Expert: Tina - 8/17/2004

Question
Hi,

We were feeding some ferral cats, we managed to tame them though to some degree, and we feeding them every day for about a year. They weren't tame enough to sleep them inside, they used to sleep outside on some chairs we had.

The female had kittens, but because I couldn't get her inside on the night she had them, she had them outside in a building site next door. I kept putting food out for her and I saw the kittens around a little bit, but when they were about 2 months old we had to move house and couldn't take her with us as we couldn't trap the kittens and couldn't take her away from them.

The house we left was left empty for ages, as they were planning to knock it down. So, after we moved, I went back every day or two to the old house and left the cats a lot of food and water. When I went back recently, the house had been knocked down, and the cats were nowhere in sight. The area has been fenced off and I can't see them anywhere. I have not been back there now for a couple of months, and have left a note and talked to people in the neighbourhood to call me if they see them.

I feel really bad about leaving them, I feel like I have abandonded them, but I have heard that cats generally go where the food is eg someone elses house. I want to know whether the cat and her kittens, which would now be 6 months old, would be ok, whether they would be starving or not, and whether they would be able to survive. Also, if the female cat falls pregnant again but she doesn't eat properly, would her new litter die? Should I go back and look for them again...I just don't know where they are but I feel like I need to rescue them and also to stop them from breeding, as there are now 5 stray cats in that neighbourhood.  If I call the RSPCA (that's what we have in Australia) they can provide cat traps but I don't know whether by now the cats would be gone. Where would they be getting food? There is one male, one adult female and 2 6 month old kittens. What to do?

Answer
Hi Laura,

It is good of you to be concerned about these cats and to have helped them out so far. Feral cats are still domestic animals and they do depend on humans for food - either by sheltering in barns and eating the rodents that live there, raiding our garabage or eating food left for them by us. So unless they have found a source of food they will be starving... but cats are pretty resourceful hopefully a neighbor has started to feed them. A pregnant cat who doesn't get enough to eat probably will loose her litter. I know this is sad news for you to hear but they won't be fine without you or someone like you to look after them, they will breed and produce starving and sickly kittens.

The RSPCA will probably euthanize them if they trap them, so don't call them. It will be up to you to do this, but you can do it, thousands of other people with no previous experience have taken on even bigger populations of cats and had them spayed/neutered and prevented suffering and birth of more kittens. If you get them now, the problem is under control. If they continue to breed there could be dozens of cats in no time and not enough food for them all.

What I think you should do is to set up a feeding station near the old house, if there is a location you can put food and water without drawing attention to yourself (neighbors may not like this). For example is there an edge of woods or an old building you could dicreetly feed behind?

Put the food down in early morning when wildlife is less likely to be out. Try to do it at the same time every day, and if the cats are around they will start to anticipate your arrival and you will see them! Once you start seeing them, borrow a humane trap from the RSPCA or purchase one for your own. Usually it's best to tie the trap open and gradually move the food inside until the cats get used to it. Then set the trap and catch them. Don't try to take them out of the trap or they will escape most likely! You may have trouble finding a low cost spay/neuter clinic that will handle feral cats in Australia. See below for some info about Australia's attitude towards stray/feral cats!

Articles about Australian Goverment's approach to eliminating stray/feral cats, so you kow what you are up against:
http://cats.about.com/cs/advocacy/a/australianferal.htm
http://www.ava.com.au/content/press/cat.htm

Here are some resources you should read for help:
http://www.feralcat.com
http://www.alleycat.org
http://catnet.stanford.edu

http://www.1888pets911.org/programs/national/feralcats/index.php?section=Trap+Ne...

I could not find much info about Spay/neuter in Australia, but here is one of the links I found.

If they have not done feral cats before, just ask them to inject the with pre-anesthetic through the cage, when they are dopey they can take them out and put in the tube as usual and do the spay/neuter. Or they can just use an injectable anethetic. THen they place the cat in the trap or in a carrier and you let them recover in there for the rest of the day, when they are alert release them again where you found them!

http://www.hawconline.com/spaystation.shtml

Good luck finding the cats and getting them spayed and fed! Bless you for caring about them.

-Tina