# Bring your pets inside in brutal temperatures. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 14, 2015, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bring-your-pets-inside-in-brutal-temperatures/712643 "2015-02-14T14:58:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bring-your-pets-inside-in-brutal-temperatures/712643/21 "2015-02-15T19:51:19Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > Temp has just reached its zenith for the day: 17F. Winds were gusting at 30-35 this morning & windchill Then was -15F per The Weather Channel. > > For everyone with a puppy: please walk 'em quick & get em back inside quick? > You’re not barefoot & they are. They’d do that for You if they could… Looks like the zenith came not long before the nadir. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![chachacha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@chachacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chachacha)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bring-your-pets-inside-in-brutal-temperatures/712643/22 "2015-02-15T22:05:08Z")
> [@phall0106](#): > > The cats are indoors only, so I don’t have to worry about them, but the chickens I closed in the coop early last evening before the snow and cold winds moved in, then checked on them again around midnight as I was coming in. > > This morning when I took them breakfast, I left the door to the run closed, so they’re in the coop all day. They have three bales of straw they’ve scattered all over the coop (which equates to 2-3 inches all over the floor), and they’re getting southern exposure through two windows. I just took them out a ham bone from the split pea soup I made and their water (sitting in the sun streaming through the two windows) hadn’t frozen. They got scrambled eggs and suet for breakfast this morning, and I’ll give them some corn and dried meal worms before the sun sets to help keep their body temp up. > > I don’t think they’re crazy being in the coop all day, but I don’t want the wind snatching whatever warmth is in the (unheated and uninsulated) coop. > > Overall, though, they’re doing okay. This is my first year with chickens and I’ve stressed to no end about them being cold. (Even though they’re covered in feathers.) Although this is the first day we’ve had this cold (morning temp was 3 degrees, with a very negative wind chill), they seemed to have had greater challenges this summer with the heat. (Which is right on the mark of what other chicken keepers have told me.) I’ve raised chickens in Minnesota for almost 5yrs now and worried all the time about em in sub-zero weather the first few yrs. The main thing you need to do is to be sure to get cold hardy breeds. I have orpingtons, barred rock and rhode islands but there are others. I don’t let them out of the coop at all once the snow starts and they have plenty of walking around room in their coop. I do have a heated dog water bowl for em and give em a lil extra scratch grains + I heat up the leftovers in the microwave before giving them to em and they do just fine. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bring-your-pets-inside-in-brutal-temperatures/712643/23 "2015-02-16T04:33:02Z")
Cooper, my Portugese water dog only goes out in subzero weather to do his business, the rest of the time he’s relaxing on my bed. Blue, my domestic shorthair cat, who is actually an outdoor/indoor cat, has not been outside in at least a month, and he normally hates being inside, he is constantly asking to go out… This past month, he hasn’t asked to go outside even once, he’s happy in his favorite chair downstairs, or lying on the kitty bed next to my bed, or lying on my arm while he lounges in the bed I’m starting to wonder if he’s decided that “inside cat is better”… The chickens? They’ve got a sturdy old barn all to themselves, hay to nest in,and they huddle up for warmth, they’re all sturdy heritage breeds, and selected for their cold hardiness. Heck, one of my sisters roosters escaped from her coop yesterday, yes, in the blizzard, and he refused to return to the coop, flying away any time he was approached, my sis was resigned to the fact that the rooster wouldn’t survive the night… That evening, we were hit by a blizzard, 18-20" of snow, and winds up to 50 MPH, air temps down in the single digits… fancy Pants the rooster (bantam cochin) was surely doomed… This morning, he was strutting around with pride on top of the coop roost, he had weathered the blizzard of 2015 unscathed! Tough little rooster… ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bring-your-pets-inside-in-brutal-temperatures/712643/24 "2015-02-16T05:08:13Z")
I have a quarter-acre fenced-in yard and it is the norm that my beauties go outside by themselves to do their business and come back in when they’re done. Except the boy has learned this week that he can climb fences. In fact, with the height from the frozen snow, he can LEAP fences. And on the other side of those fences? SQUIRREL!!! (and a street. Goddammit.) So I had him on a leash every time we went out, and now a shock collar which also requires me to be outside with him (I can’t seem him bolt towards the fence through my window). I’ve been home all weekend but I’ve been outside about 40 times. Hate. My sinuses are absolutely wrecked from all the cold, dry air. The dogs hate it too. They are skinny kids with short fur. No where near as rugged as my golden retriever was. It’s going to be a whole week of this nonsense too ☹ ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bring-your-pets-inside-in-brutal-temperatures/712643/25 "2015-02-16T12:09:51Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > I fill the feeders but I feel bad for the ground feeders! As soon as I put food out it gets covered in snow. The blue jays have been raiding the feeders instead. In our front yard just beyond a tree with bird feeders there’s a flat spot where we dump shelled corn each morning for the deer. What the deer do not eat gets cleaned up by a flock of turkeys that visits each day. The turkeys usually also cleanup below the tree feeders. Their scratching keeps that area clear of snow. ---
**Author:** ![chachacha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@chachacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chachacha)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bring-your-pets-inside-in-brutal-temperatures/712643/26 "2015-02-16T21:51:59Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > I have a quarter-acre fenced-in yard and it is the norm that my beauties go outside by themselves to do their business and come back in when they’re done. > > Except the boy has learned this week that he can climb fences. In fact, with the height from the frozen snow, he can LEAP fences. And on the other side of those fences? SQUIRREL!!! (and a street. Goddammit.) > > So I had him on a leash every time we went out, and now a shock collar which also requires me to be outside with him (I can’t seem him bolt towards the fence through my window). > > I’ve been home all weekend but I’ve been outside about 40 times. Hate. My sinuses are absolutely wrecked from all the cold, dry air. > > The dogs hate it too. They are skinny kids with short fur. No where near as rugged as my golden retriever was. > > It’s going to be a whole week of this nonsense too ☹ Best investment I ever made was in a wireless fence. The one I have is made by PetSafe, it works off of radar so you don’t have to bury wire. My dogs have a 90 foot radius out from where the control unit is plugged in and you can program it for whatever number works for you but 90 ft is the max. Once they got acclimated to their new boundaries it works wonderfully for both man and beast. Plus you can unplug the unit and take it with if you ever want to go camping or move etc…it cues the dogs if they are getting too close to their boundary. I love it cuz I can let them out rain, snow or shine and they stay in the yard, have plenty of running around space and they won’t take off if a squirrel or rabbit distracts them 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bring-your-pets-inside-in-brutal-temperatures/712643.md?page=1)