Question about trapping

Hi, some of you know that there are a lot of strays/ferals in my apartment complex. Well my neighbor is organizing a trapfest to get these cats spayed/neutered. There's a lady who specializes in trapping. I think she's from the homeless cat network. So I think on Monday she's going to come set out a couple traps at our pool area.

My question is, if one cat gets trapped, and the others see that, will they be then hesitant to go into the traps? I'd really like to get the mom spayed.. mom:



And there are at least 5 kittens (which I think are hers) that would also need to be trapped too. kittens:



I worry about them sitting in the cages all night My neighbor said she'd go out and put a blanket over the trap if there is a cat in there so that it may be more comfortable. I know they will be stressed but its for their own good.

Tell your neighbor to remove the trap once there is a cat in it. Ideally there should be a place where you can set the traps, and cover them with a dark cloth to keep the kitty calmed down a little. Before you reuse the traps, be sure and clean them good with Dawn detergent and water- cats will not go into traps that other ferals have sprayed on, and the first thing these trapped cats will do is spray or pee-

If the cats are not going in the trap at all, use a little bit of catnip to entice them- emphasis on little bit!

Hmm that's the thing, I dont know where we could put the trap after. Plus we wont know when exactly the cat is trapped because the pool is a couple doors down from us. But that is where they hang out. The lady that is in charge of the trapping says she has something special that they cant refuse. I am also sure that she cleans the traps after each cat is caught. She does this for a living. Thanks for the quick reply hissy!

Sicy, when will you know how it went?

And it seems like you're using just one trap?

From our experience, having one cat trapped did not prevent others from being trapped, but we were able to get it out of there as soon as the cat was trapped.

The trap lady is supposed to come today to set the trap (or two, not sure) after work. She wont be able to come back to pick it up until the morning My neighbor and I are trying to decide if we should wait to put the trap out there until late before we go to bed or maybe super early in the morning. I hate the thought of the cat being in that cage for 12 hours.

2 small traps have been set with tuna in them. We'll see if we catch any. If its before 9pm the lady will come back to get them, otherwise she will come in the morning to get them and bring them to get fixed. My neighbor will move the traps to her patio if we get any before bed.

Good luck with the trappying Sicy!!

omg we got two already!! I cant believe it.

One little tortie - she is a :censor::censor::censor::censor::censor::censor::censor::censor: wild one man.. she was freaking out in the cage and tried to scratch Reneit (my neighbor). She is not a happy camper



Then we got a little tux baby.. this one is much calmer. We think maybe its sick since its so calm, not sure.



So the lady is on her way back she's going to bring them to her house until the morning then she'll take them to the spca to get them spayed. This is all so new to me.. its kind of exciting yet hard at the same time.

I really wanted to get Prego (the tortie siamese girl that keeps having the babies) we might have to set a trap on my patio because that's where I feed her.

That's fantastic Sicy! Congrats on the first two! You guys are really doing good by these cats, but you already know that.

How exciting that you caught these two so quickly. In my experience, most of the ferals are surprisingly calm after the first several minutes they are int he trap. Only a minority of those I have trapped have freaked out! So, hopefully the pretty tuxedo is only scared rather than sick!

Congratulations on the trapping!

WAY TO GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is exciting, isn't it?

And Sicy, we've had the same experience as Renae, so just keep your fingers crossed.

Thank you! It is pretty exciting indeed. I just keep thinking, wow, this is 2 less cats that are going to have babies/make babies and we all know how many babies they can make. And we caught them within 2 hours which I thought was amazing.

Will they remember where they are when the lady brings them back?? Will the other cats still hang out with them? They will probly have all kinds of new smells on them. I hope they dont start fighting with their brothers and sisters

Prego sleeps on my patio in a chair I really want to get her but I'm scared that if I trap her on my patio she will never want to come back. She also hangs out near the pool, but moreso on my patio. I can sit a few feet away from her while she eats and that's an acomplishment because she used to run every time she saw me.

Prego sleeps on my patio in a chair I really want to get her but I'm scared that if I trap her on my patio she will never want to come back. She also hangs out near the pool, but moreso on my patio. I can sit a few feet away from her while she eats and that's an acomplishment because she used to run every time she saw me.

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I am pretty sure that Prego won't run away after she is trapped. I trapped Callie about 6 months ago (she practically lives here on my porch) and after I let her go, she disappeared for a day or two but came back and did great... I have also trapped some other cats from my area and they all came back to eat after I let them go..

Sounds like Prego is more trusting than Callie! I have been feeding Callie for over a year now and she still won't let me touch her.. She will let me get closer to her now than before but still not let me touch her. Sigh...

It's GREAT that u are working with others to trap these cats! It will really help them in the long run. Yeah, it's scary and exciting trapping all of these cats. I remember the first time I trappd a cat, I cried! I felt so bad for the poor terrified kitten (one of Callie's litters)! (I did the trapping by myself so maybe that's why I freaked out crying..)

BUT I got the kitten (the first kitten I ever trapped) fixed, found him a GREAT home and he's thriving..

Oh I cant touch Prego.. I wish lol. I can only sit a few feet from her and watch her. Every time I come out to the patio she runs to the other side of the patio but she waits.. if I give her food and go sit down she will creep up to the food and eat, a few feet from me.

I'm also concerned because she has fleas I checked where she sleeps. And sometimes she comes and sits right up to the screen door and Zoey is right there and they stare at each other. I dont want Zoey to get fleas ARGH.

Congradulations on catching the first two! That is so great, I'm glad you're getting involved with helping the ferals. It's quite a rush when you finally catch them.

As for ferals returning after being released, my experience has been this: if you feed them for a long time, and they recognize you as a provider of food, then they always come back. There have been several ferals that I trapped accidently; I was trying to trap another cat so they never associated me with consistent feedings. After being neutered and let go, they never came back

As far as prego, it's THE most frustrating thing to have a cat show up every day, sit 5 feet from you, eat happily and not be able to trap them. I still have 1 black cat, Shadow, that WILL NOT be trapped (also have a kitten that needs neutering, but that can wait). I let him starve for 3 days (too long in some people's opinion, but I'm trying to pull out all the stops), used tuna, mackeral, kibble, canned cat food, and nothing. The only thing I've yet to try is catnip, which I will do the next attempt. Right now I'm building a trap out of old wood scraps; I think the combination of using outside materials and making the trap a bit larger will be less threatening to Shadow. It will be a temporary holding place which I can use to transfer the cat into a standard live trap, which is the only way a vet will deal with a feral.

Good luck in trapping the rest!

Thanks for the good wishes! I honestly never thought I would get involved in this.. to me its just too hard on my heart and stress level. I always just admired the strays from afar. But ever since I actually saw Prego nursing those tiny kittens, I just got this rush like I HAVE TO GET THIS CAT SPAYED. Also since my neighbor is the one who organized it, I feel ok with helping.

These guys have lived here though all their life. We only started feeding them like a week ago though. I would hope they will stay around here when they are returned, as this would be the only area they have ever known. We'll see I guess.

With Prego, even though she spends more of her time on my patio, the traps are set at the pool, which is a few doors down from my patio. She still hangs out over there too so I'm hoping next time we try she will be trapped. But if not we will have to try my patio. I just feel uneasy about setting a trap so close to my house. This is very emotional for me.. I love cats so much but I cant bear to see them stuck in the cage. I would not be able to sleep if I knew Prego was right outside, trapped all nite *sigh* Maybe we'll get lucky and get her in 2 hours like the last ones. I will keep you posted in the next few days.

Hi Sicy, I really understand how emotional it is. I always trap with a friend/feral cat pro, and then she takes the cats with her to stay in her home or garage overnight. We trapped two momcats, and after feeding them for so many months I was very worried about that they wouldn't know where to go when they were released. But, when I released them, they stayed around. Their kitty pals accepted them back and now they are friendlier with me than ever before.

It's so great you're helping the feral cats in your complex -- I hope you can help prego too!

Thanks Angela

I was just out on my patio playing with prego with the laser light!! I cant believe it. I got her to chase it right by my foot and then I guess she realized where she was and scampered off the other way But she continued to play.. and my patio is not that big. She's so cute.

I guess the trap lady will be back Thursday to set 2 new traps. The other two that we trapped should have gotten spayed today, Reneit is waiting to hear from the lady. She mentioned that she said if they test positive for FELV or FIV they will be euthanized That's horrible. I really hope prego will be ok.

Both cats we trapped were FEMALE and tested NEGATIVE! Score! They are doing good, not happy but doing ok.. the lady is keeping them a bit longer so they can recover from the spaying. Yay! Now if I can just trap Prego and the others.