winter coats

[spirite]

The cold weather started here much earlier than it usually does - like 4 weeks earlier - and my stray's coat has just started to get thicker in the past couple of days. He's been shaking himself the way cats do when they're cold (to fluff up their fur?) I would have thought that a cat would just get his winter coat faster if the winter weather came earlier, but maybe not?

[doodlebug]

Winter coat triggers off changes in light, not temperature.

[Goldtanker]

Even thought it hasn't been that cold up here in the North-land, Midnight, the wild cat, looks and feels like he is wearing a mink coat!

[spirite]

Originally Posted by doodlebug

Winter coat triggers off changes in light, not temperature.

Aha. Ok thanks. So the winter coat will come in more or less at the same time every year? One of my girls is getting her nice plush coat but the other isn't. Or maybe it just seems that way because their fur is really different. Margaux's like a cottonball, and she's now a pretty cottony (?) cottonball. Celia's fur doesn't seem any thicker, but her fur is long and silky, so maybe it just doesn't show.

Goldtanker, I wish my stray's fur would grow faster! Poor little guy. But I'm about to put his new house together and am keeping my fingers crossed that it's not too small.

[binkyhoo]

Yup. It is the light change. My Binks who only knows outdoors from what she can see through the window still gets a beautiful long ruff around her neck every winter.

Then again it it nothing like how fluffy full an outside kitty gets.