Outdoor cats face many challenges when trying to survive harsh winter conditions. However, feral and stray cats have adapted impressive strategies that enable them to withstand the cold and find the food, water, and shelter they need. This article will provide an in-depth look at how outdoor cats are able to survive even the harshest winters.
Finding Sufficient Food in Winter
Food can be scarce for outdoor cats in winter. As temperatures drop, many small animals go into hibernation or die off, reducing the food sources cats rely on. Outdoor cats have adapted several strategies for finding enough calories and nutrition to survive:
Hunting Small Prey
Feral cats are skilled hunters and will prey on any small animals they can find active in winter. This includes rodents like mice and voles, rabbits, squirrels, and occasionally birds. Cats use their keen senses of hearing and smell to track small animal trails and burrows under the snow. Their padding and fur help them move quietly to ambush prey.
Scavenging Human Food Waste
Feral cats will scavenge for scraps in garbage cans and dumpsters near human settlements. They can smell leftover food waste and will access bins to eat discarded human food when available. This provides an essential source of calories in harsh winters.
Accessing Left Out Pet Food
Some cats learn that caring pet owners will leave food out for neighborhood strays. This is a reliable way for savvy ferals to find kibble or canned cat food in winter. They will remember which houses provide food and return daily for meals.
Coordinating with Caretakers
Semi-feral cats may have human caretakers who intentionally set out food and water. Cats quickly learn to show up at these locations on a regular schedule to eat. This supplementary feeding helps many outdoor cats survive cold winters.
Begging for Food
Some brazen feral cats will beg at the doors of kind people if desperate for food. Their pitiful meows can convince soft-hearted humans to take pity and offer a meal. This occasional handout can make getting through the winter easier.
Seeking Shelter Near Food Sources
Clever cats try to find shelter very close to reliable food sources. Whether near dependable garbage cans or a soft-hearted neighbor, staying near guaranteed calories cuts down travel in deep snow and cold. Less energy spent on the hunt means more energy goes to staying warm.
Finding Liquid Water in Frigid Temperatures
Accessing liquid water can be extremely challenging for outdoor cats in winter. Snow and ice are not efficient hydration sources for cats attempting to survive. Feral felines utilize these strategies for finding drinkable water:
Lapping Up Melted Snow Water
Though not their preference, cats will lap up melted snow water if no other liquid water sources are available. Their body warmth melts clean snow they can lap up with their tongue when desperately thirsty.
Drinking from Streams and Ponds
In most winters, streams and ponds do not entirely freeze over and cats can access these open patches of water. They must take care not to fall through any thin ice near the edge when lapping up pond water.
Visiting Trickling Outdoor Faucets
Some clever cats learn which outdoor faucets are winterized with slow drips to prevent freezing pipes. The flowing trickle provides fresh drinking water they can lap up as needed.
Begging at Kind People’s Doors
Some brazen ferals beg at doors for water too. They learn which soft-hearted people will take pity and provide them with a bowl of water if they meow pitifully enough.
Eating Snow Flecked Prey for Moisture
When hunting prey like rodents in the snow, cats will consume their bodies wet with melted snow flakes. This provides a bit of extra hydration when liquid water is extremely scarce.
Drinking from Pet Bowls
Leaving water in a pets’ bowl outdoors provides stray cats with a winter oasis. They quickly learn which bowls reliably provide unfrozen water and make drinking there part of their daily routine.
Finding Shelter from the Cold and Snow
Protection from brutal winds and precipitation is essential for outdoor cats to survive extreme winter weather. Feral cats reveal impressive fortitude and cleverness in utilizing these winter dens and shelters:
Seeking Out Barns and Sheds
The enclosed structures of barns and garden sheds provide shelter from the elements. Cats will sneak into cracks and crevices or hidden corners out of the wind and snow. These man-made shelters are retreats from the worst weather.
Burrowing into Hay and Straw Bales
The nooks and tunnels inside stacks of hay and straw make cozy nests. Cats tunnel deep into the centers of bales where temperatures are warmer and drafts are blocked. The bonus: sometimes mice hide in the bales too, providing handy prey.
Curling up Under Porches and Decks
The enclosed space beneath raised porches and decks creates protected voids away from precipitation and wind. Cats hunker down in these sheltered spots under people’s homes to stay dry and warm.
Nesting in Hollow Logs
A hollow log makes a snug little cave for a cat. The surrounding wood buffers from drafts and retains heat inside. Cats dig out chambers with their claws to customize the space to perfectly fit their curling body.
Burrowing into Leaf Piles
In the fall, cats will burrow tunnels into large leaf piles which then freeze over the entrance. Inside remains insulated from the cold and precipitation for a cozy nest all winter. The leaves block wind while retaining the cat’s body heat.
Taking Shelter Inside Open Sheds
Unlocked sheds, garages, and barns offer refuge. Cats sneak through cracked doors or broken windows to escape extreme cold. These unheated buildings still buffer from wind, snow, and ice.
Sleeping Against Warm Car Engines
Warm car engines retain heat for hours after being turned off. Clever cats sleep pressed up against the engine block, soaking up residual warmth on frigid nights.
Finding Hidey-Holes in Human Dwellings
Some semi-feral cats secretly sneak into people’s unsecured garages, basements, sheds, or porches when they leave doors cracked. They hide away in cobwebs and clutter in forgotten corners to avoid detection and stay warm.
Outdoor Cat Winter Coats and Cold Weather Adaptations
Outdoor cats have specialized physical and behavioral adaptations that improve their ability to withstand harsh winter conditions:
Growing Thick Winter Fur Coats
As daylight hours shorten in late fall, cats begin dramatically shedding their sleek summer coat. They replace it with a dense, downy winter undercoat topped by long, coarse guard hairs. This double layer of fur traps insulating air and repels snow and moisture. Ear and toe tufts grow exceptionally long to protect vulnerable extremities. The cat’s winter coat keeps them remarkably warm and dry. They continue producing thick underfur until spring, when longer daylight hours prompt another shed tosummer fur.
Hunkering Down in Conserving Postures
Cats instinctively curl up into tight balls to conserve body heat in winter. Tucking paws underneath and wrapping their tail around exposed body parts reduces surface area and prevents heat loss. Hunkering down into a loaf position and pressing against other outdoor colony cats also retains warmth.
Seeking Heat Sources
In addition to pressing against car engines and escaping wind, cats will sprawl out on sun-warmed pavement and metal when possible. Absorbing heat radiating up from sunlight, warm engines, or street grates can raise their body temperature. They conserve this warmth by balling up immediately after soaking up heat.
Shivering and Increasing Metabolism
Shivering generates heat by rapid muscle contractions. Outdoor cats shiver almost constantly in frigid temperatures to continually produce warmth internally. They also increase their metabolism, burning more calories to generate heat. This survival mechanism demands extra prey consumption.
Licking Fur for Insulation
Cats keep their winter fur coat fluffed up and insulating by licking themselves daily. Applying saliva mats their thick fur and improves its ability to trap warm air near the skin. Social cats in colonies will lick each others’ hard-to-reach neck and head fur for better group insulation.
Exercising Muscles to Stay Warm
To generate internal heat, outdoor cats occasionally exercise by running and playing even in cold and snow. They shiver and run in spurts to raise their body temperature, then quickly curl up to conserve the warmth. Kittens especially will wrestle together before piling to sleep.
Seeking Warmth from Car Engines
Absorbing residual warmth from just-turned-off car engines helps frigid felines raise their body temperatures. They nimbly climb under carriages and onto engine blocks, pressing against the warm metal. As many as a dozen cats will pile onto one car engine on freezing nights.
Huddling Together
Colonies of feral cats survive by packing tightly together into a single furry mass. This huddle shares body heat and forms a wind buffer. The group balls up under porches, in snug hiding spots, or buried in leaf piles. The middle cats stay the warmest.
Dangers Threatening Cats in the Winter Cold
While outdoor cats are well adapted for winter survival, they still face serious threats in extreme cold:
Hypothermia
If cats cannot find shelter and are exposed to wet and wind, hypothermia can set in. Violent shivering fails to warm them. They grow lethargic, stumbling and dazed. Hypothermia can quickly be fatal without a heat source for their bodies to absorb.
Frostbite
Ears, tails, noses, and paws are vulnerable to frostbite in subzero temperatures. Tissue begins freezing and dying. Signs are pale, waxy skin that feels stiff and burns from ice crystal formation inside cells. Mild frostbite heals after warming but severe frostbite necessitates amputation.
Dehydration
Finding liquid water is exceptionally difficult outdoors in winter. Cats can become dangerously dehydrated without a source for drinking. Dehydration makes them weak, their skin inelastic, and their urine dark. It hastens hypothermia and frostbite.
Starvation
Hunting is hard in winter, and cats lose strength without enough calories for energy and generating body heat. As cats starve they become emaciated, weak, and lethargic. Prolonged starvation with no fat reserves or prey animals available leads to death.
Illnesses
Sickness is also a major threat in winter. Colds, flu viruses, and rodent-borne diseases spread fast between cats clustering together to stay warm. Upper respiratory infections are common. Illness reduces their ability to effectively keep hunting and surviving.
Car Accidents
antifreeze puddles and warm engines attract cats into roads. But cold muscles cannot sprint away quickly. Many are tragically hit. Slush and ice also cause cars to slide into dazed, cold cats too slow to dodge.
Territorial Fighting
Packing densely together leads to more aggression between cats competing for shelter and food sources. Serious territorial fights break out, causing potentially fatal injuries. Ear and tail tip frostbite from these bites is also common.
How You Can Help Outdoor Cats Survive the Winter
If you are concerned about stray and feral cats near your home braving winter outdoor, here are some life-saving ways you can help them survive:
- Provide dry, well-insulated shelters, like wood and metal cat houses filled with straw. Check that cats are using them.
- Supply warm sleeping bags and enclosed beds for them to burrow inside.
- Offer Styrofoam coolers with entrance holes as insulating dens.
- Wrap shelters in reflective insulation like bubble wrap to retain heat.
- Provide fresh, unfrozen water twice daily. Tap heating pads can prevent freezing.
- Set out wet and dry food on a regular feeding schedule.
- Build enclosed outdoor feeding stations to shelter cats while eating.
- Trap ill or suffering cats and bring them to vet clinics or rescues for recovery help.
- Call animal control immediately if you spot kittens or injured cats needing urgent rescue.
- Carefully capture unfixed cats and get them spayed/neutered so they stop reproducing more homeless kittens.
- Volunteer with TNR groups to help stabilize and manage healthy feral colonies.
With some planning and outdoor assistance, caring people can help community cats survive even the most brutal winter chills. Just a bit of supplemental sheltering and food from humans enables resilient stray and feral cats to live through the harshest seasons. While the winter is extremely challenging for outdoors cats, they are still able to survive and even thrive with a little help.