heated water bowls

ant · Post by **ant** » Tue Dec 17, 2002 12:04 am

with winter here ice in the water bowls is a problem.
how do you guys deal with frozen water bowls?
i see electric heated bowls are they are they common?

i asked one guy ; he uses small stainless steel bowls and dumps the ice out in the morning and fills it with fresh water and does the same in the pm.
he found bowls that ice does not stick to and dumps out.if not he would have went to the ''electric heated bowls.
anthony

Vickie · Post by **Vickie** » Tue Dec 17, 2002 9:24 am

I have a 5 gallon heated bucket in one pen and a bowl in the other. I love them both. The dogs do too. I also have one of the stainless steel bowls and if it freezes, the ice doesn't come out of it unless you melt it! It really bent the bottom of the bowl too.

Post by **Bev** » Tue Dec 17, 2002 9:36 am

When it's freezing weather here, we pour warm or tepid water over the dogs' food just before we give it to them. Not a lot - just enough to barely float it. All of the dogs except one will happily eat it like that, taking the water down with the food. Then we just try to make sure they have fresh water morning and evening. Floating their food reassures us that they've gotten at least some water in their systems each day.

I'd love to have the heated bowls, but I'm not really set up very well for it. We have 17 dogs in 14 kennels right now. That's a lot of heated bowls to buy and power to run.

Vickie · Post by **Vickie** » Tue Dec 17, 2002 10:23 am

That would be a lot of heated bowls! I have the two with the dogs, one in the garage with puppies, plus a heat lamp, one outside for the cat and whatever wanders up at night, one for the horses and one for the ponies. That sets my electric meter whirring! I can't imagine 14 of them!

Post by **Bev** » Tue Dec 17, 2002 10:43 am

Vickie, 11 of the 17 hounds are males. We're a high male ratio kennel here and those knotheads do better kenneled alone or with a bitch. Don't like to do that for obvious reasons unless I'm really cramped for space. The 3 kennels that are doubled up on are same gender young hounds that would rather play than fight. One of these days when I hit the lottery I'm gonna buy a small farm where I can have a large "Bitch pen" and several "Dog pens" so I can group them up yet they'll still have their own personal space, so to speak, if they want it. I'll definitely be getting the heated bowls then!

Cooks Hilltop Kennel · Tue Dec 17, 2002 10:50 am

I have ten kennel runs and use 2 or 3 gallon buckets for water with bird bath heaters that I purchase from Lowe's. Theses are thermostatically controlled and work great. About $37 apeice but they last for many winters.

Frank7ptbk · Post by **Frank7ptbk** » Wed Dec 18, 2002 9:52 pm

I got a 1 gallon plastic heated bowl at Wal-Mart for about $18.00 3 years ago and it still works great. I'll never go without one again.