Setting my first traps!!

I'm setting two traps tonight for an appointment in the morning. Any last minute tips, suggestions, etc?

Completely clean the traps so there's no scent of fear on them. If you have Feliway, spray it pretty liberally. If it's not raining, pour dirt or litter over the bottom of the traps so that the kitties don't have to walk on the wires - and it just lifts right up through them.

Use a really stinky food - like tuna or herring (no sauce). Some go for hot dogs - or KFC chicken (no skin or bones).

Whatever you're using to transport them, make sure you have a thick plastic down over where you're going to place the traps - or have large wee-wee pads down. Almost every feral we ever transported peed out of fear.

Cover the traps with a light blanket leaving the ends open.

Do not leave the traps outside overnight with kitties in them. Bring them into a spare room, the garage, a bathroom - a room you can close off from the cats. And again - make sure the floor where you place the traps is covered with something in case they pee of fear (or desperation) over night. Thankfully, our vet is open 24 hours, so we never had to hold the poor, terrified critters for longer than it took to get them there.

Sending lots of good luck trapping vibes!

Laurie

I don't have anything to add to Laurie's great advice, but just wanted to say good luck. You're doing a wonderful thing for the kitties.

I used traps for the first time 2 weeks ago. I struggled catching them, LDG's advice would have been nice!

People at the TNR clinic said to put some canned mackerel in it since it is really smelly...and apparently most cats love it. Also put a towel over the trap (you can do it while it is out there or just after it's trapped) and it will help calm the cat down. The ones we caught were going crazy until we had a towel over it!!

Good luck!!

Thanks for the tips! And I'm pleased to say...we've got one!! The other trap is still empty, but it's still early. I feel kind of guilty, poor things so scared. We've got the cage with the cat in it up on the porch (behind a wall) and covered with a towel. There's really no place indoors we can keep them as we live in a small apartment.

Update, both traps now have kitties!!! They are both on the porch. I put them a little away from each other and covered them so they don't try to cage fight or anything. I think they'll be okay there. Like I said, they're behind a wall so nobody can see them whilst passing by, and I can keep an eye on the cages through our window.

Good for you! I have been having a problem with trapping at night, it
bothers me to know that they are in the trap all night, I was going to set some this morning , I even talked to my "Rent a Husband" and he said I could use his truck, and dig this.... I forgot that it is 1/2 price wk at my vet, I brought one of mine up there yesterday for the rest of her shots, and I told the girl to be expecting me tomorrow with two ferals, for spay/neutering, she said, well he is toldly booked up, Thurs.and Fri. I said your kidding, then it dawned on me it was 1/2 price wk. so there went my trapping for the wk.
bummed out!!
and
Monique

"Rent a Husband"- my best friends husband, (who always helps me since mine passed away, he and my husband were best friends also.) I say we have the perfect relationship, I tell him what to do, he does it very kindly, we never argue, and then he goes home! Bless his heart!!!

I found a note on my porch today with a phone number saying that their cat (solid black) has been missing 4 days and to call them. When I called it sounded like they thought I had their cat and were a little hostile. I did have a black cat with a white patch on his chest, but clearly it wasn't theirs. I know this cat is a part of my colony. I explained why I was trapping cats, so that maybe she would calm down a little bit. I asked her if their cat wears a collar, and she said no, he's also not neutered. I lightly suggested that is probably why he went out. Does anyone else doing TNR have things like this happen? I am not quite sure how to handle it. Should I offer to have the cat neutered if I trap him? Should I offer to set a trap near their house in case he comes home? Oh, and the other thing is, my entire colony is black, black and white, and tabby.

If you're sure the cat you had wasn't theirs, there's not much you can do but explain to them why you re trapping the cats and that you are sure it wasn't theirs. Offer to keep an eye out for their cat and tell them you will contact them if you see it. Do you have a picture of the trapped cat you can show them to prove it if they keep bothering you?

As far as offering to trap and fix their cat...how does your TNR program work? If you have to pay for the cats you bring in than I would say talk to them about it, have them trap it and you can take it in and pay for it. If the TNR is free for you I would say no... TNR's usually work off of limited funds and donations already and it wouldn't be right for an owned cat to take up time, money and space from a stray/feral that needs it. It is their cat and their responsibility to do it (unfortunately it doesn't sound like they are doing a very good job with being responsible!!!)

congratulations on your first captures!

your neighbors sadly are not uncommon. if you can get their cat neutered without eartipping, they really shouldn't have a problem with it. they get a free neuter and a cat that won't wander off so much. but tread lightly, people can get really defensive about stuff like this, esp if they think they are being judged negatively for how they handle their cats.

i am surrounded by people like this. every true feral, every street stray, every neighborhood friendly cat i have encountered, NOT ONE has ever been fixed. now they're all fixed

Congrats! Hope all went well today!

We never had neighbors call about their cats - but if it was on our property, it got spayed or neutered and ear-tipped. If they don't want their cats ear-tipped, they shouldn't let them wander outside. And if they're not going to spay or neuter - they shouldn't let them out to begin with.

I know that handling it with actual people is a different story though. I'd let them know that there's no way to identify an owned cat from a feral cat, so they may end up with a free neuter. The other thing you can do is print out a low-cost spay/neuter place for them, so they can get their cat neutered - and if he winds up in your trap, he won't wind up with an ear-tip.

Laurie

I did take pictures of the cats that I trapped. And they were both females...the cat they are missing is a male.

When we picked them up this afternoon the vet said one of them had tapeworms the size of linguini! They said she was lucky that she was brought in today. And then she pooped out more worms in the car on the way home... Glad you guys reminded me to put plastic down!!! They were released a little while ago, headed right for the food, then off they went. Next appointment is Monday.

Originally Posted by whiteforest

When we picked them up this afternoon the vet said one of them had tapeworms the size of linguini!

They said she was lucky that she was brought in today.

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Well good thing you were able to trap her!
One of the ones we took in a few weeks ago had a really bad uterus infection, so we were also very lucky we got her in when we did! They said she wouldn't have had much longer to live if not taken in and her last weeks would have been horrible. They kept her to administer antibiotics for a week. Saw her yesterday...she looks good!!

Glad you brought her to a vet. It's a nice reward to know that you saved her from that.


So, how difficult is it to trap in the rain? It has been pouring since I woke up this morning and it's supposed to continue into the night. We have an appointment for 8 tomorrow morning.

You got two females! Glad you got them in in time to help.

We weren't constrained by clinic hours, so we never trapped in the rain. Don't have any advice there - sorry!

Laurie

I didn't get any kitties last night. DH just went down and tripped the traps cause its too late for today's appointment.

if you can, keep trying. i found that some ferals have to adjust to seeing the traps around. eventually they get used to them and *snap*! even the ones i thought were too smart fell for it sooner or later.

Originally Posted by jimmylegs

if you can, keep trying. i found that some ferals have to adjust to seeing the traps around. eventually they get used to them and *snap*! even the ones i thought were too smart fell for it sooner or later.

Click to expand...

I caught 2 the first appointment, but it rained pretty hard all day and all night so I don't think they ventured out.

Following your thread. Congrats on the captures.
Mine is eluding me.

Well so far we have had two successful spays, and [fortunately/unfortunately] one spay/abortion. Those three are all healed up now and still coming around every night for dinner. Today was a bad day though. I took in our resident tom, we called him Beefcake, to be neutered. He's the father of the three females. He tested positive for FeLV and was euthanized. This is the policy of the organization we are working with. Hopefully Wednesday goes better for the kitties.