Winter Feral Housing - Advantage To Straw Over Blankets?

[orange&white]

My neighbors have a couple loose chickens, a rooster and a hen, and the hen thought our outdoor cat house was perfect for laying eggs in. This is a problem I never thought I'd ever have to deal with.

I'd be pretty happy with that problem. Free eggs!

I picked up an 18 gallon Sterilite tub today, and was looking at perhaps setting a cardboard box into the center, surrounded by styrofoam packing peanuts.

I fully expect to make Misfit a "nice house" under the patio and then wonder where the heck she went if we get a really cold snap. She's living on the patio about 80% of the time now. I just think she feels trapped in boxes and doesn't like them.

 

[catsknowme]

You can also try making a teepee or a longhouse - my super-ferals prefer those. I use old blankets for the walls and wrap plastic tarps around the outside with a floor of plastic topped with old carpet scraps. I put bedding in shallow boxes inside. Inside the boxes, I use dry, old leaves topped with thick faux-wool fleece on top of water-heater batting (craft stores sell it for making pot holders). Hope this gives you some other ideas!

 

[orange&white]

You can also try making a teepee or a longhouse - my super-ferals prefer those. I use old blankets for the walls and wrap plastic tarps around the outside with a floor of plastic topped with old carpet scraps. I put bedding in shallow boxes inside. Inside the boxes, I use dry, old leaves topped with thick faux-wool fleece on top of water-heater batting (craft stores sell it for making pot holders). Hope this gives you some other ideas!

That sounds cozy - and spacious! My yard does flood when it rains even a little bit, so everything would have to be elevated on palettes or some other platform.

I've set my mind on the cardboard box insulated inside the tote with packing peanuts, with straw and maybe some fleece inside the box for bedding. I've already purchased everything, except the Snuggle Pad. Now I just have to put it together. It might be a little cramped, but she' a tiny cat (7.5 lbs) and I don't want to invite the neighborhood.

She might be more likely to use a set up like yours because it certainly sounds less confining by a lot, but I'd expect a few separate nights of sub-freezing weather with possibly 2-3 days in a row of sub-freezing days maybe once or twice.

I'm getting her vaccinated next week so if the weather is worse than average, I'm planning to bring her in and she can stay in the bathroom or garage.

 

[catsknowme]

I think that she will enjoy her "casita". At first, you can prop a piece of plywood against the wall or foundation and put her box inside that. It will give her the sense of being hidden. (My ferals can be "ghost kitties- you only know that they exist if you go outside at 4am and your flashlight lights up their tapetums).
I have considered using packing peanuts but my cats are longhaired so the static electricity makes the peanuts cling to their fur. I tried putting them in a mesh bag for oranges but may do that again.
Please post pictures of your project - all ideas are most welcome.

 

[orange&white]

The peanuts wouldn't touch her. I was going to pour about an inch of peanuts in the bottom of the tote, then center a cardboard box, then pour more peanuts around the sides and over the top of the cardboard box. Then the tote lid goes on. The cardboard box should have about an inch of peanut insulation between the box exterior and tote interior walls, floor and ceiling. I'm planning to cut one door through the end of the tote and cardboard box, then tape the box and tote together just around the door opening. I'm only going to have that little door to stuff straw and maybe fleece through the opening into the cardboard box "bed". If I needed to, I could cut the tape and pull the whole box out to replace it or change out bedding.

Things always work easier in my mind or "in theory" than they do in the real world "in practice".

Plus, for all I know, she may completely disappear over the winter. Haha.

 

[catsknowme]

Excellent design plan! I think that I will try it - I like to offer a good selection of boxes.

 

[orange&white]

Before I destroy this 18 gallon tote for any other use by cutting a door in the side, I'm trying to decide if I want a larger tote or not. The interior box is going to be fairly small, so Misfit will have room to sit in a loaf position or curl up in a ball, but not enough room for her to stretch out. A smaller box will hold in body heat better so that's a plus of the smaller configuration. That's my final consideration before putting everything together. For now.