13/08/2025
Coping with the heat
Recently, we have had several enquiries from customers, “How do you cope in this heat?”
Now in our fourth hot spell of the summer, it is fair to say that it has been a challenge. At home, most cats will be able to either seek out and find a cool spot in the shade, and/or their owners will provide a cool area in the house. In a cattery, where cats’ movements and choices inevitably are more restricted, it is important to provide everything possible to keep them both cool and hydrated.
So what do we do to manage the heat here at Wolds Retreat?
1. We leave windows and doors (secured with a metal mesh frame) open overnight. All doors to bedrooms are also open, to allow the cooler night time air to circulate. At 5.30 am, we close the doors to the bedrooms, trapping the cold air (guests can still come in and out as they please through the little door in the door or the cat flap at the top of the ladder). Our bedrooms are fully insulated, helping to keep the air cool for most of the day, usually at least 5 Degrees Celsius below the temperature in the front pens. By far, most cats prefer to stay in their bedrooms on hot days, and they simply relax and snooze. By the late afternoon/early evening, the front part of the pens has cooled down sufficiently for us to open up the bedroom doors again.
2. We use fans and little air coolers. The air coolers work like small air conditioning units, blowing out cool air generated from a tray with water and ice. These really only work very locally, and for safety reasons, we do keep them outside of each pen. Some our guests really seem to enjoy sitting in a light, cool breeze at the front.
3. We provide cool mats, and place them where we know the individual cat is likely to use them. The floor itself, incidentally, is constructed with porcelain tiles, and also helps our guests to cool down.
4. We provide extra bowls of water and make sure that it is changed regularly during the day, and/or kept cool with ice cubes.
5. There is extra wet food on the offer, as it contains quite a lot of liquid and helps our guests to keep hydrated. Very few cats refuse a little extra tasty something!
6. We very regularly check the temperatures around in the cattery and the bedrooms, and we check each individual guest for signs of over heating/heatstroke and dehydration.
So far, we have had no incidents of over heating or dehydration :-)
