Adopt a Pet | Find Your New Best Friend

Use cheaper, smelly canned food such as Friskies or Whiska’s to bait the trap. Add a small amount of food directly on a small piece of newspaper deep in the back of the trap. Make the food difficult to reach so that the cat must enter the trap completely and step on the trap mechanism. However, try not to make eye contact when you spot the cat . Instead, remain still and quiet and either sit or stand quietly in the general vicinity while the kitty eats. After a few days, you can build up to speaking to your cat in a calm and reassuring voice.

If you’re not able to make a feral cat box, you can also buy one. There are cat heated bedsand unheated options as well as “houses” that can be used as shelters for stray cats. Some stray cats will be friendly right off the bat, but with others, it may take time and patience to establish trust. “If a cat is not comfortable with humans, they will mostly scratch or bite if you attempt to handle them. Go slow and always allow the cat a way to leave the situation so that they don’t feel cornered,” says Gouge.

Angell at Nashoba – Low-Cost Wellness Care

Use caution and common sense when trapping outdoor animals. Above all, it’s important that anyone who considers taming a feral cat should know that it will likely take several weeks—or even longer, if you’ve found a particularly skittish kitty—so patience is of utmost importance. Stray Haven is dedicated to promoting the health, well-being, and welfare of all cats – domestic, stray, abandoned, and feral.

Petal Smart is a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and has been an editor in the veterinary and medical sciences since 2015. She has edited more than 700 assignments, including research studies published in various academic journals, continuing medical education materials, and articles on pet health. We recommend calling first and asking about their policies and procedures. If you don’t have a live trap, contact FCCO to rent a humane live trap. We will show you how to safely trap the cat so you can take him to a veterinarian. Do not attempt to grab the cat or try and put him in a carrier.

Vetstreet.com delivers advice from veterinarians, trainers and pet experts who are dedicated to giving you the most trusted, authoritative information for keeping pets healthy and happy. Our Find A Vet service connects you with leading veterinarians in your area. Launched in 2011, Vetstreet.com features veterinarian-reviewed medical advice and has quickly become one of the top animal health and lifestyle sites on the web.See more.

With up-to-date information from our experts and veterinarians. Choose a safe room in your home to keep the cat in (even a large, walk-in closet or bathroom that isn’t being used will work). The more people who visit the area, the more stressed out, frightened, and threatened the cat will feel. Rehome by Adopt-a-Pet.com is the safe, reliable, and free way to find a loving new home for a pet. Our dedicated team of experts is here to support you with resources to help you keep your pet when you can and find the perfect new home for your pet when you can’t.

As always, exercise extreme caution should you decide to handle a sick or injured animal. But there is one thing we humans have in our arsenal that will greatly increase your chances at training a feral cat—and that’s food. For example, be sure to offer some cat food to the cat at the same time and in the same place every day, perhaps in a certain area on your porch or patio. Please don’t surrender the cat to an open-admission kill shelter unless and until you have completely exhausted all efforts outlined aboveand you, for whatever reason, cannot keep the cat until an adopter or rescue is secured. Some open admission kill shelters don’t allow public adoptions and may not allow rescue groups to save these animals, and the majority have very high euthanasia rates. This is especially true if the cat is very young , older (over 5-6), is pregnant, or has any health issue .

If you are set on adopting this stray cat into your home, and you know they do not belong to someone, then you can begin the transition process. But, before you transition the outdoor stray cat into a domesticated pet, it is essential that you earn the cat’s trust, bring them for a vet for a checkup and have all the necessary cat suppliesready. In these cases, it seems as if stray cats decide to “adopt” an unsuspecting person as their new caretaker.

What to do if you find a stray cat – RSPCA South Australia

What to do if you find a stray cat.

Connect with your veterinarian and ask if they would be willing to house the cat during recovery, or for advice on how to create the best possible recovery space in your home. See our information on in-trap care and setting up a holding/recovery area. Where in the world where she feels she can make a difference. Animals also happen to be her favorite topic to write about!

She lives off the grid in Hawaii with her husband, her garden, and her rescue animals including 5 dogs, a cat, a goat, and dozens of chickens. Even if nothing seems wrong with the cat, they could have various problems. Therefore, it is important to take a stray cat to the vet no matter the condition they seem to be in. Hopefully, you’ll fall in love and keep the cat yourself or have success rehoming it to a loving family. If you’re unable to take on the care of a stray cat or a cat is too feral and aggressive for your safety, you still have options.

However, remember to always wash your hands and arms thoroughly after handling any feral animals. Feral cats are born in the wild, and thus, have had very little contact with humans. For this reason, always be careful when handling a stray cat.

If you haven’t already, review our general information on TNR at alleycat.org/TNRGuide and our information for hard-to-trap cats at alleycat.org/HardToTrap. You can also find financial resources at alleycat.org/Economy. Our mission at Pet Keen is to make the life of you and your pets easier and even more enjoyable.

Over time, the cat will get used to your voice and scent and will be less afraid of being touched. Don’t worry if the cat won’t let you touch them very often at first, this is normal behaviour for a stray cat. Try feeding the cat different types of food, such as cat biscuits or packets of cat food. If the cat has been on the streets for a long time, it may not be used to typical foods and will take a while to get used to its new diet.

Place the trap on a low, level surface in the area where the cats usually feed or have been seen. Cats are less likely to enter a trap if it wobbles or if it is in danger of toppling. Jennifer Lesser is a pet health and wellness expert and writer with over a decade of experience covering pet behavior, health, and news. Her work can also be found in Whole Dog Journal, Health, Dogster, Catster, and Animal Sheltering.

If you come across a community cat who looks sick or injured, she may need immediate veterinary attention. It’s important for you to have an action plan in place to provide the best care and make the right decisions to save the life of any sick or injured feline. Again, because there is no state law requiring cat owners to keep their pets indoors, there is no way to know for sure if the cat you saw is lost, abandoned, or just a free-roaming owned cat. Speak with your neighbors to determine if the cat may belong to them.

Your partner veterinarian should be able to aid you not only in treating sick or injured community cats, but also in every aspect of your TNR work. Fortunately, there are many financial support options available that can help offset your financial responsibilities. Some resources are focused specifically on veterinary care. If you find that you cannot afford the veterinarian care of the stray cat that you are trying to save, don’t feel guilty. Instead, find a humane society or rescue center in your area that is willing to take the cat in and provide it with the care that they need. If you decide you’re ready to open your home to a new feline friend, it’s also important to make sure that you’ll have the financial resources to properly care for him/her.

Again, without veterinary care, nobody would have detected this problem until parasites took over the cat and caused him major GI upset. If you bring a stray kitten or cat into your home, don’t think he is fine, even if he looks OK. In our case, this “healthy” young cat had at least 6 problems that could have worsened if we hadn’t looked for them. Free-roaming and abandoned cats aren’t confined to one house or other shelter. They may be tame but are unowned, born in the wild or discarded by its mother or a negligent human.

You can also provide a cooling pet pad, like The Green Pet Shop self-cooling pet pad, so your outdoor kitty always has a place to relax and cool down during hotter days. Many of these cats avoid people; however, stray cats will sometimes yearn for human interaction . If you feel safe, approach the cat slowly and speak in a soft voice. Offer a can of tuna or cat food, a bowl of water and shelter, if possible.

Angell Animal Medical Centers – Boston

For community cats with mild issues, it may be best to allow them to heal in their outdoor home rather than trapping them. One of the most important reasons to bring a stray cat to the vet is to check if the cat is microchipped. If he is not chipped, you can ask your vet about the proper next step. Different regions have different rules – for example, some areas require you to report the cat to animal control and some areas may insist you bring the cat to an animal shelter for a holding period. You can take a stray cat to the vet, and should do so if you are comfortable with it. A stray cat is one that is homeless or lost versus a feral cat that is unsocialized and cannot be handled by people.

While we provide information resources and canine education, the content here is not a substitute for veterinary guidance. Stray cats don’t know where their next meal will come from. They don’t have a dedicated safe place to sleep where they will be protected from the outdoor elements and possible predators. They tend to get into fights with other cats that might be infected with a contagious disease. If you had brought this rescue kitty home and not taken him to the veterinarian, you might not have known for weeks or months that he suffered from ear mites. It may also involve testing out different types of cat litterto find the one that most closely mirrors what the cat was relieving himself on outside.

When a cat lives most of his life with humans and then becomes homeless or lost, he may have a hard time because he isn’t used to fending for himself. He may be malnourished, have a matted coat, or not have the proper up-to-date vaccinations that protect him from other cats with FiV, wildlife with rabies, etc. Your vet can evaluate any ailments the cat has and begin treatment. You can use a cat bowl like the Neater Feeder polar pet bowl to help keep a fresh source of cold water available for you cat throughout the day.