cold water outside heated pails? - Page 2

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Our winters are pretty cold here in Maine and keeping the kennels watered has always been a concern.

We have gone the heated buckets route and the dogs always played with them. To stop them from doing so, we had to rig them and that made cleaning them a real pain in the wazoo.

I gave up on them and was lucky enough to have a trusted neighbor come in mid day to water the kennels.

I have a friend who dug a hole in the ground, put in a 5 gal bucket surrounded with stray and put wood on top to keep out dirt. Worked good for him but hard to clean the buckets out.

I read somewere of a person building two wooded boxes, 1 larger then the other. the inside one just big enough to hold a 5 qt bucket. insulated the two boxes with straw (sides and bottom) and then put an insulated top on it. with a hole in the top the size of a 1qt bowl for them to access the water. He claimed it worked well and I have always wanted to try it.

In the winter months I boil up water with some goodies in it (canned fish, left over meats or veggies ect) and add it to their food. It gives them a warm meal and also more water.

If I couldnt be home to water them, I would try the solar buckets but build a wooden box around it so they couldnt play with it.

good luck with what ever you do.