Need Help with a stray

Hi i was wondering if anyone had any advice on catching a stray. The cat that i am trying to catch seems to wander through my backyard every now and then. I've even seen him in broad daylight wandering around my neighborhood. I know that a lot of people advise leaving food out for the cat to get it to get used to coming back and then using a trap to catch it. However the problem right now is that whenever I leave food out, the next morning ants are swarming all over it. And to my knowledge the cat has never eaten any of the food. Does anyone else have any suggestions as to what I can do to get the cat accustomed to coming to my house every night so when it is time to trap it, I can know where to set the trap. Or a way to keep the ants away? besides poison because i don't want to poison the cat by accident T__T.

PS: this is kinda urgent because i couldn't tell if it was intact or not and my sister said she recently saw another possibly stray cat running around and so i want to prevent the possibility of a litter.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Originally Posted by baelfire

Or a way to keep the ants away? besides poison because i don't want to poison the cat by accident T__T.

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You could use diacetomous earth (http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sea...archid=704881).

Totally non-dangerous for animals, but deadly for insects and worms.

If human-grade, you could even put some in the food - and thus have the cat dewormed and deparasited... .

If you arent THAT brave, lay down some around your place. So the ants will not bother you as much as they do now.

Originally Posted by baelfire

Hi i was wondering if anyone had any advice on catching a stray. The cat that i am trying to catch seems to wander through my backyard every now and then. I've even seen him in broad daylight wandering around my neighborhood. I know that a lot of people advise leaving food out for the cat to get it to get used to coming back and then using a trap to catch it. However the problem right now is that whenever I leave food out, the next morning ants are swarming all over it. And to my knowledge the cat has never eaten any of the food. Does anyone else have any suggestions as to what I can do to get the cat accustomed to coming to my house every night so when it is time to trap it, I can know where to set the trap. Or a way to keep the ants away? besides poison because i don't want to poison the cat by accident T__T.

PS: this is kinda urgent because i couldn't tell if it was intact or not and my sister said she recently saw another possibly stray cat running around and so i want to prevent the possibility of a litter.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Are you certain that no one else is also feeding this cat?? What I would do is borrow a humane trap and see if you can trap this cat with some very smelly bait. I've heard that cats really go for deboned, deskinned, warm KFC chicken.

Good Luck,

Katie

Originally Posted by TNR1

Are you certain that no one else is also feeding this cat?? What I would do is borrow a humane trap and see if you can trap this cat with some very smelly bait. I've heard that cats really go for deboned, deskinned, warm KFC chicken.

Good Luck,

Katie

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I actually don't know if anyone is else is feeding this cat. I've only seen it a few times around the neighborhood. Hmmm i might try the KFC idea but do you think the lack of trans fat now will affect the taste for a cat?

PS: where can you get diatomaceous earth? Does lowes or homedepot have it? And supposedly i can't buy it online because one of the companies I looked at said that it can not be shipped to California.

Originally Posted by baelfire

I actually don't know if anyone is else is feeding this cat. I've only seen it a few times around the neighborhood. Hmmm i might try the KFC idea but do you think the lack of trans fat now will affect the taste for a cat?

PS: where can you get diatomaceous earth? Does lowes or homedepot have it? And supposedly i can't buy it online because one of the companies I looked at said that it can not be shipped to California.

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I don't think the change in cooking oil will change the smell of the KFC to the cat.

Katie

well good news is i caught him ^__^. And surprise surprise he is not neutered. So as early as i can next week i will take him to vet and get him neutered. He seems pretty calm so i think he might be a stray.

Do you recommend i should get a bloodtest done for him to check for any illnesses? Or what other tests should i have done while i am there.

Originally Posted by baelfire

And supposedly i can't buy it online because one of the companies I looked at said that it can not be shipped to California.

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That was odd. dont they sell it online, or is it something peculiar with the diacetomous earth??? Or does California have laws forbidding trade?

I would better understand if you said you cant find it anywhere...

Great job on catching him!!

For your vet visit, I suggest that you get the FeLV/FIV combo test. While it doesn't prove either disease, it's a quick and inexpensive way to find out if he was exposed to either of them. They draw a little bit of blood and put it on the test pad, which has dots which will change colors in 10 minutes. If any of those show positive, come back and we can talk about follow up testing.

Are you going to keep him?

thanks for the advice momofmany. Okay the cat was caught yesterday and i confined him to a pet training cage until i can get him to a vet and this morning i checked and it seems that the cat has dropped clumps of hair all over. Do any of you have any idea on what could be causing this?

PS: he drank his water, ate the food and used the litterbox fine. We also let him run around the garage whenever we are around to supervise him. So i'm kinda lost as to what could be causing this hair loss.

I don't know how much hair you are describing, but indeed cats shed hair excessively when they are stressed out.

Originally Posted by baelfire

PS: he drank his water, ate the food and used the litterbox fine. We also let him run around the garage whenever we are around to supervise him. So i'm kinda lost as to what could be causing this hair loss.

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Sounds nice and cosy of you. How do you manage? Your neighbour "Feral cat loose in garage" is despaired "her" feral getting loose in the garage.
If you can get him in and out of the cage without bigger problems...and him not too afraid when you with him. That sounds promising if you hope to foster him in into a homecat.

I agree the hair shedding may be because of stress. It doesnt even need be excessive stress. Stressed homecats can also lose hair. (my theory is that is why the hair are flying when they have catfights: they let the hairs go in high stress).
And it is summer now too.
But when you are to vet for the check up and neutering, do mention this.

Bad news the stray got out. And this Friday was his appointment to see the vet.

Argh basically what happened was even though this week is my finals week, I would study in the garage so that i could keep an eye on the stray as he got to exercise while out of the cage. During that time he learned how to get up into the rafters but that wasn't a problem because usually when i called him he would climb down from the rafters himself.

Well today after having stayed up all night to study for my finals, i decided to take a quick nap. During my nap however my sister decided to play with the cat. I had previously told them that it was okay to take the cat out as long as they stayed to supervise. But from what i can gather after asking my sister what happened was that she took him out played with him for two to three minutes then decided to go watch TV without putting him back in the cage. When she came back she couldn't find him. And then she decided to try to find him and went outside. At that point she decided to wake me up and i found out what happened.

It is my belief that he climbed into the rafters and so she couldn't see him and when she went outside to look she left the door open and probably when she wasn't looking he climbed down and got away.

EDIT: He came back on his own during the night. ^__^ Apparently he likes our garage enough that he came back and he even brought us a present of a dead mouse/rat. So i guess he sees us as family? or maybe he wanted to have a snack before bed. Anyways i'm just glad that he came back.