acclimating and releasing the hidey barn cats

[Larissa]

We recently purchased a farm that came without cats (the horror!) and none of my indoors are suitable to lend a hand around the place. Old, lazy and toothless :lol: We adopted three of the less-adoptables from a local agency and have had them set up in tiered cat cages and dog crates in the barn for the last 2.5 weeks. The poor guys don’t seem stressed or necessarily unhappy but they want N O T H I N G to do with people and spend all their days inside their hidey spots. They tend to eat meals hours after I leave them for them.

We’re counting down til the sweet things can get out and find their happy places but I’m terrified I’m going to lose them. They don’t care about me and they don’t care about meal times. Everyone tells me food is what keeps them around. I can’t imagine I can just leave food out for them to graze on at will because a - other cats, b - my dog and c - wildlife. How does this work??

[Toblersmom]

If they have microchips, there exist feeders and cat doors that can be programmed to open only for “authorized” cats. We use one in the home to keep the two Fatty McButterpants out of the Skinny Minnie’s meals. You would need to make sure all the cats know how to work the thing before you let them loose, though. Most barns just kind of take their chances and put the food out. If you put it up high your dog won’t be able to get to it, and if you put it someplace like inside a shed or tack room with only a small entry point you’ll decrease the chances the local strays and larger wildlife will find it (in theory the cats should take care of the rodents). Important that the cats are confined in the room with a food for a bit so THEY know where it is. If you don’t have a good “up high” place, putting the food in a big tub with a cat-sized hole in the lid (hole on one end, food dish on the other) should discourage most dogs.

If they are really shy, not a bad idea to accustom them to eating inside a locked-open trap, at least some of the time. Just get a trap, set it so it stays open, and regularly put their food in there. That way if somebody turns up with a manky eye or a limp, you’ve got a fighting chance of getting a hold of them quickly to bring in to get care.

[TheHorseMutterer]

I had great success with feeding my shy guys tuna nightly before letting them loose. I did the caged portion for two weeks, then just in the barn for a week. Each night was tuna or some other canned delight. All three have stuck around, but I’ve been giving them tuna regularly (not every night, but many) so they know when mealtime is and greet me (though still won’ let me get close) a year later. I only put out enough to feed the three and they have to scrounge the rest of the day/night for themselves. Everyone is in good health and good weight and they’ve rid the barn of mice and all signs of them.

[allons-y]

I too did the wet food lure before release. They now get that only rarely as a treat. They hid for months but now two are my best friends, one runs if seen, and two more are rarely seen. But the 20 acre Pecan Orchard has no evident rats or mice - even the owls had to leave for food elsewhere.
My daily dry food is up / inside where dogs cant reach it. I did leave a tube of Salmon flavored hairball paste out on the chair in the aisle overnight, some lucky critter chewed it up and sucked it dry. No hairballs for whoever that was!

[enjoytheride]

If they are in a crate, you can use a rag on a pair of tongs to pet them, then a pair of leather gloves. Pet them with the tongs even if they fight or curl up in a ball. The key is to get them to realize that petting feels good. Usually they fight a bit and then try to freeze in a ball. You just keep petting them daily until they start purring. We got a feral that was 1 year old with no people contact, it took him a few months but now he’s so friendly we’ve stepped on him a few times.

Once they learn how to meow you’re good, ours would great us with a hiss, a growl, and eventually a strangled garbled grow meow until he learned how to meow at people.

We left ours locked in the tackroom for 3 weeks and then when we opened it he was so scared of the outside of it, and accustomed to regular meals he wouldn’t leave.

[HungarianHippo]

Agree that it can take months-- After 7 months, I just had a breakthrough with a tiny, completely feral tom that moved into the barn during the depths of this really bad winter. He was little more than a blur in my peripheral vision for the first month or so, then allowed himself to be seen (but <poof!! GONE!> if you so much as moved. Fast forward a few months and he would tolerate looking at me in the eye and meowing for food, from a safe distance. Last month I got him to accept eating from his bowl with my hand placed on the table a couple feet away, eventually I’d move my hand closer, closer etc. Eventually he accepted having to push my hand out of the way in order to get to his food. Finally, last week, he said OH ALRIGHT ALREADY!! and he went straight to my hand and rubbed his face all over it, with his tail flagged in greeting. It really cracked me up. I can pet him all over now, but he’s still a wild child-- hisses and swats without provocation. Will be getting his “brain surgery” taken care of next month, maybe that will help a bit.

All this to say that it can take many months, but for most of them, a switch gets flipped and they will accept you.