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Cats are host to a range of zoonotic diseases, such as rabies, toxoplasmosis, hookworms, and roundworms. The most common route of disease exposure to humans from feral cats is directly from bites and scratches. In Florida, cats are the most common domestic animal to expose humans to rabies, and on average 10 Floridians are exposed to rabies from feral cats each year . In 2010, 303 rabid cats were reported through a national surveillance program in the USA (Blanton et al. 2011). Rabies is a lethal disease to humans, and exposure from feral cats requires aggressive and expensive post-exposure treatment of the person exposed. In addition to rabies, feral cats may also be a reservoir for the flu virus.

The last thing you need is to have to chase this cat out of an unsafe hiding spot or, worse yet, from inside your ductwork or walls. Get down on your belly and look everywhere in the room for anything that may be unsafe. Remember, cats don’t have shoulder blades like we do – if they can get their heads in it, they can get the rest of their bodies in it, too. The litterboxes are another issue where it pays to think ahead.

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Most studies concluded that TNR cat colonies were prone to attracting abandoned and stray cats (Longcore et al. 2009). We first reviewed a study published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association . This study was a survey of caretakers of the TNR cat colonies in north central Florida.

This is something to watch carefully, although most will learn in a short period of time that they don’t have to eat everything in sight. Another advantage of holding cats in traps is that the administration of anesthetics can be done without any direct handling. Use a trap divider to humanely confine the cat at one end of the trap, allowing an IM injection to be administered through the trap wire. After the anesthetic takes effect, you can safely remove the cat. After surgery and before awakening, return cats to their traps for recovery. This system ensures that staff never handle the cats while they’re conscious, and there are no opportunities for escape or injury to cats or caregivers.

Remember, the de-worming med is a poison, so kitty may act a bit off while on the meds. This is normal, but keep a close eye on her for any serious adverse reactions. Spay/Neuter is important for many reasons, but here are a few pertaining especially to bringing a feral inside. First, do you want to deal with a cat in heat or a spraying male? Although it can take a couple of weeks for a male’s hormones to re-adjust after neutering, he will be much less likely to spray to mark his new territory once he is neutered.

Yet the spread of these diseases has never been conclusively linked to feral cats. A feral cat is an unsocialized outdoor cat who has either never had any physical contact with humans, or human contact has diminished over enough time that she is no longer accustomed to it. Most feral cats are fearful or people and are not likely to ever become a lap cat or enjoy living indoors. Feral, stray, and pet cats are all members of the same species; they are all domestic cats.

Another shortcoming of the model was the assumption that a given environment’s carrying capacity for a cat colony is equal to the established cat colony’s population size. An environment’s carrying capacity for a given species of animal is the maximum number of animals that can subsist on the resources in the environment (food, shelter, etc.). Because TNR programs typically feed cats, the carrying capacity would likely increase with the establishment of a TNR plan, because the extra food would mean that the environment could support additional cats. Reliable food sources can cause cats to become more social and less territorial , resulting in more cats in a given area (Schmidt et al. 2007). One belief that people have is that, if you take the food away, then the cats will go away.

Then spend time with them out of doors as you introduce them into their new environments over a relaxed weekend. Afterwards, they should be stable—as long as you adhere to meticulous feeding schedules. While it may be stressful to move cats from one outdoor environment to another, and though some attrition may well take place , the majority of cats will comply with your human interventions. While they are socialized to their feline family members and bonded to each other, they do not have that same relationship with people. Finally, even the large outdoor cats may have a home of their own!

How to Help a Feral Cat

Now you can get your fix of both with a visit to your friendly neighborhood cat c.. I live in NW Pensacola, a wooden house with a sloped roof for the rain to run off is good. Make sure it has both a entrance and exit with either canvas or plastic doors so it keeps out unwanted guests and rain. Make sure it’s elevated so no rain seeps in through the floor. The cat shelter’s height should be at least 25% bigger than the height of the pet when it stands tall.

That means ensuring the feral population is spayed/neutered and vaccinated is vital to both maintaining their health and our neighborhoods and cities. A healthy feral colony will help control rodent and pest populations in their range as well as keep out other cats. If all the members of that colony have been spayed or neutered, then the colony will stop growing. The way to do this is to find a local TNR (trap-neuter-return) program that spays & neuters feral cats, vaccinates them, ear-tips them and releases them back to their homes. Then a local volunteer (maybe you!) will feed and monitor the colony. Finally, a study that modeled various cat-management practices reported that the best practice for control was TNR (Boone et al. 2019).

When she comes out, as much as you want to look her in her eyes, do not make eye contact. Look over the top of her so she will not consider you a threat and avoid looking her directly in the eye. Try to look just over her ears, and she won’t feel threatened. In the feral cat world, direct eye contact is considered an act of aggression. Especially in the beginning, when she’s feeling you out, avoid looking at her at all. This will reinforce to her that you are not a predator watching her every move and waiting for her to show a weakness.

I know they were previously owned but nobody ever claimed them. Best Friends Animal Society partnered with Petsmart Charities to prove that TNR programs have the potential to cut taxpayers costs in half in comparison to the “catch and kill” method. The study states that to trap and kill feral cats accumulates to a total cost of $16 billion.

Finally, a typical treatment of a spayed or neutered cat is for a vet to recommend an e-collar to be placed on the cat to prevent them from opening/licking their incisions . There are no studies of the health outcomes of cats spayed or neutered after being released back outside without an e-collar. Trap-Neuter-Return is a safeguard against rabies, because “the vaccination component of TNR programs ensures that the cats in managed colonies cannot catch or spread rabies,” says Ackerman. When in a frightening or stressful environmentsuch as a trap or a sheltera friendly stray cat may act like a feral cat, avoiding people and possibly even showing aggression to avoid being touched. Kittens born to feral cats can be socialized at an early age and adopted into indoor homes.

Community Support

For this reason, ear notching as a method of identification isn’t recommended. Ear tipping is more reliable and can usually be seen from a distance. For spays of feral cats, some surgeons prefer a flank approach rather than the traditional ventral midline incision. The flank approach allows caregivers to monitor a cat’s incision from a distance, and may help to prevent evisceration should post-operative opening of the surgical wound occur. The flank approach is also good for lactating queens to prevent the possibility of incising mammary tissue and causing leakage of milk into the surgical wound.

They tend to run from humans, seeking hiding places away from us. They may live in colonies with other feral cats, and they’re usually most active at night. Additionally, they seldom vocalize, and they usually have clean, well-kept coats. If they’ve been spayed or neutered as part of a TNR program, they will often have an ear-tip surgically missing.

What is the difference between a stray cat and a feral cat?

She will either try every time you open the door to get out, or she will show no interest at all in going outside. She will be aloof and only want love on her terms, or she will seem to want to make up for the time when she couldn’t get attention and demand all the time. You may or may not get a lap cat, but that’s true for all cats. She will play, she will watch you with interest and not fear, she will come close and even touch and smell you.

Locke

Hi, my name is Lowell and I have always been interested in animals. I was born with a deep fascination for them that has only grown stronger as I’ve gotten older. This interest has led me to become a zookeeper. It’s the best job in the world because it allows me to work with animals every day and learn more about them.