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Community cats can be found in countries all over the world, surviving in all manner of environments. Cats are incredibly adaptable and have fantastic survival skills, but sometimes they can still use a helping paw. Domestic cats descended from Felis lybica, a desert wildcat, so the cold and damp are not their friends. If winter temperatures drop below freezing where you live, your local community cats could benefit from some assistance. This is especially true if your area is prone to lots of ice and snow. There are lots of ways to help out your community cats in winter, amenable to a wide range of budgets and schedules.
What are the Needs of Community Cats in Winter?
For cats that live outdoors, keeping warm in cold winters is an obvious priority. While community cats, especially feral cats, are often capable of figuring things out for themselves, extreme cold can still be very dangerous or even deadly for them if they can’t find sufficient shelter. Despite their fur coats, cats can get frostbite on their extremities just like us, and this can result in the loss of ears, toes, etc. (5, 9). They are also at risk of hypothermia (9). Community cats require warm, dry shelter where predators can’t reach them in order to survive cold winters. The environment won’t always provide that.
Of course, cats aren’t the only animals that want to hunker down. A lot of their prey goes to ground or migrates away in the winter, and cats expend extra energy to keep up their body heat when it’s cold. This means they need more calories but may have less available to them. Community cats may also be at risk of dehydration in below-freezing temperatures, as outdoor sources of water become frozen.
Winter also presents new human dangers for cats. Fortunately, these hazards can be mitigated through simple changes in our own behavior.
Simple Safety Tips
There are a few things everyone can and should do to keep community cats safe during the winter, even if you don’t know for sure that there are cats living outdoors where you live. Chances are, you have at least a few community cats around. With the tiniest of changes, you may save their lives.
We all know that cars are dangerous for animals, but the danger doesn’t end when the car stops moving. Cats and other small animals are often tempted to crawl underneath cars or inside engine compartments and wheel wells seeking shelter and warmth. A car that has recently been turned off may be especially tempting. Before starting your car on cold days, check under the hood, inside the wheel wells, and underneath to make sure nobody is hiding there (2, 4, 5, 7, 10). It’s a good idea to tap the hood a couple times as well to scare off any critters you might have missed (2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10).
Speaking of cars, ’tis the season for antifreeze. However, antifreeze is both extremely poisonous and sweet to the taste. Animals will gladly drink the tasty liquid, with tragic results. Just a teaspoon of antifreeze spilled on your driveway could kill a cat (2). Store antifreeze well out of reach of any curious kitties, and thoroughly clean up and spills (2, 4, 7, 10). The main ingredient in most antifreeze brands is ethylene glycol (4), which is primarily responsible for both the toxicity and the sweet taste. Some brands use propylene glycol instead, which is still toxic but to a lesser degree (4). Make sure to use antifreeze with propylene glycol to be as safe as possible.
The salts and de-icers we use to melt snow and ice on our driveways can also be hazardous for cats. The chemicals in these products can be lethally toxic to cats if licked off their paws or drunk from puddles of meltwater (2, 4). The chemicals can also injure cats’ paws just by cats walking through the de-icer (2, 4, 7, 9). Many pet stores carry pet-safe de-icer that you can use instead (4).
Feeding Changes for Winter
Are you already feeding the community cats in your area? If so, thanks for all you do! Not everyone has the time and money to take on such a task, of course, especially for a large colony. However, if you’re a community cat caregiver, or you’re thinking about starting, there are some things you need to know about feeding and watering cats in cold weather.
Frozen Food
As I mentioned earlier, cats burn more energy when it’s cold, so they need to consume more calories. Make sure to set out larger portions of food during the winter months (2, 4-7, 9, 10). To get an idea of when you’ve got the portions right, try watching the cats eat from a distance they’re comfortable with. If the food is gone in fifteen minutes or less, put out a little more next time (7).
Canned food takes less energy for cats to digest, but it will also freeze solid in very cold temperatures (4, 5, 7, 10). There are multiple solutions to this catch-22, and the best one will depend on your particular situation. In places where winters are bitterly cold and wet food is likely to freeze very quickly, you may want to just put out dry food (5, 6). Wet food would be preferable, but dry food is much better than frozen, inedible rocks.
Other options include heating up wet food before putting it out (4, 7) or using electric heated bowls (2, 4-6, 9, 10). Make sure you use an extension cord rated for outdoor use if you choose a heated bowl! You can also heat the bowl with a pet-safe microwavable heating pad, i.e. a Snuggle Safe, or a homemade version made with rice in a sock (4, 6, 7). You can spray insulation foam on the underside of food bowls to slow/prevent freezing (4, 7, 10).
And definitely let the sun help you out. Set bowls in the sunny places, and use dark-colored bowls that will absorb more solar heat (4, 7, 9). Avoid metal bowls–they lose heat quickly (4). Ally Cat Allies suggests rubber containers made for horses because they are flexible and won’t crack if the contents do freeze (2). Rubber is also an insulator and will hold the temperature of the food well.
A Spoonful of Sugar
It’s also important to keep water unfrozen for as long as possible. All of the above techniques for a food bowl will work for a water bowl, except one. Don’t put out hot water. It actually freezes faster than cold water. You don’t want to give chilly cats cold water, either, so go for room temperature. Then do your best to keep the temperature of the water above freezing. If you want to use a heated water bowl, the brand Solar Sippers makes solar-powered ones, so that is an option (9). Another hack for water bowls is to put a pinch of sugar in the water (7, 9, 10). This lowers the freezing temperature of the water, and the cats won’t mind the added energy boost.
You may need to replace water and food, but especially water, more often than you are used to. A bowl full of anything frozen does the cats no good. If you feed and water the cats at the same time(s) every day, that will help make sure they get to their meals before they freeze (7, 10).
Warm and Safe Shelters
If you really want to go the extra mile to take care of your community cats in winter, then providing them with appropriate shelter is the way to go. There are a lot of ways to approach community cat shelters. You can buy them premade, you can upcycle existing structures, or you can DIY them using varying degrees of construction skill. Whatever route you take, there are some basic requirements for any winter cat shelter.
Size definitely matters, but bigger isn’t better. The ideal size for a cat shelter is about 2 ft x 3 ft and at least 18 in high (61 cm x 91 cm x 46 cm) (3, 4). This will fit 3-5 cats. The cats have to warm the shelter with their own body heat, and a large shelter has too much cold air in it for the cats to ever warm it up. Even if you know you have thirty cats in your backyard colony, go for lots of small shelters rather than one or two large ones.
There is no guarantee that only cats will use your shelters, but you can stack the odds in their favor. You want the entrances of your shelters to only be about 6 in (15 cm) across (1, 3, 6, 10). This will keep out bigger animals and predators, as well as the cold. It’s also a good idea to set shelters up with these entrances facing walls or other structures to make it even harder for other animals to get inside (1).
Shelters need to be insulated with something that won’t get waterlogged, like styrofoam, and they must be elevated at least a few inches off the ground to keep out moisture (1, 3, 6, 10). Place bedding inside to help the cats snuggle up and stay warm. The best bedding is straw, which repels moisture and provides insulation (1, 3, 6, 9, 10). That’s straw, not hay. Hay is a type of animal feed and in fact sucks up moisture like a sponge, easily molds, and can cause allergic reactions. Straw is used as animal bedding for a variety of species. Shredded newspaper will do in a pinch if you cannot find straw (8). It must be shredded, or it won’t provide that heat-trapping effect.
There are LOTS are different kinds of community cat shelters out there. Below I have included a video from Ally Cat Allies with instructions for how to make a version of one of the most popular ones, the storage bin shelter. My dad and I made one of these once. If we can do it, anyone can. You can explore these pages by Ally Cat Allies and Neighborhood Cats for more shelters you can make or buy.
Works Cited
- Alley Cat Advocates. (n.d.). Building winter shelters for community cats. https://alleycatadvocates.org/communitycat-care-center/creating-winter-shelters/
- Alley Cat Allies. (2018, October 29). Help outdoor cats in winter: Top 10 tips. Alley Cat Allies. https://www.alleycat.org/help-outdoor-cats-in-winter-top-10-tips/
- Alley Cat Allies. (n.d.). Providing shelter. Alley Cat Allies. https://www.alleycat.org/community-cat-care/providing-shelter/
- Alley Cat Allies. (n.d.). Winter weather tips: Help stray cats this winter. Alley Cat Allies. https://www.alleycat.org/community-cat-care/winter-weather-tips/
- Animal Humane Society. (n.d.). Outdoor cats in cold winters: How they survive in Minnesota. https://www.animalhumanesociety.org/news/outdoor-cats-cold-winters-how-they-survive-minnesota
- Davis, K. (n.d.). Tips to help cats stay warm in winter. AKC Reunite. https://www.akcreunite.org/wintertimecats/
- Feral Cat Focus of Western New York. (n.d.). Colony management: Winter weather tips. https://feralcatfocus.org/colony-management-winter-tips/
- Neighborhood Cats. (n.d.). Feral cat winter shelter. https://www.neighborhoodcats.org/how-to-tnr/colony-care/feral-cat-winter-shelter
- Permenter, P. (2020, April 7). How to help feral cats during winter weather. Cattipper. https://www.cattipper.com/tips/2019/helping-feral-cat-colonies-during-the-winter-months.html
- Robinson, B. (n.d.). Winter care and safety for community cats. Petfinder. https://www.petfinder.com/helping-pets/feral-cats/winter-care-feral-cats/
Published January 3, 2021
Great article with a lot of helpful information as always. I don’t think we have a cat colony in my neighborhood, but this’ll be good to know if I ever come across one. Do you know if other animals are likely to eat cat food you leave out?
Unfortunately, that is a possibility. Raccoons, possums, and stray dogs are the main culprits in my area, but of course it varies. Feeding cats as close as possible to where they live and on a regular schedule helps make sure that the cats get to the food before other animals do. If you’re feeling handy, you can build feeding shelters that are similar to the artificial den shelters, but with larger/more entrances so multiple cats can eat at once. I hope this helps, should the need arise.