, you can move up to a portable power station like the Goal Zero Yeti 400 - basically a rechargeable storage battery which can be renewed continuously with solar power, or spot-charged from a wall outlet or from a 12 volt automobile system by simply plugging it into the cigar lighter.
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[tinshopcats]

T tinshopcats - There are certainly other ways to heat a shed, but electricity is the simplest. Solar powered space heaters are growing in popularity, and are even sold as complete kits through Amazon, but it's simple enough to put a small solar panel on the shed roof, send the power through a DC converter to a small storage battery, and use it to run something like a Cozy Products safe chicken coop and pet heater, which requires only 200 volts, or a 500 volt oil-filled radiant unit, for larger areas.

If you don't mind the $450.00 cost, you can move up to a portable power station like the Goal Zero Yeti 400 - basically a rechargeable storage battery which can be renewed continuously with solar power, or spot-charged from a wall outlet or from a 12 volt automobile system by simply plugging it into the cigar lighter.
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I completely forgot about solar. Where we're building the shed will get a decent amount of sun during the day; maybe 8-10 solid hours on a good day. We definitely don't mind the $450 price tag for the Yeti and that thing sounds amazing! Will definitely be checking it out and the Amazon solar kits. Thanks so much!! Om a side note, is there some kind of solar air conditioner for the hot summer months?
Plus the shed will be insulated from top to bottom which should help. We're considering building a bunch of shelves (with rails to prevent roll overs and falls) for them to sleep in and we're thinking about putting rubber mats in all of the shelves as bedding since it'll be easy to clean and we're assuming comfortable for them to sleep on. Does this sound like a good idea or should we go with a different type of bedding? Our cats are bad about using the bathroom on covers and straw. We have no idea why.

 

[1CatOverTheLine]

Om a side note, is there some kind of solar air conditioner for the hot summer months?

Something like an array-driven hybrid solar system, which would air condition a couple of thousand square feet of house for nothing by the up-front cost? Our Friends down under released it to the market early this year - EcoWorld Solar Hybrid Air Conditioner - review:

Solar powered air conditioning is finally here, and it's totally boring

The company website: ecoworld
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[tinshopcats]

Something like an array-driven hybrid solar system, which would air condition a couple of thousand square feet of house for nothing by the up-front cost? Our Friends down under released it to the market early this year - EcoWorld Solar Hybrid Air Conditioner - review:

Solar powered air conditioning is finally here, and it's totally boring

The company website: ecoworld
.

Thank you! I just checcked out the yeti on amazon and it's really something else. If we got it and bought a cozy products heater, would it be able to run the heater 24/7 if we keep the Yeti connected to the solar panel all day?

 

[vyger]

Currently one of the most efficient and cost effective ways to heat a small building is with a propane heater. They use the same bottles as a barbecue and many of the heaters don't require power to work. They are also used for camping to heat tents.