# Can't catch feral cats



## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

Anybody got any ideas? These 2 cats will mess with the catch cage and try to wriggle the cat food out of it. I'm a cat lover, but I'm about at the stage where I wish I could shoot these two. They are in terrible shape.


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## Chevaux (Jun 27, 2012)

What are your plans for them, OP? If you wish to keep them, then patience and a regular feeding schedule will go along way to conditioning them to your presence to 'tame' them eventually. Eventually, btw, will vary -- with the ferals that have shown up at my place I think the shortest time to get to the stage where they could be handled and taken to the vet for neutering and vaccinations was about a month and a half; the longest time was three and a half years (he was a tough nut to crack but worth it as he has become a perfect gentleman in the house and the barn).


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

Not possible with these. One has been here all summer. I just need to get rid of them, they are probably infesting my cats with fleas.


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## stevenson (Sep 12, 2011)

is there a cat rescue near you , or does your local animal control have a trap neuter and release program ? 
put the food as far back as you can in the trap. but away from the sides so they cannot paw it out. Are you sure they are feral and not a neighbours
?


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## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

Try canned tuna for bait. Put a little inside the door so they know to go to that end. Gradually move it in farther without setting the trap. After four or five feedings set the trap with the food at the end. Kitties now know how to enter.


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## gingerscout (Jan 18, 2012)

we used to catch feral cats by using an animal trap with a can of tuna inside, the cats would go in, get closed in and we would call animal control, but watch out you also catch racoons, and the neighbors weiner dog..LOL


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

My problem is that these cats won't go inside the trap. Putting the food near the entrance to eventually entice them to enter has not worked. Putting it in a place on the side of the house where there is only one small hole for the cats to go through has not worked. So far they have not been able to jiggle the food out, but I know they are doing that because the cage is moved and the food is not at the very back where I place it. These poor things are extremely wary, there seems to be no way to get them at all. I figured the one that has been here all summer would die soon, it is in bad shape. I do not know what they are eating, I keep my cats food inside now. Now that another cat has showed up it's getting out of control. Probably no way of getting rid of them, but I am afraid that the new one may be a female and have kittens. So sad to just watch them starve like this, but cats are dumped in my area all the time. I have long ago given up trying to make barn cats of them, they usually have some terrible disease. I take them to the same pound that I got the cat I have now from, it's sad. I was just hoping that somebody else had some brilliant idea I had not thought of, thanks for the replies.


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## farmpony84 (Apr 21, 2008)

We trapped all ours and then got the females fixed... there was ONE we couldn't catch... she of course turned out to be female so now we have three more to catch... I feel your pain.

If you have a dog kennel I would suggest covering the top with a tarp and then feeding the cats in it. Eventually they'll go in and you'll just be able to shut the door. From there you can get them caught.


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## natisha (Jan 11, 2011)

Why not have them shot? Nobody wants them around, they are sick & starving through no fault of their own. Shooting may be the kinder end.


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## Corporal (Jul 29, 2010)

Agreed! 
SO many people dump their cats where they see a barn.
I have lost many cats because of coy-wolves in the last 6 years, even those that were friendly inside-outside cats.
I even thought I had two feral barn cats this summer, but one ended up on the other side of town with a family, and the TOTALLY feral one disappeared.
Now I have two 2-3 month old female kittens that moved in. They are almost identical, both black, and the bigger one, with the longer tail, has gotten very friendly, and I can now pick her up. The other shy one is getting more and more friendly, and having my male inside-outside cat hanging with them in the barn has really helped. I can do anything I want with him, so she is watching and learning that we don't want to eat her.
PATIENCE!! If those two survive the winter in the barn, I will get them rabies shots next Spring.


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

Shooting would be the kindest thing. But I live in the city, in an equestrian overlay that has 1/4 and 1/2 acre lots. I think these cats have been caught before, then dumped by someone not willing to turn them into the pound. I only catch glimpses of them as they dart around the front yard. And I have wasted a lot of cat food trying to get them.


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## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

A local farmer with a big barn (quite noticeable) would up with so many cats that it became open season. They shot 30. The cats had destroyed several hundred hay bales by defecating and urinating on them. That's destroyed income. Some cats were dumped off, the intact ones will wander a long way to breed or get bred.


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