I want to help my kittens thru the winter...

In early spring (late March I believe) I noticed a small family of cats living under part of my back yardâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s deck. A mother and her 3 adorable squirming kittens could be seen plainly. I fed her as often as I could but she would hiss loudly and make it QUITE clear she didnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t want me around (even though she ate the food). I was ok with this.

Tar Pit, Scout, and Trio (the kittens) are now roughly 5 to 6 months old. I feed them Innova Evo and fresh water morning and night as I leave for and come home from work. They are quite friendly and vocal when I am even a half hour late with their vittles!

The problem is that winter is coming in Montreal, Canada and I am worried about these little treasures. If I could bring myself to bring them into the house, I would…but that would make me the caregiver of 4 cats (I have another feral I adopted who lives with me now, my adored Plucky!!)

I could see myself adopting one of them but then the family would be broken up. Or I could send them to a shelter but then they might get put down. Quite torn about what to do here. 

You are doing a good thing by getting ready for winter. Is there room under the deck where they live for something like this http://www.urbancatleague.org/Shelters.html ? There are more similar.

You could put an outdoor safe pet heating pad like this http://cozywinters.com/shop/kh-1070.html in the shelter. Better prices may be found by searching.

Maybe use a heavy tarp to block off part of the deck so that you make a shield from the cold in addition to a warm shelter to use.

Could you put a litter box under there in some way so that they will not have to go out in snow to find a place to do their business?

Do you have an extra bedroom that they could live in for the winter?

It will be very important to get all of them spayed/neutered. The 6 month olds can get pregnant by their brothers.

That's all I can think of at the moment. Others will help out with more experience in cold climates. Winters are mild here. Good luck.

I live in MN - and have 8 outdoor only farm cats.

First - I strongly urge you to have them spayed/neutered ASAP if you haven't already.

I have insulated dog houses, packed with straw for winter. I invested in a heated water bowl to ensure they have water all winter long. Come winter, I feed more canned food (being careful to ensure everyone gets their eaten quickly) in addition to the dry food. They do have access to outbuildings here - which last year I put self warming pet beds into my garage for them. Not sure if those were worth it, though.

Blankets, sheets, etc get wet easily, which is why I prefer straw for bedding. Change it often - and they can fluff it up & nest into it to better insulate themselves.

We had the exact same thing to us this spring when a mom & her 4 kittens made their home under our deck... I am now getting ready to take them to the rescue to get them fixed & they will be living in our insulated garage in a 30 gallon insulated storage container (just google winter cat shelters for ideas)... I would get a look at some of the structures online & build them something warm if you don't have a garage & put a heating pad in it... get them fixed or you will be the "crazy cat dude" on your street... keep us informed as to your progress!

Hey I live in Montreal too, what I do for my cats is I built a cat house and give them 500W worth of construction lighting so they have heat and I bring it all up just to the right of my front door on the patio so he's close by.. The light also melts the snow around the entrance to the cat house.. He's been fine for 13 years in Montreal weather (yes, he survived the ice storm of '96 outdoors with this set up) and we feed him breakfast and dinner as well as warm cream/milk during the colder months.. the cat house has Styrofoam insulation, carpet flooring, and we put in warm blankets for the winter

All the best, hopefully winter doesn't punish us too much this year LOL