First Post - Need help with ferals PLEASE!

Hi all. I'll take some time and get to know folks later hopefully, tonight I've come home after a 10 hour day at work to find a new and unpleasant problem with my feral mama and teenager.
Bit of backround: Discovered this small family living behind our garages at the treeline of neighbor's property this fall. Trapped mom and kitten - both very feral - vetted and neutered them and they were returned to their home at the treeline.

FAst forward to the brutal winter - they have good shelter, I feed them twice a day, they seem content, gave them a catnip banana they play with...

Tonight, I get home late and rush to feed my own cats and then go out with warmed thermogel disc, water, food and get them all set for the night.
Get back in my house and my cats start growling madly at me and I start sniffing myself and on the sleeve of my coat there's a strong odor of male cat.

So I assume another cat got into their feeding station/shelter and marked. So now besides praying my own 3 (fixed) males don't start trying to mark, I am worried about my girls outside.

Will they use their shelter now or do I have to change everything before they will go in again? It's pretty cold here and I have to work tomorrow at noon, so I don't have alot of time in the morning to deal with this. (I am off Monday but I'm hoping to get some advice/info from someone who hopefully has dealt with a situation like this and can advise me).

I will get a trap from my HS on tuesday, but who knows hwo long it will take to trap this male.

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!

Try some of these

Pennsylvania

Alliance for Philadelphia’s Animals
Castaway Critters - Harrisburg
Cats with No Name - Lebanon and Schuylkill Counties
For Cats' Sake - Richboro
Forgotten Felines & Fidos, Inc. - Germansville
FosterCat, Inc. - Pittsburgh
Fund for Feral Cats - Pittsburgh
Homeless Cat Management Team - Southwestern PA
Humane League of Lancaster County - Lancaster
The Hundred Cat Foundation - Centre Hall
In Care of Cats - Elizabeth
Northampton County SPCA - Easton
Operation Pawssible - Sligo
PAWS - Camp Hill
Peaceable Kingdom, Inc. - Allentown
Pet Solutions - Mercer (Serves Mercer County only)
The Safe Cat Network, Inc - Reading
York County SPCA - York
York County Feral Cat Coalition - York

Sorry I posted this to the wrong thread

Hi Pearslmom: Another member, Scott77777, posted a thread in this forum about the same problem you're having. Take a look, it's still on the current thread listings for this forum.

I haven't (luckily, so far!) had to deal with the situation you've got, but I think all you can do is try to clean the shelters to remove the scent, as Scott77777 did, as well as getting the "offender" neutered!

Good luck - I know the timing is lousy with such cold weather. Hope your little ones will continue to use their shelters.

I have a male cat that comes onto my patio and sprays all over the table that holds my ferals food but it has not stopped them from still going to the food or hanging out on my patio.

Thanks so much for the replys KTLynn and Sicycat. I worked all day again today so I couldn't do anything about anything.
He didn't spray again tonight so it was not too terrible when I got home. It seems to be just the feeding stations not in their shelter so that's a small grace.
I'm getting a trap tomorrow and I plan on getting him by Wednesday night or else!
The girls are ok still and I'm putting out extra food so he doesn't make any trouble. I'm changing clothes in the mudroom before going back into my house( brrrrrrrr!!) so my 3 boys seem to be doing ok with it.

I did see Scott77777's post last night and read it.
I'll let you know how it goes later today.
Thanks again and sorry I didn't introduce myself before jumping in. I'll do it backwards I guess!

Originally Posted by Pearlsmom

and sorry I didn't introduce myself before jumping in. I'll do it backwards I guess!

Click to expand...

Ah. you dont need to introduce yourself beforehand. This is not a sociale club, this is a place where we all try to help (homeless) cats and persons helping such cats. You are welcome!

Good proceeding!

Good luck with the trapping!

we had the same thing happen. a couple of unfixed males showed up,
that we now have to catch and fix, and sprayed our feeding station but
thank goodness it did not affect any of the regular cats. they still
eat in their feeding station and sleep in their insulated houses.

good luck !!!

about where in new york do you live ? are you on long island ?

Well, no luck with trapping the yeller male.
But I don't think he's been around since he sprayed - and I do think he's the father of the kitten (I know they don't recognize that in each other).
There's allot of snow on the ground (I'm in upstate NY, not Long Island) so I'm not too encouraged for this week.

The girls are fine and eating and doing the things they usually do so I'm not as worried as I was, plus my own 3 boys are not too alarmed and there's no weird behaviors in my house thank goodness.

*(thanks stephanZ for that. Good to know!)

That's good. Most ferals are probably used to other cats spraying or scents like that everywhere so it probably doesnt affect them as much as we think, or say as much as our INDOOR cats would probably be affected