Ideas needed on how to heat a coop

[carolinasculpture]

Hi! When we lived in Vermont, we would *occasionally* hang a ceramic heat bulb over the hens. Puts off no light, just heat. Maybe you could make a little corner with one of these for a "heated house" for the cat. We also fostered a tortoise in the south and when it would be too chilly there for the tortoise, we would put one of these heat bulbs on a thermostat in a dog kennel. Worked great! Good luck!

 

[patandchickens]

Doh!

Somehow I stupidly missed in your original post that this was a question about THE BARN CAT

Around here, the usual solution to "keeping the barn cat from freezing solid" is to provide him with a small insulated fluffily-bedded area to get into, possibly also with a heating device of some sort (since it is a small area and insulated, you can get a lot of heat out of just a regular lightbulb, which is safer -- but still needs to be *set up* very safely of course)

And make sure they have plenty of food (forcing them to rely on what they can catch tends to result in a high turnover in barn cats), and liquid water.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[WoodlandWoman]

A little insulated cat house, that can retain some of the cat's body heat, helps a lot. I've seen some lined with the styrofoam insulation. Unlike chickens, cats don't usually eat it. At least. my neighbor's cats didn't eat theirs. Even just plywood helps. Add some bedding and you're all set. It's being exposed that's so hard on them. If they have a cozy retreat, they can always go curl up in there during the day for a bit, too. Good food keeps them fueled, too. It's like having a really good dog house for a dog. I wouldn't go too large or have an oversize door, just to help with the heat retention.

 

[KimberlyJ]

We provided barn cats with cozy houses that were really warm, but they refused to use them, they prefered to just curl up in the hay. An outside animal tends to grow lots of extra hair to withstand the cold, so adding heat makes them too warm. I think a cozy place out of the elements would work, except on exceptionally cold nights, and then I'd be tempted to bring "everyone" into the basement, but that's just me.

 

[secuono]

You will need heat for the water, but older juvies and adults shouldn't need extra heat. For winter in my barn, I had a 75watt bulb between and over my two 1gal waterers just so they don't freeze. Didn't try heating the coop, they snuggled together if they were cold, but none had a hard time.

 

[AllAlaskan]

I get temps that are as cold as -40f (only hit -30 this winter though) and my birds all made it just fine with the exception of two. Of which one who died of old age I believe (died when it was warm out so cold wasnt an issue and the other was a goose and im not sure what happened). The rest made it just fine through the winter. All I used for Heat was a single 100 watt Red heat lamp in the cold months and a single florescent white light or white light in the dark hours since we only get roughly 6 hours of daylight in the darkest months of winter.

As far as water, I just used a heated Dog dish and fill it every day which is enough for them.