Veterinarian Louisville -Veterinary
When the weather starts getting cold we get a lot of enquiries here in our Louisville veterinarian clinic about heated cat houses. Having a heated cat house is a great idea but there are some things that any cat owner should be aware of before having a heater installed in or connected to a cat house. The first and maybe most important is that not all cathouses can have heaters connected to them. Specifically smaller cat houses or those made of certain types of synthetic material. The problem with a heated cat house is just that, it is heated and if the house is too small it can literally cause your cat to be cooked. Also heating certain types of synthetic materials can cause adverse reactions in the material releasing toxic or harmful substances into the air of the cathouse. Regardless of the building material you still must make sure that the size of the cat house is adequate for the strength of the heating unit. Generally speaking a small cat house should not be heated unless you have a special heater that is made for small pet houses. Large cat houses or cat duplexes should not have any problems with being connected to heaters but always check the manufactures recommendations before doing so. Medium cat houses are tricky because they are usually too small for heaters but not always. When in doubt it is always best to check with the cat house maker before purchasing an expensive heater only to find that you can't use it on your cat house. Some cats are susceptible over heating when there is a heater attached to their house so always be careful. We here in the Louisville veterinarian clinic try to give people the best advice we can based on the information available.