Creature comfort

When winter hits, we humans tend to sit in our warm houses and wait out the storm.

The smart ones among us have winterized our houses, our cars and even our kids.

But what about our pets? As temperatures drop, what does winter do to them?

Turn out different animals have different needs. So, with the help of a range of regional experts, we decided to look at how best to weatherize the animals we love and care for.

Birds

Most pet birds hail originally from tropical climates. Thus, says Rick Safran of the Sprague Ave. Northwest Seed & Pet, a general rule applies: “They need to be kept at a comfortable temperature and out of drafts.”

Sparky Settle, owner/manager of the Bird Lover’s Outlet, agrees.

“Opening and closing doors, the sudden cold blasts of air that can come sweeping in your house, really does hit birds harder than mammals,” Settle says. “People often forget that birds aren’t mammals.”

Humidity is another problem.

“Tropical birds are used to 60 or 70 percent humidity,” Settle says, “and the average household in Spokane during the winter is drier than the Sahara Desert.”

And dry air, Settle says, tends to make birds pluck at their feathers. The solution? Get a humidifier.

“Usually in summer it’s not a big issue,” Settle says. “But the cold temperatures just suck everything out of the air.”

Snakes/spiders

Terrarium dwellers generally live in a controlled atmosphere, and winter doesn’t much bother them.

Even so, Safran says, snakes in particular are best served with two items: a warm dish of water and something he calls a ” ‘sizzle stone’ or ‘electronic rock,’ which you put in their enclosure to keep them nice and warm.”

But what if the power goes out, as it did during 1996’s Ice Storm?

Then, Safran says, “You need to get them someplace that has auxiliary heat.” A motel, for example.

Snakes, though, are particularly easy to deal with.

“Just wrap them in a pillow case, tie it shut and put them in bed with you. You know?”

Dogs/cats

When it comes to dogs, “The main thing is shelter,” says Dr. Brooke Evans, director and shelter supervisor of the Spokane Humane Society. “Don’t leave your dogs in the yard without an insulated doghouse. I prefer for animals to be kept indoors, anyway, and taken out for walks.”

Dress short-haired breeds in sweaters. And, Evans says, “You’ve got to be careful about ice. There are some booties that you can buy to put on dogs when they go out walking.”

Cats are a different story.

“Cats are a little more self-sufficient,” Evans says. “Usually they’ll stay indoors, depending on the weather. But make sure that they come in at night.”

Both need, she says, plenty of water and food. And for dogs, Safran says, add companionship.

“They want to be part of the pack,” he says. “They don’t want to put out in the back yard and left there.”

Fish

In the novel “Catcher in the Rye,” Holden Caulfield wonders where the Central Park ducks go in the winter.

You could ask the same about the goldfish, koi and minnows in Spokane’s Japanese Garden.

Steven Gustafson, operations horticulture supervisor of Manito Park, has a ready answer: They stay right there.

“The water freezes over mostly,” Gustafson says, “but we keep the waterfall running so there’s a current of oxygenated water running under the ice.”

Margie Luce (pronounced loo-chay) of the Inland Empire Water Garden and Koi Society says that the fish don’t actually hibernate.

“But,” she says, “they do get real quiet. They sit on the bottom, they barely move, they barely breathe. They don’t eat for months.”

For those who keep goldfish and koi in their home garden ponds, Luce offers the following suggestions:

1. “The pond has to be deep enough so that the water doesn’t freeze all the way down,” she says. “Because if the fish freeze, they’re goners.” Minimum depth two and a half feet, deeper is better.

2. You need to keep a hole in the ice, maybe three feet in diameter.

“You have to have gas exchange happening, or the fish can suffocate,” Luce says. “They still need oxygen, they still give off CO2.”

If needed, she says, buy a heater or a “de-icer pump” (both of which are available at pet stores).

3. Finally, she says, “They have to be fat enough. If they’re too skinny going into the winter, they’ll starve to death.”

If your fish aren’t fat, don’t try to compensate now.

“Their metabolism is completely temperature driven,” she says. “If you feed them and the water gets too cold that night, that food will sit in their gut. The bacteria can continue to grow and you can actually kill them.”

If you decide to bring the fish indoors, Luce says, make sure you have the correct set-up, which includes a large enough tank and good filtration system. And make sure to change the water often.

Owning fish, Luce stresses, is not a passive occupation.

“You have to do research to find out what a particular fish’s requirements are,” she says. “But that’s part of the fun.”

Others

Farmers and ranchers know how to take care of livestock. And besides, livestock doesn’t belong – necessarily – in the pet category.

Nonetheless, some animal lovers keep a variety of animals. And they, too, have special winter requirements.

Marilyn Omlor, a licensed veterinary technician at the Ponti Veterinary Hospital in Otis Orchards, stresses the need for fresh water.

“Water is the No. 1 thing we live on,” she says. “It keeps everything cleansed. It’s like horses, if they don’t drink water during the wintertime, they can get colic.”

And, Safran adds, “Ice cubes don’t count as water. Your pet needs a bowl that remains frost-free.”

Then there’s the question of shelter. Horses and llama and even animals such as pot-bellied pigs “do fine out in the wintertime,” the Humane Society’s Evans says. “But you want to have them protected from blowing wind and blowing snow. You can have either a half barn or a half shed, whatever, just so they can get out of the weather.”

Rabbits may be fat and furry, but they need to be kept in a covered shelter.

“I don’t want to see little bunnies out their little hutches in the middle of wintertime,” Evans says.

Chickens need more than just a place to flock.

“Even though chickens are out in the cold all the time, they can still get frostbite,” Omlor says. “Just put a 60-watt bulb in the chicken coop, keep them warm.”

Dogs have different needs, says Safran.

“Lights are a fire hazard” in a doghouse, he says, “and electric blankets are a definite no-no.”

He recommends what he calls “heated kennel mats,” which are designed to be used outside.

“Those have an element that goes inside of the bed itself that stays slightly warm,” Safran says. “People say, ‘But those aren’t warm.’ But it is to the dog because he can’t take that coat on and off.”

Finally, there’s the question of diet.

Besides the danger of overfeeding fish, the biggest problem involves holiday dinners and special holiday plants.

Keep chocolate away from dogs, Omlor says. “There’s a toxicity to chocolate, especially the real milk chocolate, that can create problems for them.”

Don’t use your pets as garbage disposals.

“When all the friends and relative come over to eat, the dog gets a dose of high, fatty food,” Omlor says. “Then they come in with a disease called pancreatitis. Just a couple of meals will do it, especially for the smaller dogs.”

Speaking of things that pets love to eat, clean up your spilled automobile antifreeze.

“I think they have some new ones now that don’t taste as good,” Evans says, “but if a dog comes upon a puddle of it, they’ll drink it, they’ll go into kidney failure and it will kill them unless they’re treated.”

And those colorful Christmas plants? Poinsettias are pretty, Omlor says, but they can be deadly.

“They have a toxicity to both dogs and cats,” she warns.

But aren’t animals supposed to be smarter than that? Don’t they inherently know what’s good and bad for them?

Omlor just laughs. “If it’s something new and odd, they’re going to ingest it,” she says. “Everything goes in the mouth, like a 2-year-old.”