Cat question........outdoor shelters
William81
Member Posts: 25,351 ✭✭✭✭
Martha is an outdoor cat....due to allergy issues for a couple family members, we need to keep it that way.
Cold weather is upon us and for the most part she has been fine outside in one of the two little shelters I made for her. One is under the back porch out of the wind. No water can get to the area, but it is water proof. It is insulated and has a tarp cut to cover and seal the whole thing. The colder nights she seems to choose this one... The other is on the front porch. It is also insulated and has a tarp covering.
On the really cold nights when it has been under 10 etc, we have moved her shelter into the garage where the temp never falls under 40. But we have to attach the shelter to a cage as we are concerned they may still be some old mouse poison in some cranny we are unaware of. She does fine for overnight but wants back out as soon as possible...
So, after that long winded explanation, what do your outside cats do on cold days ? What type of shelter do they seek ?
Comments
They used to hang out in the hay stacked in the barn, out of the wind and dry, sometimes when below freezing I would also have a heater going with lawn chairs around it and the cats would lay on old towels or blankets in the lawn chairs. But all of my official outside cats have passed on although there is a couple of strays that get into the barn sometimes, I don't feed them or provide any food. DeeGee our newest kitten is still just an indoor cat but she will eventually go outside to the garage this spring where I had set up a small heater for the last barn kitty I had when she got older, she wouldn't go all the way to the barn so garage it was...
She used to like to hide out in the hay bales in our coral area, but I threw her a curve and sold them recently so that is no longer an option.
In my 67 years, I've never seen a cat or dog froze to death. However, man has dominion over all animals and it behooves us to take reasonable care of them.
Good dry bedding and kept out of the wind and is in a sheltered area and all dogs and cats will do fine.
I’ve got three tarped haystacks that my barn cats hole up in, by the time I’m on the last stack, it’s bare ground and they find other accommodations.
we have one of those outside dog Igloo, that we use for the cats, all i did was drill a hole in the side near the top for a electric cord to a heat lamp that i have hanging in the top of it and then put a old shirt across the front opening
We haven't had an outside cat for a long time, but we always have a couple strays around. We used to find them seeking shelter from wind and cold under our garden shed. Now, my bride takes a heavy duty styrofoam cooler, cuts an appropriate sized hole in one end near the bottom, removes the top, lines the bottom with old towels then replaces the top. Very well insulated, easy to clean and inexpensive.
Edit to add: If Martha was our cat, she'd live indoors and the family members would sleep outside. 🤨
most all our cats live out side ( two exceptions one a total bind cat that was a kitten when we got her and one that was always a house cat we took in ) we have I think 12 or 13 not even sure any more we a few years ago wife decided to let them in to our wash room when it really got cold out we keep a small heater to keep he pipes from freezing and the cats like it ( of course )
but before that the cats had claimed there own residence some shared a couple were not so friendly with sharing ther domain in out buildings we gave them blanket's some had straw bales we would put a dog / cat carrier / cage where they wanted to be (picked up dirt cheap at auctions and garage sales ) add in old blanket and they never had a problem kept fresh water and food of course one of the cats would get into the chicken coop with the heat lamp and stay the night
as stated, lot of options even cooler on its side even worked for one of last wonder in cats with a blanket in and one around it and sitting on straw bails .
I remind my wife of all the animals that do not even come close to be so well taken care of
will also agree out door cats in my experience seem to be in better shape than indoor cats
We take care of our little Verminator. I built a shelter on our covered front porch. I used extra OSB, covered it with old carpet & insulated it with extra 1/2" foam board. She has blankets in the bottom & a 60 watt bulb in a jelly jar fixture for heat. To prolong bulb life, It's wired to a dimmer switch & runs about 40 watts. She's been keeping vermin away for 9 years now & deserves it.
As a Handyman I get asked to do some odd tasks. One of my clients is a softy for feral cats and asked me to come up with something to shelter them during the Michigan winters. I did some googling and thinking and came up with my version of the Kat-Kondo. I filled with cheap pine shaving bedding from feed store and the cats and Cat Lady seem to love them. Tote, razer knife, construction adhesive, and foam tape. heat gun for door flap.
GTR
We've got an old timer that came with the house when we moved in. He's 18+ so he gets pampered with one of these pads in his Igloo cat kennel.
It comes on only when he's laying on it.
^ we have one of the larger ones in the our outside dog igloo ^, he must like it as we can't get him to come inside even on the coldest nights , I'm sure it helps that the igloo has old hay completely covering it to help keep the heat in
On my farm I worry about mice and rats moving into my house so I keep an army of cats and at the moment 2 dogs. It gets very cold here in ND. Like someone else said, an animal has never froze to death here. That being said I built a double decker cat/dog house, cats on top and dogs on the bottom, all insulated and heating pads in both. Cats love it, dogs rarely use it. When it gets real cold like 20-40 below zero I try and get them in heated garage. I normally have to use trickery or force to get the dogs in. When they are in the heated garage if I open the door I am pretty much run over by them wanting out.
Don't believe the crap on TV about saving dogs from the cold. They were fine as a species for long before we domesticated them and brought them inside.
when I was just a young fellow maybe 7 or 8 yrs old walking to school each day it was mid winter here in Ohio and cold and several inches of snow on the ground any way not far from the house was a cat solid as a block of ice . just sitting in a pile of snow I remember it well . I cant say it froze to death but sure looked the part . thinking back I do not remember any one taking that good of care of any dog or cat .
oh sorry to say it was not up hill both ways to school as for walking and I did get one pair of new shoes each year so not barefoot LOL the elementary school was two blocks away from where we lived
they make a electric heat pad for animal shelters
we made a dog shelter in the open pen by taking a plastic igloo and putting in a dog bed then making a bag out of a big old towel and inserting a 2' X 1' heating pad laid on the bed......simple one with three heat settings , off/on light that can be seen from house and no timer....dogs still stay inside home if they want to ...like now it is 9 degrees above zero and 30 mph wind ...made a smaller version for cats with a 1' X 1" heat pad......small pad cost $10 and large a few bucks more...the large pad cord is plugged into a socket with an inline off/on switch by exterior door....neat little gizmo with light to tell if the 75' extension cord is on/off
We've had them round our house forever. Never ever made shelters for them. Do fed them however in the winter months. Some have become inside cats😉
A bunch of old towels tossed into some kind of shelter works great. At least it did 40 years ago when I was dumb enough to have outdoor/barn cats!😁
I cut a hole in an old cooler and put some carpet in it. I have it on an electric pet mat and plug that in as it gets in the low teens. They used to live in the hay bales in the barn, but there are no more horses here, so no more stacks of hay.
A doghouse works just as good for a cat. Go with a smaller one if you can, so they can retain more heat in it. A rubbermaid tub like that pictured in the above post will work well. In my experience, they’ll use it in the worst weather, but most times will just prefer curling up under a sheltered bush, under a porch, or something like that since they prefer not to feel trapped.
Our smartest “outdoor” cat charmed the neighbor, getting them to let him in every night. He’d be ours during the day, and cuddle up tight with them at night.
Nice
this is exactly what my son and I made. On really cold nights, they go into the heated garage. I put a couch in there for them, with a heat lamp. The vet said to not make it too warm, as they can lose hair and get sick. I have had the same three feral cats now for seven years. They also go to the vet when we take the dogs.
In some places it is important that the cat has a place to get away from coyotes.
I think the poison is not so much of an issue, its eating the mice that have eaten the poison that can be a problem. I don't know anything about all of this other than what I've heard. We have poison all over the place and two feral cats that hang out here that have been around for several years without anything from us as far as extra care or such. I think they were left when people moved from a house up the road. They are both long hair GIANT cats and you cannot get anywhere near them, a solid black one and a black and white one. The black and white one likes me.....I know this because it left me the biggest dead chipmunk I've ever seen by my driver's side door one day.
In Kotzebue it commonly gets to -40F and below. My boy's dog can't stand how hot the house is, so she sleeps outside. She doesn't even use her doghouse, she digs into the snow and lets it cover her. In the morning you go out and whistle for Annie and the snow will wiggle, then she'll come bursting out happy as a lark. It kinda breaks your heart to see her out there, but she's VERY uncomfortable in the house with all her fur.
Here is a little set up for Martha.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89nzR_P2h5M
Interesting