Quote:
Originally Posted by 86rayl
My backyard used to have a lot of new born cats, and now only one left. When this cat still a kitten, it being protected by mom, when I tried to get close to them, mom always ran away so the children including this kitten also ran away to a certain distance. And now , I am still feeding this cat ( 2-3years old now) , when this cat were born, already fed by our food, so this cat doesn't know how to hunt i believed. Me and my family would like to adopt this cat but don't know how. All I can say is we can approach the cat in a much closer distance than before, it always looking at us. But once we get out to the backyard, it'll run away. So are there any way we could attract the cat to follow us ? I know it is very difficult in doing so. Appreciate any valuable advice.
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Years ago, our community had many ferral cats. We caught a lot of them and I worked with the various cats until they were tame. We lived near a park and our community had a stream running through the community.
Well, one day I saw a ferral Momma cat in our yard. I got some cat food
and water and took it outside for Momma. I kept a good distance from her and slowly put the food and water near a wood pile. Again, I slowly moved away from her, because cats do not like quick actions or movement. Then I went further away from her and stood still. I did talk to her and called her Momma in a soft calm voice. I stayed there for about an hour and then slowly turn and went into the house.
I repeated this action every morning before going to work and every night after I got home from work. When it was time to bring food and water out to Momma, I called her name (Momma) as soon as I was outside. This way, she would know I was coming and she would not be afraid. I called, "Momma Cat, Momma Cat." Soon she came whenever I called. I kept my distance from her, but stayed there and talked to her calling her name to her.
A neighbor had said that Momma was on the other side of the community for about 6 years. She stayed closed to the park where she could hide and also hunt. I do not know why she crossed the stream and came over to our side of the community.
Now when Momma realized she could get easy food and water, she came when I called. It is important that I kept my distance from her and also stayed and talked to her and her babies. She knew I was not going to harm her or her babies. She called them after I called her.
Momma cat realized that there was a widow of opportunity to get the food and water. In the morning, birds would come and eat the cat food if Momma and her babies did not eat the food and drink the water first. Then at night, there were raccoons, foxes, etc., that would come. As long as I
was with them, she knew they were save. One evening, a large dog came running through our property. It saw Momma and the babies and I immediately chased the dog away from them. This was one more proof that I would not harm them.
Keeping a schedule of feeding and watering Momma and the babies was important. They do not like quick movements or surprizes. They like consistency. Fall went to Winter to Spring to Summer. When I felt that she trusted me, I would move a little bit closer to her after putting the food and water down. Eventually, I was able to stay right next to the
food and water and Momma and the babies came to eat.
One hot day, when Momma was in laying in the bushes, I came out and talked to her. She came to me and then rubbed up against my leg. I let her do this many times. Then with fear and trembling, I thought about petting her. Should I do this or not? She rubbed my leg again and I decided to take the chance and pet her very gently on her head. She jumpped back away from me. She looked up at me. Then she came back and rubbed my leg again. From that time on, I was able to pet her and then her babies.
She was not fully tamed yet. We had to catch her babies first with a humane trap. The best way to do this is to get Kentucky Fried Chicken.
I put pieces of the chicken in a trail and then into the trap. I had to get the babies first because one of the kittens had been injured. They knew nothing about a humane trap so one at a time walked in to the trap.
This is terrifying to the kittens and they jumpped and bumpped all around in the trap.
We took the trap with the kitten into a small bathroom in the house where we had a cat carrier. We opened up the cat carrier door wide and let the kitten leave the trap which was up agaist the open cat carrier. The kitten went right in and continued to jump and bump around in the cat carrier.
When they are caught, they are afraid and they make all kinds of noises, hissing, etc. Be carefull in handling the trap door and the cat carrier because it is possible the kitten will strike out at you or will try to bit you.
Once the kittens were trapped and in the cat carriers, we took them to the Vetinarian for all of the shots, de-worming, de-fleaing, bathing, etc.
Depending on the timing of the Vet, we would go and pick up the kittens. Since the one was injured, that kitten had to stay with the Vet. The other
kittens would come home to the small bathroom. Once there, I would
give them food and water. I started out with canned food and dry food.
They were hungry and there was no problem with getting them to eat.
The first day, I spent quite a bit of time with the kittens. I talked to them,
watched them, and did this very frequently. At first, they are afraid of you and the door being opened and closed. It does not take them long to be curious about what was past the door and they would try to get out.
Once all the kittens were home and feeling comfortable, it was time to get Momma cat. When she was trapped, she did the same thing the kittens did. Again, we repeated the procedures for the kittens. When Momma cat was ready to come home, she was reunited with the babies. I did put out kitten food for the babies.
Momma came around pretty quickly and wanted to be petted and loved. The kittens did the same.
We already had our own cats who we had for many years. With Momma and the babies, we would be overrun with cats. So, we went to a county sponsored adoption days. The kittens were frghtened, but they were tame litter trained (which was an automatic reponse on their part). They were no longer ferral and would purr when petted and even picked up sometimes. They had their own cloth toys and a towel that had their sents on it. They were adopted and I cried for each one of them. I still have tears all these years latter when I remember how much joy they gave me.
Momma cat remained with us and she and our other cats learned to get along with each other. There were hisses, meows, and paws flung out a few times, but they all settled down. There was a lot of posturing until the dominate cat was known.
I hope that this has helped you in some way. My husband and I have caught 28 cat/kittens and took them to the Vet for all of their medical needs. I loved every one of the cats/kittens. Since people want kittens more than they want adult cats, we kept all of the mother cats and they were part of our family. Good luck in your efforts to catch or tame the mother cat and the one kitten.
There are organizations that will help you catch the two cats and you may want to let them know your situation. When they are caught, please do not take them to a county or state run shelter. They keep the animals for a short time. If they are not tame, they will euthanize them. If they are tame, they will hold them for about a week before they euthanize them.
The Humane Societies keep the cats until they are adopted. They will not euthanize them. In many cases, the volunteers will take the cats until they are adopted and if they are not adopted, the volunteers will usually keep them.
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How to approach ferral cats
