I like to feed the stray cats around my neighborhood and don’t want to end up doing more harm than good.
In: Biology
I’m not a vet, just a guy who likes to read about urban animals. Technically, any mammal can get refeeding syndrome. But refeeding syndrome only really kicks in if the subject is on the verge of dying from malnutrition alone. The further you get from civilization, the harder it is to just die from malnutrition, and the more likely it is that the starving person or animal will die from disease or be killed by a predator. Stray cats exist on the edge of civilization — they live inside human towns, but hunt and sleep in the hidden shadows of those towns where the people don’t go. If people don’t feed them, then they will try to hunt other animals to survive. And if they can’t hunt those other animals, they will almost certainly die trying, long before they are starving so badly that they would get refeeding syndrome.
Latest Answers