December Numbers Update

Wanted to do a quick update. With the holidays, cold weather, and lack of sunlight after work, trapping during this time of year is not happening. Luckily for us, this is not breeding season.  Perhaps it's the onset of the cold weather.  No time to mate when you're barely staying warm and trying to fatten up for the season.

With that, we've mulled over the list and updated the numbers according to our method of tracking the cats. The important numbers are: Total population is DOWN to 50 cats. Of those, 44 are fixed. We still see the six unfixed ones out there regularly, so we know they haven't disappeared, and they are still the focus.

Feral #30

Feral #30! Now that the weather is getting colder, the days shorter, and we've switched out of Daylight Savings Time, trapping on weekdays after work has become impractical. If only we could see in the dark! This will slow us down, but will not stop our progress.

"Fence Tabby One"

A few weeks ago, we experimented with microwaving wet cat food to enhance the smell. On that day, we saw new cats we'd never seen before. The extra stinky food really worked! This is one of those cats. She hasn't exactly been a regular since then, but last night, she didn't even blink an eye. We set the trap, walked away, and she bounded over the fence and went right into the trap.

Feral #29

Cat attendance at trapping time can vary greatly. We have seen as few as 10 and as many as 40 in one session. This time, we saw a tabby cat with bright green eyes that we had never seen before and it was already fixed (BONUS!). We also saw the following cat for the first time, to her misfortune.

"Flawless Blue"

There are a number of blue cats in the colony and they all have something that makes them unique from the others. Things like white fur on the tail, or white on the paws, or white on the chest, or blind in one eye, or fat. This cat, however, has nothing. It is slender and complete. Despite never being in the yard for dinner before, Flawless Blue didn't hesitate for a second going into a trap to eat. Talk about an easy catch!

October Wrap-Up

October is coming to an end and the chill of autumn is definitely upon us. Now is a good time to summarize our efforts so far as we prepare to enter colder, darker months.

National Feral Cat Day was a success and our blog post about living with the poop problem a large feral colony brings was well received! We also went door-to-door in the neighborhood with handouts containing information about community cats and how to live with them, and we let everyone know that we are working to bring the population under control. We also distributed information about this blog so that community members can better follow our progress.

The number of cats continues to fluctuate as our master list is updated and refined. This month, we realized we had one cat listed twice. We also removed a cat from the list after not seeing it for a long period of time. Then it showed up again, so we had to put it back on the list. After all of these fluctuations and others, the total number of cats in the colony has been reduced by 1 from our last update. There are now 51 cats. Of these, 44 of them are fixed, which is 86%! That is another big step up from the 77% in our Mid-October update!

With the seriously reduced number of unfixed cats in the colony, we know that trapping will become increasingly tricky. The remaining unfixed cats are also more skittish of the traps, which is why they have made it to the (almost) end.  The colder weather and shorter days will also be a factor, but we aren't discouraged! We like spending time outside and in the yard. Monitoring the cats almost happens naturally as a result of that.

Tricky Trapping

This article is for other people out there trying to control feral colonies in their own communities. We include information on trap types we've tried, baiting, and our own "Kitten Filter" designed for catching cats young! Trapping a wild animal is no simple feat, especially when you're targeting specific members of a population.

Time and Patience

The most important tool at your disposal is time. Whether your tactic is to take a large number of traps and trap cats en masse or if you're only doing a few cats at a time, trapping consumes time.  There will always be cats that do not go into the traps on their first encounter with them, even if the bait is temping. These cats require repeated attempts in order to be conditioned into trusting the traps. This may require watching cats you've already had fixed go in, eat, and exit a trap you have set while you watch and wait.

Traps

We currently have several different traps in our arsenal. Our favorite are our two TruCatch® 30-LTD (image on the left). These traps have two doors, one on each end, and each door operates with a different mechanism. This allows for more control and variety in the methods you may employ. The vet techs also appreciate the two doors.

We also use a Havahart® Large 1-Door Trap (image on the right). This trap is just as sturdy as the 30-LTD, but it only has one door, which makes it less versatile (Havahart does manufacture several 2 door traps, but this one was loaned to us by a neighbor). The door also utilizes a spring in its design that can wear out and is tricky to set. The 30-LTD has a chain which could potentially break, but the doors are locked shut by gravity instead of a spring.  This method is safer for the cats too, as a spring-loaded door closing on a small cat could be fatal or at least cause injury. (They also hurt if they close on your arm by accident while you bait the trap.)

This is the drop-trap that we built and have had success with. The cats aren't nearly as skittish about going under this trap, but several cats can fit under it at once. We would never try to trap more than one cat per cage. That would be dangerous for us and the cats. It is constructed from PVC pipe and chicken wire. We built a door into the side to make transferring a cat from this trap to a cage much easier (cover trap with towel and put up against door, cat moves to safer looking dark space). Some large cats bang this trap around quite a bit during their initial freak-out and attempt to escape, the PVC makes it easy to add pea-gravel or sand to give it substantial weight (but can make it harder for the user to move around).  It is useful to have a second person around while using this trap so one person can hold the trap down right after the catch while the other sets up the trap transfer.

 Bait

Bait, as you can imagine, is a very important tool. We find that cheap, soft food provides strong enough encouragement that most cats get over their fear of going into the traps. A very cautious cat might watch the entire colony go in and out of a trap but still won't go in for regular dry food. The strong scent of moist food really brings them to the yard and attracts them to the traps. We have had even greater success microwaving the food to heat it up which makes even it stinkier. The first night we tried warming it, we saw three cats that we had never seen before come over to try the traps.

When a cat is trapped, it will freak out at first. We cover the cage with a towel to help, but they still thrash around quite a bit. We put the bait in small plastic dishes to try and avoid injury. Cleaning up cat blood from the floor as a result of a cut doesn't sound like a good time for anyone.

Kittens

One of the most important methods for reducing the number of cats in a colony is catching them while they are young enough to be adopted out. Unfortunately, when young cats start venturing out from their "nest", they are already approaching an age when this is difficult, so time (the most important tool) is already against you. They are also at the bottom of the feeding totem pole. They may have to wait for every other cat in the colony to eat before they get their turn in the traps. To work around this, we made what we call a "Kitten Filter." This is simply a piece of coated, welded wire fencing that we cut to fit the trap door. Then we broke one of the welds to make a slightly larger hole. This is much too small for any full grown cat, but perfect for a young kitten.


The drop trap can also be used for catching young cats by utilizing a short support stick. It will create a gap that is too small for adult cats to feel comfortable crawling under, but a kitten has no problem!

Feral #28

As we're making good progress fixing the cats in the colony, each new trapping brings us one big step closer to our goals.

"Fearless"

This lady isn't afraid of anyone or anything. She walks right up to other cats and swats them out of the way when she's coming through. She was supposed to be the first cat we ever caught, but we were new to trapping. We slipped up, and she got away! We also caught her early this spring in the drop-trap that we use, but we let her go because we were after the kitten that got caught in the trap with her. Those experiences made her one of the most trap-skittish cats around, but the chilly autumn weather must have changed her mind enough that she risked it all for some bait food. This was our chance and we got her! She has had at least two litters in her time, but now she doesn't have to go through that anymore.

Ferals #26 & #27

This was a pretty successful night of trapping. We trapped a couple of cats that we wanted to get, and we got to update our list, moving a couple cats around that we had listed twice. Look for updated numbers at the end of the month!

"Super Tiny Tabby"

This little cat is the last one on our list that was born in Spring 2015! He is very small compared to all the other cats his age and is very skittish. Just like we thought "Pale Spotted Tabby" was a boy because she was big, we thought Tiny here was a girl. It took him a long time to get used to going into a trap. His size made it easy for him to go into a trap with other cats too. That made it tricky to get him in the trap alone.

"Blind Eye Lynx Point"

This cat is also very skittish. Her eyes glow red in the right light, which we've read about being a thing in Siamese style cats. It is a genetic characteristic and it makes them not able to see in the dark as well as other cats. This and her one blind eye must be a factor in her skittishness. She was mother to a litter of kittens in late summer that local Animal Control discovered. Homes were found for all of the kittens!