So our neighborhood has a little “stray cat” area; they will catch, neuter and release, and they have little shelters and cat food set up. It was cool at first, until our indoor/outdoor cats discovered the free food. Now they’re gaining weight, and I’m not really sure what to do. Keeping them inside isn’t an option, but I’m concerned for their health. Do we stop feeding them altogether? I don’t want to do that because I’m afraid that will encourage them to eat the strays food even more. We have cut back on how much we are feeding but haven’t noticed any change in their weight. Ideas?
Your cats will probably have some of their new friends over for snacks at your house soon. Try not to worry about your kitties eating too much and every now and then throw in a bag of chow for the TNR gang. If you live in a neighborhood together enough to have this much compassion for strays you live in a great place!
Keeping them inside is the only clear solution. Why is that not an option?
If you absolutely can’t keep them inside then maybe reduce their food, but not totally cut it out. You don’t want them to stop coming home.
You’ll have to keep an eye on their weight and adjust what you feed them at home accordingly. If they go out and get food elsewhere, what else can you do? No way to know how much or what they are consuming at all, much less control it. Outdoor life at large means taking some serious health risks for your cats, and getting fat is likely the least of the worries associated with mingling with the local feral cat population, like being exposed to trauma and communicable diseases, traffic, etc. The best thing for their health would be to contain them and not let them roam outside in this situation, but I get that some cats just.won’t.have.it and some folks just accept the facts and risks, and let them outside anyway. As long as you spay/neuter and vaccinate your own, and can live with the rest, then go with it, I guess.
I wouldn’t worry about them taking food out of the mouths of the homeless kitties that are being sponsored by the feral cat people, as long as you contribute food, money, and/or labor in amounts that cover your cats additional and unneeded burden, plus enough to sponsor a few real feral cats. Or something.
Beethoven said, I wouldn’t stop feeding them regularly at home if you are interested maintaining them as pets and/or monitoring their health on a daily basis, etc.
Couldn’t you install a doggie door that goes into a kennel with a top (like 10x10). They aren’t too expensive, and you can put some plants in there, and climbing places and sunbathing places. It would allow them to be “out” but safely contained.
If you insist on letting your cats roam, you absolutely need to be buying food regularly for the people feeding the feral cats, since your cats are also eating it.
We’ve asked about contribUting but apparently part of the H.O.A. takes care if it, no one so far has been able to give me any info on donating food. It really is a great neighborhood, most people have cats that roam so no one minds each other’s cats. We do keep them in periodically but we have 3 cats in a townhouse, sometimes they get cabin fever and they’ll get destructive if they don’t get some space. We have a screened porch that we could lock them in, but I’m a little nervous keeping them in all the time; we’re renting the house, I don’t want the cats getting bored and tearing up the screen.
You might have to keep them in. I don’t think there is another solution.
I am so far from a cat expert it isn’t funny, but have you thought about putting some cat trees and scratching posts and other interesting cat stuff in the screened in room? Even leaving the television on an interesting channel with birds or something interesting to them might help. Perhaps you could wear them out a little bit every day with one of those wand toys. I had a professor many years ago that told us that her cat was really high maintenance in that they had to spend time exercising him every day.
I’d worry that if you stop feeding them, you might have difficulty getting them to come back.
I don’t know what your damage deposit is for the rental, but keep in mind that vets visits to treat even simple abscessed bite wounds are usually a couple bucks each, and go from there to treat anything that is severe or complicated. And with 3 cats that are trying to eat with a feral cat colony, I’d say their chances of pulling this off without a few good fights is pretty slim. All things considered, I’d try keeping them inside and in the screened porch area for awhile to see what happens, at least. If they start doing serious damage inside that you can’t figure out how to mitigate or get suicidally depressed, then reevaluate the outside thing.
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We’ve asked about contribUting but apparently part of the H.O.A. takes care if it, no one so far has been able to give me any info on donating food. It really is a great neighborhood, most people have cats that roam so no one minds each other’s cats. We do keep them in periodically but we have 3 cats in a townhouse, sometimes they get cabin fever and they’ll get destructive if they don’t get some space. We have a screened porch that we could lock them in, but I’m a little nervous keeping them in all the time; we’re renting the house, I don’t want the cats getting bored and tearing up the screen.[/QUOTE]
The Siamese Mafia have a screened in porch as their ONLY outside, as we live on a very fast road. We installed hardware cloth on the inside of the screen to prevent jail breaks and keep the screen in in undamaged condition. Works great…
When we moved to Florida the Formerly-Outdoor-Girls (as in a couple hours/day) were banned from nature and man. 1. Busy Road 2. Hawks - we watched one come down towards the screen at one girly sittin’ on a table.
Fortunately for them they now have a 1400 sq ft “cage” as we screened in the pool area. Enough little lizards get in to entertain them and for some reason they do not go at the screen. Lucky Us. (They’re also both over 10…so more mellow)
We did learn the hard way not to grow catnip in said cage - wild kitty worked his way in from the outside to get at the plant!!
As freshman says, vet calls because of wounds can run into serious dollars. Why don’t you try them in the screened in porch, and see how it goes? If they damage the screening, you might try replacing it with pet screen. I have that in all of the windows that I open in my house, as I’m on a very busy road and absolutely don’t want the cats getting out. It’s much stronger than regular screening, so the cats can’t tear through it. Here’s an example, at Home Depot, though I’m sure that, if you look, you can probably find it cheaper. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Phifer-48-in-x-84-in-Black-Pet-Screen-3004153/100565927# I’m not handy, so I had a window company put the screening in for me, but you can probably do it yourself.
#1 Get id tags on your cats !!
Should the HOA or someone else suddenly decide to clear out (capture and euthanize) the colony, you want your cats to have an ID tag. Sorry to mention that, but trying to think ahead.
If you want a balancing happy thought, Rome has this big half block structure near the Roman Baths set aside for stray cats. Its a huge stray cat colony complete with public signs about it and the importance of neutering.
Out cats are collared and tagged. Looks like we will be trying the screened porch route. If the Siamese mafia can handle it, maybe our crew can too. Thanks for all of the input!
