Feeding the stray cat

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doombuggy

doombuggy

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i sweare I posted this last night, but now I don't see it. I must have messed something up! so let's try again!

Some of you know my saga with the stray cat in my new neighborhood. I guess he saw Cedric and started hanging out on my back porch. I live in a townhouse and had planned to have the back porch screened in (sent in the request to the HOA on Wednesday; expect an answer in 30 days so the screens should go in sometime late next month). I made an attempt to resuce him last Friday night, since he is alwasy wanting to come in. Apparently, he was not interested int he garage. Here is his photo:
Dallas-1.jpg


As you can see, he's a bit skinny. I have been feeding him, but he's only been getting about 3 oz a day, if he shows up for both meals (he was not on the porch this am, so no food). He probably has fleas and whatever goes along with that. I have Janet & Binkey's list, and was headed to PetSmart today to find some food just for him. Maybe something to fatten him up? Your thoughts?

I am trying to find someone to help me rescue him. Had one place turn me down (they are overwhelmed and are probalby the most well known resuce group around here). Emailed another place yesterday but got no response, so I am trying another place today.

i appreciate your 2 cents on the subject!
 
My dollar


When I was down on the island Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands (Spain) close by northwestern Africa, they have hoards of homeless cats there on the island. And don't care much for them if they live or die, harshly speaking.

I was in a hotel apartment complex and it started with me seeing a momma cat and a few babies on the outside of one floor apartment, and with one baby trapped inside the apartment. It was also so surreal that the momma cat actually CAME to me and lead me to this apartment so I could see. I then went to the reception and asked if they could come and open the apartment and let the kitten out to its family. And I was LAUGHED at straight up in my face because that is how little they care. But the man came with me and opened and the baby came out reunited with momma and siblings. Yet again the momma cat amazed me, she k n e w a seemed like a good person and stayed close to me and I got to pet and play with all her babies. Then when I walking back to my apartment, she and the kittens followed me. But once at my apartment, they didn't want to come indoors. And I thought, I have to feed these little critters, for what it is worth the short time I am here. So I went to the supermarket nearby and bought a HUGE amount of fresh raw beef, and paper plates for them and made portions when I got back and put out. And they were so hungry they are with gusto.
What happened next was that the word spread among all other cats in the area, and the next feeding I had 10-15 cats of all ages wanting raw beef too. And of course I fed them too.
The whole thing also spread among the people, and at feeding times not only did I have a crowd of cats by my feet, a whole bunch of tourists and others also stopped by to watch the whole ordeal.
Only one young guy wanted to come into the apartment, he just strutted in and acted as he felt himself right at home. Then another older guy, which I called Tomas O'Malley because he was just as him, only liked to hang out on our balcony, but never wanted to come in. I was so sad to leave them all when I had to go home.

But ground beef is a good source of high protein and also with a high content of fat, from 12-15 %. You can look at poultry too, turkey perhaps have more fat than chicken, but as Dr Lisa do, when she makes the food she grind the skin too because it contains a lot of fat. Don't know about rabbit skins fat content since we don't have rabbits as food here in Sweden. (but in Spain and Canarias they do, we fed a big rabbit to a real genuine bengalian tiger there too :smile: )
 
If you're looking for canned food to help fatten him up, Wellness kitten is excellent for weight gain. I gave it to Gabby as long as she would eat it when I was desperately trying to keep weight on her because of her stomach cancer. Once she stopped eating the kitten food, Wellness chicken worked nearly as well, and EVO canned (Turkey & chicken formula--not the 95%). There were many others I went through because she would stop eating them after a while, but those three worked the best out of everything to combat her weight loss.
 
A couple of winters ago we seemed to have a lot of feral toms hanging around the boarding barn where I was keeping my horses at the time. I called the local humane society and they were happy to lend me a trap since I wasn't asking them to take any cats. They also had an arrangement with a local vet to neuter at a reduced price. I gave them a donation to cover their costs and they paid the vet. I used sardines as bait and caught and neutered 7 males. Released them the night after their neuter into the heated blanket-drying room with food and water, and a cat door. By morning the food was gone and so was the cat. We continued to see several of them around until spring when the hunting got better, and they were on their way.

This is a busy time for rescues/humane society's with all the kittens. If you can just keep feeding him until fall you might have better luck borrowing a trap.
 
Headed to Pet smart soon and will try to look for some food to fatten him up.

I have never trapped a cat before (I am from the city) and after last Friday, I am not sure I would be able to do this myself. :sad:
 
I made a movie this year about the area we trapped our 3 little babies last year. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXy8XaWWO0s I'm speaking in Swedish but had to climb down really steep to where one hear the train go by and the stone wall where the babies lived in it. It was a very tricky and dangerous area where we had to be sure footed not to slip and fall down ourselves. But we were lucky and had brought wet food we put on a stick and put the stick down the hole where they were, to make them interested in the food and follow the stick as we slowly pulled it up until they came out so much that I could grab them fast as the lightning. The first two went "fine" but the third struggled and almost got out of my hands several times while I yelled at Jeanette to help me and open the carrier to I could push him into it. Oboy, what a spectacle it was. We were two helping eachother, none of us could have done it on our own.


Ask for help from the humane socieities. Especially since you have already tried and gotten hurt.
 
I think that you can do it. I just looked at youtube and searched for 'trapping feral cat' - several excellent videos came up. I think that if you phone a humane society and explain that you want to borrow a trap and would like the name of a vet who deals with feral cat neuters, and that you will take care of the rest - well, my guess is that they will help. I used sardines and several times I would set the trap and then find a cat in the trap that I didn't want (neutered the week before, for example - obviously not very traumatized), sitting there cleaning his whiskers and burping sardines. They would run when I let them out, but stay near enough to see if I was going to put out another snack.
 
doombuggy said:
Headed to Pet smart soon and will try to look for some food to fatten him up.

I have never trapped a cat before (I am from the city) and after last Friday, I am not sure I would be able to do this myself. :sad:
Click to expand...

If you can get a have-a-heart trap from a shelter or humane society, it isn't hard to trap a feral cat. I live on a state park which is also an island. Unfortunately people will occasionally dump their unwanted cats here, and we end up the next year with a whole bunch of kittens that are feral.
A have-a-heart that includes a transfer cage is really simple to set up and use. I would put the "bait" on some sort of aluminum tray rather than on a paper plate though. You want the food to be in something with a "lip" around it, otherwise the cat will just reach through the cage and pull the food out off the plate. And you want to set the dish far enough in so the cat has no choice but to put a paw on the "trigger" in order to reach the food. You want to set it so that not much weight is needed to spring it. You can test that by setting the trap, and then use a stick or something to poke on the trigger to see how sensitive it is.
The transfer cages are nice because they make it impossible (in theory) for kitty to reach your hand or arm when you pick it up by the handle. I would still wear a glove on that hand, just in case.
You can do this!

Carl
 
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