Caring for Feral Cats in the Winter
While you have your own feline at home to worry about, you may be starting to notice that the feral cats in your neighborhood could struggle with the onset of winter.
It’s only natural to want to help these felines and bring them to a shelter to find a good home, but they are feral and the outdoors is essentially their home year-round. Worse yet, if you did happen to bring a feral cat into a shelter, they would probably euthanize it since it wouldn’t be able to be socialized with humans.
You can care for a feral cat by bringing food to her/him or building a shelter to keep warm and dry.
This also applies to bringing a feral cat into your home – he won’t be able to adjust and actually belongs in the outdoors. There are a few cat wellness steps that you can take to give a helping hand to the less fortunate furry friends in your community and give you peace of mind that you’re doing something to help.
How to Care for Feral Cats
Food
Feeding the cats is probably one of the easiest ways you can help, but you need to be sure that bringing food to the felines won’t cause them to be a problem with people that may live in the neighborhood.
Bring the food to a spot that is away from traffic and other people, and try to bring it every day at a scheduled time. While some cats will learn to catch food for themselves, you can ensure that they have a steady supply of food throughout the winter.
Shelter
If there’s a large family of cats, they probably need a shelter to be able to get through the winter. You can build one yourself or ask around at animal shelters for a kit that will work for your purposes. This will provide a dry and warmer place for the cats to get through the season – just be sure to ask the person who owns the property if it is allowed to provide this kind of shelter for the cats.
Feral cats are a fact of life in rural and urban areas, and it can break your heart to know that you can’t provide a good home for them. However, there are some simple animal wellness improvements you can look into that will improve their lives throughout the coldest months of the year.
