Feral cat help!!!

Monofletch

Monofletch

Gold Member
Joined
Jan 14, 2010
Messages
9,864
My wonderful neighbor has been feeding the feral cats. We are up to 10-12. Now, the litter box is my front flower bed. I have tried all the anti cat products at Lowes and HD with NO results. I have moth balls out now but I can’t stand the smell. Before those cats get “lead poisoning” does anyone have other solutions? I hate to go to those extremes if I don’t have to. I am going trap shopping tomorrow as well.

Thanks in advance.
 
Monofletch said:
My wonderful neighbor has been feeding the feral cats. We are up to 10-12. Now, the litter box is my front flower bed. I have tried all the anti cat products at Lowes and HD with NO results. I have moth balls out now but I can’t stand the smell. Before those cats get “lead poisoning” does anyone have other solutions? I hate to go to those extremes if I don’t have to. I am going trap shopping tomorrow as well.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
We use a motion activated sprinkler👍
 
There is a group of volunteers where I live that trap feral cats all around the parish. They are then brought to a vet that will spay or neuter them. After a recovery period, they were released in the city park, then other volunteers would feed them. Perhaps there is an organization near where you live.
 
Did you ask your neighbor to be a wee bit less wonderful and stop feeding them? (I don’t know if they would move on to another wonderful person…)
 
Monofletch said:
I called animal control and the lady said they are short staffed. No help there.

I will buy a trap….

I do have a pellet gun.
Click to expand...
Yeah animal control here won't do anything about feral cats. Would check into volunteer groups like osvcap osvcap mentioned. We went through 2 rounds of feral kittens/cats a few years ago and the wife found a couple volunteer people/groups that made a huge difference. We trapped around 40 cats/kittens. We found homes for most of the kittens, and the volunteers took care of getting the adults fixed and re-homed. Only 2 were released back here.

With as many cats as you're talking about, wouldn't bother trying to trap them until there's a good plan in place to deal with them. They can travel many many miles to get back "home", so need to find somewhere they like better.
 
That was our problem too, we setup the sprinkler pointing towards the neighbor's yard so they'd get blasted when they came on our side and set off the motion sensor...it's been really effective.
 
That’s the sad part about it. In some places the feral cats and stray dogs have overwhelmed the animal shelters, adoption centers and other control facilities. In run down neighborhoods with vacant homes and other buildings they can become a breeding ground and produce thousands after a few generations.

In a town with a population of about 12,000 where I used to live in Colorado they had that happen after a down turn in the local economy and about 10% of the population moved away with many leaving their pets behind in vacant housing units. It was a disaster! Several large packs of 50-70 dogs ran loose all around the area. After a few maulings of little kids and elderly people the local sportsmen got together and set baited traps and ambushed some along a river sand bar killing hundreds of dogs. They thinned them down to just a few and animal control took care of it from there. Cats soon became a large problem and they had to do similar control measures with the cats.
 
This is a tough spot to be in. Cats can be pretty destructive when wild. Toms will spray your car and house, late night fighting, killing birds, getting in the trash, etc.

The population will grow fast, especially when being fed.

You may have to buy a trap and just start there. Shooting a pellet rifle in a neighborhood can cause safety issues.

Kind of a side note, but I have a property that I maintain for an elderly couple. The neighbor down the street used to walk his dog every day to crap in their front lawn. I have watched him do it on several occasions, and then verbally let him know I didn't appreciate picking up his dog's poo.

It didn't stop him, so I started collecting it and then dumped the turds in piles in the middle of his driveway.

He stopped.

😅
 
For entertainment purposes only:

Leave an open can of tuna out for a week to get ripe and then let the cats get to it.
 
Had a neighborhood cat who liked to spray my front door and door mat. I've had success breaking him of the habit with citrus scent. I washed the doormat using orange scented dish soap. Ajax, I think. I used a peeler to remove just the orange part of the rind. It contains the most oil. I cut the pieces into about 1"x1" pieces and scattered them around the front door. Hasn't been back. YMMV
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top