K&H Pet Products Heated Amazin' Kitty Pad

My cats love these. They are warming pads that mimic cats sleeping in a nice warm pile or on a lap. They aren't like people heating pads that get HOT on top. There's a small part that gets warm and goes inside the bigger pad. When the cat lays on it, they retain the warmth it's producing. I know they like the warmth and not just the bed because when one accidentally got unplugged, they wouldn't lay on it anymore. My cats still prefer the big indoor/outdoor pad that is twice as big and gets slightly warmer but the smaller size and lower cost means they can have multiple warm spots around the house. I wish the cover was more durable. It doesnt seem like it will hold up to repeated washing.

Using this heater pad for our outdoor cats whom we adopted from the many stray cats in our neighborhood. They live on our back porch and are getting used to being g care for. They won't get in their lovely wood cat house on our porch yet so we have this heater on the top of the house which they are now sleeping on. We hope to eventually get them to go in their house especially when colder wet weather comes to our area.

tl;dr: The kitty we bought it for loves it. I agree with the other reviews regarding the small heating pad, it's small when compared to the pouch (outer pad), but I think it's effective. I put it in the middle of the pouch. Not a super soft surface, but kitty it's approved (not for me and kitty likes it). Our kitty is 20.5 years old with kidney failure and at about half his prime-years weight, so, pretty bony. He's happy, cooperates with daily IV fluids, and loves a good lap and gentle petting. When there's no lap available, he's been sleeping on basically a piece of plastic lately (winter) and I figured it was because it was keeping his body heat with him instead of losing it to the ground. He doesn't like to be in the primo kitty-spaces anymore because his kitty housemates have taken them over as he has grown older and is no longer interested in asserting his well-deserved dominance over those spaces (he only needed to give a look, no hissing or claws because they all know he can be fierce if needed, so it was never needed with housemates). I thought I'd get him a heated bed to help during the winter and allow him to have a warm comfortable space to sleep. Usually, when we identify a problem he doesn't know he has, we ruin it. He jumps up 6+ feet to look out the clerestory window, so we build a cat stairway so he can easily get down without stressing his bones (on hard surfaces). But, instead of using the stairs, he just never goes up again. And so on, our human help constantly ruining his kitty domination plans. But this change? He loved it! He sat on his plastic for a bit with the heated pad right next to him, but then decided to give it a try and has not looked back (well, not much, sometimes he sits on his piece of plastic and thinks about the old days when he had to walk to and from mouse-hunting school, uphill both ways!). Sometimes he prefers the heated pad to our laps, I guess it's nice to just be on a flat surface without people's fingers in his lovely, soft, long fur, softening his thoughts on world domination. Regarding the heating pad, yes, as others have said and I thought about before ordering, it's much smaller than the pouch it's meant to be in. I'm not sure if this is a practical consideration by K&H or a purely financial one. Kitty doesn't care. I put it in the middle and he sits in the middle. Sometimes he's a bit off to the side, so maybe, even though it doesn't get "human heating pad" hot (as it shouldn't), it might still be a bit warm for his boney self, or maybe he's just liking the edge. Who knows, but the point is, that small heater in the large pouch is enough for him to choose it over a lap sometimes. I personally don't think the surface is soft or something I'd like to lounge on, but kitty disagrees. I haven't washed it yet, but the heating pad is super easy to remove (big zipper pouch), and given the material (synthetics) I don't expect problems throwing it in my washer and dryer. So far none of his housemates wants that odd high-traffic location to rest, so it's his alone. I will help him keep it as his if necessary. (I bought another plus a couple non-heated kitty lounge pads)