Recently, a feral cat showed up at my barn. I started feeding the cat right away because I would not mind having a good mouser around in the least. I wanted to feed the cat for a few weeks and then trap the cat so that it could be altered. Well, the cat had kittens the barn. They are already eating solid foods so my best guess is that she had them right after she moved in.
Since I saw the kitten eating the dry cat food, I know I have to get the cat altered. Will she take off if I trap her in the barn and take her to be spayed? What if the kittens get in the trap - will it hurt them? I really don’t want to lose my mouser, so I would like to do this right.
Also, what do you feed your barn cats? I have seen the female cat with a mouse several times, so I am sure that they are supplementing their diets with mice (Eww), but they definitely seem to appreciate the dry food.
By the way, it will require a trap I believe. While the cats have gotten braver, they are all scared and I haven’t had any of them come up to me to this point.
You really need to trap them all and get them spuetered. If you tame the kittens they will be easier to deal with in the future and you will have a reliable team of barn cats.
[QUOTE=NoDQhere;8402227]
You really need to trap them all and get them spuetered. If you tame the kittens they will be easier to deal with in the future and you will have a reliable team of barn cats.[/QUOTE]
My vet told me that the kittens need to be 5 pounds to be speutered, but if they were in the trap I’d take them for deworming and vaccinations.
I held one of the kittens once, but they are hard to catch! Ideally I would have turned them over to a cat rescue, but I could only catch the one. I have high prey drive dogs and so I’m not able to enclose them in my house. My guess is that they may gradually get tamer from regular feeding if they stay, but so far my taming efforts have fallen flat.
I was given two feral cats last May. I was told to keep them locked in a room for 3 weeks. I put in scratching post, food tray, liter box and two cat houses. I went into the room several times a day and of course they would both hide. I left dry food and water all the time but every morning they got wet food. One was over a year and the other probably 9 months or so.
When I let them out the older one took off and made her way to the attached hay barn where she lives. I have never touched her and for the first couple of months if she saw me she was gone. Now, if she is in the viewing lounge and I walk in she stops what she doing and stares at me. I still give her a bit of wet food and can crouch down and be about a foot away while she eats it. I have never touched her.
The younger one is different. I started spoon feeding her the wet food. I placed a wee bit of food on a table spoon and held the spoon at arms length with the spoon tip on the ground. She came and ate it so I would give her more. I gave her 5-6 spoons. It didn’t take long before she would immediately come for the wet food. I started to shorten the distance until she finally was eating at my feet, Next I held the spoon further along the handle until she was accepting this. I then was holding the spoon right where she was eating. After a couple of days I used one of my fingers to touch her cheek. She finally got use to me rubbing her cheek with either hand while she was eating. This slowly moved to scratching her head and neck. All of this took about 1 1/2 months. Now, she rubs against my legs and purrs away while I bend over to scratch her cheeks, neck, head, back etc. I’m hoping some day I will be able to pick her up or she sit on my lap.
When they are old enough, get the little ones to eat wet food off a spoon so they get use to you. They are young and will accept you quite quickly. Pretty soon you will be able to scratch them and when they see you they’ll come running for some wet food. It shouldn’t take nearly the time it has taken me, remember, mine was 9 months maybe 10 months old.
By the way, they are awesome mousers and will get any rats too.
If you trap the mother and take her to be spayed, she will probably stay around when she gets back especially since her off-spring is there and some wet food.
I feed my barn cats Purina Urinary chow and I do give them wet food, not very much at all - teaspoon. I feed the urinary chow because I have a male that had stones several years ago.
I had a feral cat moving into my barn about 10 months ago. In the beginning she was very shy, but when I started to feed her she really fell for the food. I think she was about 1 1/2 years and pretty starved when she came. I was lucky, she did not get any kittens until I was able to catch her. I got a carrier from the vet and placed tuna into the carrier. then I placed the carrier on the spot where I usually fed her. She went into the carrier right away and then I took her to the vet…The vet told me to do it that way. We dewormed her, checked her for diseases, vaccinated her and some weeks later spayed her. It worked out very well and she never got mad at me. I was a little scared about that. She is now completely tame and loves to be petted. I give her daily some dry food and one portion of Meow Wet cat food. she loves it and gained a lot of weight with it. Also her coat is simply amazing. And I have never seen a rat in my barn since she moved in…
