As promised:
Situations vary on how I go about trapping--in a colony/hoarding case we take out as many traps as we can and get as many at once as we can care for. In my neighborhood it's single cats--I have 2 traps, one big Havaheart and one small squirrel trap that I use for trapping kittens.
In hoarder cases or colony cases we go in and feed for a week or two before hand. At one of the housing projects here that was being torn down we drove in and set up food/water stations and then made a strict point of driving the same car every night at the same time to feed them. 2 days before we are going to trap we only take out water and no food, on the third day we go in and set traps all around the feeding stations. In the traps we always put some mackerel or tuna. We NEVER leave traps unattended especially where kitties are involved. We set the trap and put inside two cat food cans, one with food and one empty so we can put water in it later. On the floor of the trap we put a little cardboard or newspaper and over the trap we place a towel. Once a trap is tripped we try to get to them as quick as we can. We cover the trap on all 4 sides to keep the cat calm, if you leave them uncovered they thrash and fight and hurt themselves. If we need the trap we find a confided area and transfer the cat to a crate. The transfer is a process in itself--if the cat see's one crack of light it will get out. We place the doors of the trap and the crate together with a board in-between them. We put towels-pillows around each side of the gap so there hopefully is no escape routes. We then slowly pull the board up and give the kitty a gentle nudge and it will move into the crate. Once in the crate the board goes back down immediately, pull the trap away and then slide the board out as we close the crate door. If we don't need the traps again we leave the cats in them. If the cats are staying in the trap they need the cardboard or a towel to lay on. If they are going in a crate we put newspaper on the floors with a towel so that they have some barrier to their urine. Once we are done trapping for the night (generally a dusk to midnight job) we take the cats to a safe garage or barn, give them a go over as best we can, water them (just a little) and cover them up for the night. The next morning bright and early we load them up for the clinic to get spayed or neutered.
At the clinic they knock them out spay and neuter them and then put the animals back in crates that we have supplied. The males stay in the crates and recover for the day, we feed them and release them that night. The females stay with us for at least a day--we watch them for any additional issues. Once they are up and moving and seem like they are going to be okay we feed and release them. The ideal situation is to release them back to where they came from. If they can't go back we try to find barns or other people who are managing a colony and see if we can release into their colony. The groups I work with give and take--if someone has some land they often will take the ferals that have no home, we take the kitties and adoptable older cats and try to adopt them out.
Sometimes an animal will be euthanized. The vets here evaluate every cat and treat as much as they can while they are under but occasionally they will find one that will suffer if let out into a colony. In these cases they will euthanize. They like to test ferals for kitty leukemia because it is transmitted to other cats, most often in these cases, if positive, they euthanize.
It talks a lot to get the feral out of cats and to gain their trust. Most people feel that feral kittens become unadoptable if they are not handled before about 10 weeks old--some say younger. I can tell you I have taken in feral kittens, it is not easy to tame them. Also my house does not work in their favor because I live a very quiet life...I have to induce noises in my house so that doesn't freak them out when they go into a home. The trick with any feral especially kittens is keep them confined!! I always feel guilty and want to let them out, staying caged is in their best interest! They are ready to roam when they quit hiding so much. I have cages that are open so they don't hide in a crate--the open cages allow them to see the world around and to become curious about it. You are best of to have less ferals and give them more time then to have many ferals and give them less time. The more feral kittens are handled the better. If I am home the cage moves from room to room with me--I take one kitten out one at a time for as much one on one time as I can give them. The more one on one interaction the better. I invite friends over to hold them and play with them. I've had great success with kittens but I've had some that never did tame. I had a dog at the time so I also exposed the kittens to my dog. My Sadie dog loved her kitties!
Very rarely do I bring adults home...I've taken in two and I've kept them in my office for a month or two and then I slowly integrated them with mine. During that time I would attempt to touch them but most often all I did for them was fed and clean up after them. I totally run on instinct when it comes to them. I have a dog door in my house so the other cats teach them how to use it and then they come and go as they please. They don't go to vets or get tons of shots. When I am working with adult ferals I do not look them in the eye, I use my peripheral vision. Eye contact can be threatening to them. Also if I do look a cat in the eye I do not stare and will blink my eyes slowly twice if we do gain contact. They do that with each other.
If they cats are in my neighborhood I find a feeding spot for them for a week or two and then out goes the trap. I release them back into my neighborhood and keep an eye on them. Predators in Seattle for feral cats are coyotes, raccoons, eagles, hawks and possums (although rare). The kittens are more exposed to other birds like seagulls, crows and blue jays. Feral cats will often abandon a kitten or all their kittens especially if they are first time mothers. Very rarely will you save a kitten who has not nursed from it's mother, I've seen it happen with 2 kittens that were abandoned but it took a village. Hand feeding newborn kittens is exhausting, they need fed and expressed every 2-4 hours.
Lots of people will help you trap if you are willing to help yourself, so to speak. If someone asks me to help them I want them to be involved. That means I will come and set the traps and teach them how to set it, I want them to watch the trap. Once a cat is trapped they can tend to it for the night or call me and I will come get it. If people wanted me to come deal with the situation I tend to be less involved mainly because it is difficult to find barns or other colonies and I just cannot let them all out into my neighborhood. There are costs depending on your state. We are very fortunate here to have great resources. Some things that can help save expenses are to only test the adults for leukemia--if one is positive then you may want to test the others. If it's mother cat with kittens we only test the mother. I do not get rabies shots only because rabies is very rare in Seattle however we have a growing bat population and I think I would rethink that now. I do give them the FVRCP shots---that one shot alone I think is worth it's weight in gold.
Anyways that's my 2 cents.
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