How Do You Help Stray Cats?

Everywhere you hear about stray cats and the sad life they have to lead. Read our article on the topic.

As winter approaches, warnings begin to circulate through social networks that cats may get into the engines of our cars. With the onset of spring, hundreds of kittens have to survive on the streets. So if you  want to help stray cats , here’s some advice:

Help stray cats in a part of the city that is already controlled

The easiest step to helping stray cats is to find out if there are controlled wards near you  and who controls them.

You can contact the local animal welfare association  and offer your help.

Volunteers are always welcomed in the animal shelters and donations are sought. You can donate feed or the like. Think about what you would like to contribute and encourage yourself to cooperate.

If you start working with an animal welfare association, you will quickly learn how to help effectively. Other people with more experience will accompany you. They already know the stray cats in the area and will explain what they need and what not.

Feeding in the neighborhood

It seems simple: all you have to do is leave some food for the street cats. But if you are not careful,  it can even be dangerous for them. A public health problem can also arise.

If there is a district that is not controlled (neither by the animal welfare association nor by individuals) then you can take over the task. However, if you want to feed the cats, you should keep the following in mind :

• You can only use dry feed.  Don’t give them wet food unless they really need it. Also, do not feed leftovers from human food. Moist food attracts insects, rats and other pests. Human food can also be harmful or toxic to cats.
• Remove pet bowls and spilled food before leaving. Don’t leave trash in the place of stray cats. This will make it more comfortable for them and you will not cause a public health problem.
• Change the water you leave on them every time.  Don’t let it sit too long, because the cats won’t drink it and could get sick from it too.
• If there is any leftover cat food, keep it out of the sight and reach of passers-by. It might occur to someone to poison it or to scatter it. Another animal could eat it too.

The sterilization of the cats in the district

Part of the control responsibility is to sterilize the stray cats. Animal welfare associations catch the cats and sterilize them. It’s quite expensive, but that’s the only way to control the birth rate.

The more cats neutered, the fewer new litters during the mating seasons.

In addition, neutered males no longer engage in territorial fights during the mating season. The sterilization increases the quality of life of the animals and significantly reduces the risk of suffering an accident.

Shelter against the cold

There are several ways to help stray cats during the coldest season. As we mentioned at the beginning of the article , you should look under the hood before starting the car. 

We can also create little shelters for cats in the district  so that they can rest a little more sheltered in winter.

This shelter is made from two plastic boxes. One should be bigger than the other.  You cut a hole in each box and then put one in the other.

The space between the two boxes is filled with hay. The layer of air between the two boxes isolates the interior  where the stray cats sleep.

You can also use wooden boxes in which the cats can find shelter.  They do exist in some controlled neighborhoods, but they are more expensive than the self-made plastic version.

Orphaned litters

Cats breed especially in spring. When you find a litter of kittens, follow these steps :

1. First, make sure that their mother won’t come back to them.  The mother animals go hunting and leave their babies alone for a while every day. Find a place where the mother can’t see you and wait two or three hours. If she doesn’t come back during this time, then we can be pretty sure they are orphans. You are responsible for them now.
2. Find a wet nurse or cat that has recently given birth. She can help you  care for the kittens. There are also people with a lot of experience who can help us with this task.
3. Find information on how to feed orphaned baby cats and help them survive.  It is not that difficult to care for orphaned kittens. You just have to know how to do it. You can find a lot of information about it on the internet.
4. Finding adoptive parents. When the kittens start to eat and go to the litter box alone, it is time to find good families for them. Only pass them on to responsible people who won’t expose them later. After all, we want to reduce the number of stray cats, not increase them!

Helping stray cats is not difficult and we should all feel responsible for this task. The cats share the streets with us and it is not expensive to make their lives a little easier.

Source of the featured picture: Antonio Marín Segovia