Weather anxieties

I'm skimming quickly - so this may have been covered....pardon me if so. But I know where you're coming from - ours disappear for days - even weeks - on end when weather gets really bad (snow, cold, or combo). It's helped some since I put HEATED outdoor pet heating pads in two of the shelters. Those get used every single night. Do you have access to electricity? I also put a catnip mouse or two at the front of the space, one in front of the shelter itself, and one at the back. Kind of lures them in if they "forget" how good it is in there!

Just a few thoughts...wish I could write more but I'm under the gun on a project. Keep us posted!

Kristi

IMPORTANT FEEING QUESTION

I have not seen Blacky since the last snow storm on Monday since she left her house . She is not coming when I call her.  I have left a 1/4 of a cup of grain free dry food out every morning and when I check to see if she is back in her house around 5pm, most of the food has been eaten with a little left in the bowl.  My instinct tells me that "she" is coming back to eat and then leaving because if it were another animal, none of the food would be left in the bowl. 

My question is, should I not leave food out tomorrow morning so she will be hungry and come when I call her at 5pm.  Or just keep leaving the food out in the AM for her as I have been doing.  A 1/4 of a cup is half of what she should be eating and I don't want her to be hungry but on the same token, I would like to see here and know she is all right.

Any comments/suggestions.

Thanks a lot.

So far ShadowsRescue, Blacky has endured some really severely, brutal cold, we have had temps as low as 3 with a minus 35 wind chill.  I don't know how they tolerate it but she has so far.  Hope this helps.

Hi KittyChick,

The house I posted has a heated pad in there.  When I  took the front off I felt it inside and it was warm so hopefully it will stay that way.  Still worried not seeing her for 3 days now.

ShadowsRescue said:

 
We are headed for another round of bitter cold.  It is has been snowing off and on all day, but the wind has really picked up and the temps are dropping quick.  My two boys have been out and about every day this week.  I think they are so tired of being cooped up in their shelter.  I know Stellar goes under my neighbors screened porch and I think Shadow must follow him sometimes.  I am glad they are out and about.  They must be getting used to the cold.  Unfortunately I do not see an end in sight with the cold cold weather.  At least the wind should die down here by tomorrow evening.  We are to have temps of -10 and wind chills of -30.

Keep warm little ferals all around the country and beyond.

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ShadowsRescue,  Great post about the 3 types of cats.  I checked out the Thermo-Kitty Café, kind of expensive at $80.  But will keep in mind the microwaveable heating pad, more affordable. 

feline03 said:

 

ShadowsRescue said:

 
We are headed for another round of bitter cold.  It is has been snowing off and on all day, but the wind has really picked up and the temps are dropping quick.  My two boys have been out and about every day this week.  I think they are so tired of being cooped up in their shelter.  I know Stellar goes under my neighbors screened porch and I think Shadow must follow him sometimes.  I am glad they are out and about.  They must be getting used to the cold.  Unfortunately I do not see an end in sight with the cold cold weather.  At least the wind should die down here by tomorrow evening.  We are to have temps of -10 and wind chills of -30.

Keep warm little ferals all around the country and beyond.

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ShadowsRescue,  Great post about the 3 types of cats.  I checked out the Thermo-Kitty Café, kind of expensive at $80.  But will keep in mind the microwaveable heating pad, more affordable. 

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I found the thermo kitty cafe on Amazon for $38 in Nov on Amazon.  Not sure what it is now as it might be more with the cold weather. 

Keep leaving out food.  She needs everything she can get.  She is afraid again and may be coming to her shelter during the day. 

Have you ever thought of a trail camera to check her comings and goings?  I had one for a bit last year.  You use a SD card from a digital camera that goes into a trail camera.  It takes pictures day and night upon movement.  You then remove the SD card and plug it into your computer ( as long as you have a card reader) and you can view the pictures. 

Unfortunately, I don't have a card reader on my computer and I'm not sure how that will help me to have her come and use her house again.  I did take the cardboard off that was enclosing her house more so she would feel more comfortable going in it again.  My only thought of not leaving food for her tomorrow morning was that she would come back at night because she would be hungry.  Oh my, what a predicament.  I don't think I have the heart though not to leave food.  At lease she eating something.  Strange though how she (if it is her) is not eating it all . The little bit I leave she didn't finish is still there in the morning. 

Please leave food out for her, it's too cold to withhold food. Her need for food is more important than your need to know if she's the animal eating the food. Feral cats get
stressed with changes to their shelters so I wouldn't make any changes. It's heated, so it's fine. She may just want to spend more time in that shed where she hangs out. Ferals have more than one place where they hang out. My outdoor feral has gone missing on several occasions during frigid weather, sometimes for as long as a week, and so far he has always returned. We really can't control their behavior, it's part of the challenge of caring for them. Hang in there.

I already posted that was was going to leave food out for her but you might have missed it. This morning she wasn't there but the rest of the little she left was gone this morning. I left extra today. Talk about her stress, mine is through the roof LOL.

How's everyone's kitties doing?

It is -4 here and wind chill -22.  My two are still in their shelter.  I took food out and placed it right inside the shelter so they didn't have to come out.  Stellar almost always comes out to go under some pine trees.  He must be really cold this morning as he has not ventured out yet.  Fortunately the sun is out so that will help a bit.  Yet the wind is picking up.  It is to be even worse tonight, but better for the weekend before another bitter cold front arrives on Monday. 

I was out to feed the birds this morning.  It is very very cold.  I hope everyone is doing well. 

Please keep on leaving food out for her.  With this weather she needs to eat to help her keep warm.  I know you want to see her but feeding her is more important at this time.

I am always so thankful to read posts from other feral helpers when times get tough. I am freaking out about my feral fur babies in this cold snap as well. I have a really nice wooden cat house that my husband built, pretty well insulated with foam board and straw. I put two microwaveable disks in but they are only staying warm for about 5-6 hours (they last longer if the cats are actually laying on them). My problem is that my 3 sibling ferals still prefer to sleep in their Rubbermaid bins under the deck. They are well insulated and filled with straw but they have an entrance and exit hole (I fear raccoon attacks) so I don't think the heat is retained and I cannot access them to put the disks in. =(  Another feral is not part of my initial group and so she stays in the barn. There is straw and all kinds of cushions from our outdoor furniture in their so I hope she can get warm enough. If I open the barn to or even go near it, she runs away and doesn't always come back for days and I don't want to risk that in these temps. It is supposed to hit -20 tonight with an even worse wind chill. I pray I have done enough to help them. I bring food out and replace their water every few hours. I know I will be having a few glasses of wine to try and relax tonight. I hope everyone gets a break in the weather! Warm and sunny wishes to everyone!

Lochness350 said:

 
I am always so thankful to read posts from other feral helpers when times get tough. I am freaking out about my feral fur babies in this cold snap as well. I have a really nice wooden cat house that my husband built, pretty well insulated with foam board and straw. I put two microwaveable disks in but they are only staying warm for about 5-6 hours (they last longer if the cats are actually laying on them). My problem is that my 3 sibling ferals still prefer to sleep in their Rubbermaid bins under the deck. They are well insulated and filled with straw but they have an entrance and exit hole (I fear raccoon attacks) so I don't think the heat is retained and I cannot access them to put the disks in. =(  Another feral is not part of my initial group and so she stays in the barn. There is straw and all kinds of cushions from our outdoor furniture in their so I hope she can get warm enough. If I open the barn to or even go near it, she runs away and doesn't always come back for days and I don't want to risk that in these temps. It is supposed to hit -20 tonight with an even worse wind chill. I pray I have done enough to help them. I bring food out and replace their water every few hours. I know I will be having a few glasses of wine to try and relax tonight. I hope everyone gets a break in the weather! Warm and sunny wishes to everyone!

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It sounds like you are doing so much for them.  The straw will keep them warm as well as them snuggling together.  I know that some people use the reflective heat mat along with straw.  Once the cats lay on it, their body heat helps to warm it up.  Maybe next year you could add that to the shelter under your deck.  Here is what I am talking about


Thank you for doing so much for your ferals.  I just want this awful weather to break.  Here in Ohio it looks like tomorrow will be a bit better as well as the weekend, but then back to very cold again by Monday. 

Shadowrescue--I forgot to add that they have some thermal material in their Rubbermaid shelters. I used the thermal, reflective foam board for the insulation and also added some mylar blankets underneath the straw. I have a slumber blanket for my elderly kitty indoors but I don't think she really cares for it.  I really wish the ferals would stay in their new, nicer wood house more but I guess they go where the feel the safest. I am hoping they will make their way up to it tonight to take advantage of the heating disks.

Reading all these posts really leads me to think my three semi ferals are living a life of luxury! I've worried myself silly over them and here in balmy Northern Alabama there is zero snow and the lowest temp was 6-9 degrees overnight with -10 to -15 wind chill...seems down right tropical compared to what most of you are contending with! To us, it's unprecedented however. I have, however, lived in Iowa for 5 years and Michigan for 6 years in the past so I have some experience with lots of snow and frigid temps. These posts maybe will keep me from worrying quite so much about them. I'm thinking of all of you and hoping this horrible winter ends soon----of course for us here in Northern Alabama, spring just means horrible tornado season!

Thanks to all of you for caring for all these feral kitties.

@Lochness350   The heated water dishes are a godsend in the winter.  I bought one two years ago and the ferals always have water and the nice thing is that the water is warm and so adds to their body heat instead of drinking cold water that will take away from their body heat.  In fact, I'm going to buy another one for their cat food.

So far Muffin is hanging in there. He's in his cedar wood pet house a lot, so I'm assuming it's providing him adequate heat with the thermal cushion, straw, and sleeping bags and blankets draped over it. I may still consider ordering him a cushion electric heating pad next Fall (one with a plastic back won't fit through the exits of his house to get it in there), but he's been used to sheltering in straw his entire life, even before I got him the pet house, so that may always be his preference. It seems to work for him. Last night when it was -2 degrees with wind chill of -17, he perked up and took off for at least an hour. It's amazing how cats can run around on snow and ice in this weather. I was concerned that maybe the intruder offspring cat was around, but I didn't hear any caterwauling. Muffin returned to his house afterwards and was fine. The temperatures are going to warm up to the 30's tomorrow, but we're expecting 3-8 inches of snow, and then we're back into sub zero weather at night for another week. March never felt so far away.

I'm thinking of ordering a heated bowl online in the summer, when it's cheaper (from what I can see so far, a small one for a cat is about 50 dollars). The ones at Petsmart are gigantic--too large for my feral, he could take a swim in it. So far not having a heated dish is working out okay because Muffin gets heated wet food with a lot of water around it in a bowl at least twice a day, and 3-4 times a day when I'm off work. He doesn't drink water left out in a bowl, it has to have wet food in it (spoiled cat, I know!) I'm concerned if a heated water bowl might attract other wildlife, though?

Zoocat, I can't imagine living in an area with tornados. Do the winds ever catch the cats up in the air?

Feline03, I hope your kitty is doing okay.

Ms. Aimee,

I wasn't too concerned because I thought she was at least coming to eat in the day because of most of the food gone. However, this morning what was left in the bowl from last night was still there. I drove to work getting worried again. I'm hoping she will be there when I get home.

It is BRUTAL today. Temp of 7 and -15 wind chill. I thought my face was going to frost bite after being out there 10 minutes. Guess we need fur too :lol3:

Will update later. Hope your kitties are doing fine as well as ShadowsRescue.

@MsAimee I live in Minnesota and I have had no problems with other wildlife hitting up the water dish.  Ok- so for about a week I did have a fawn drinking out of it.  And the dish is on the porch!  But other than that no.  Everything else is basically hibernating for now and then when spring rolls around it, I unplug it but still use it because they know that's their water supply.