HELP, Feral Cat KILLED one of my 8 month old kittens!

OK, I need to get rid of this NASTY cat once and for all!  I live out in the rural desert and there is an awful feral cat & dog problem.  I have, or should say 2 cats until last night.

We had to go into the city and Pepper kitty was laying in the driveway when we left.  When we got home there was so much long gray cat hair in the driveway I knew something was wrong.  The Pepper kitty is missing and I know it was that gray feral cat.  I have been spraying him with water and chasing him off the last couple of weeks.  He has attacked Pepper before and hurt him during the day and this time he killed him and drug him off!

Both of my babies are kennel trained and go in at night to be safe from coyotes, but this feral cat is stealing the food and hurting them during the day.  He is getting more sneaky every day.

What do I DO??????  I would hate for Dusty to go through this too.

I can't even imagine how you are feeling right now.  What a horrible reality!  My only suggestion is to keep your other cat indoors.  When I had cats that went outdoors, I had a rule that if I weren't going to be at home even for a short period of time, I would call the cat/cats and they would stay in the house until I got home.  All my cats were trained to come when called. 

Getting rid of a feral cat when you are inadvertently supplying it with food, simply won't happen.  Feeding Dusty indoors and  keeping it inside out of harms way and possibly creating a screened in area so he/she can enjoy being outside safely for a portion of the day, truly, is the only solution I can see to keeping Dusty safe.  Obviously kenneling outside isn't working for you, so this is the only way I can see to make sure Dusty doesn't end up the same way as Pepper. 

My heart goes out to you...What a horrible way to lose a furry friend. 

I am really sorry about Pepper. Have you trapped and neutered the other feral cat? It is really not normal for feral cats to kill other cats in the way you describe. Highly unusual especially since Pepper was 8 months old, practically full grown. It is very possible that a coyote got Pepper. I see coyote during the day all the time where I live. They DO come to feed from the feral cat feeding shelters. I would recommend trapping the feral cat and getting him neutered as that would take away his desire to fight with your cats. I would also recommend keeping you other cat indoors until you can make sure it is safe to be outdoors. Again, sorry about your loss. If you are feeding feral cats, I would please ask that you get them neutered or you are just going to attract other cats into your yard that could be a danger to your housecats if you let them outside. So sorry for Pepper.

I am very sorry to hear about the loss of your kitty.  My husband and I are sure it was a coyote.  He has seen them in the day and I've got daylight pictures of them on my game camera.  My one kitty that was outdoors sometimes was more or less trained to stay with me like a dog as I did chores.  But I still worried about coyotes.  They are very bold.  

I have to agree with the others that this certainly isn't normal for a feral cat to kill another.  Coyotes, on the other-hand, are known to boldly kill cats as well as dogs.  We had an incident near where I live of a fellow walking with two of his dogs in the woods and a coyote came up from the ravine and blatantly took one of the dogs off right in front of the man.  Nothing he tried saved the dog or scared off the coyote. Horrible for the fellow to see this happen to his beloved companion. 

mypallily said:

I have to agree with the others that this certainly isn't normal for a feral cat to kill another.  Coyotes, on the other-hand, are known to boldly kill cats as well as dogs.  We had an incident near where I live of a fellow walking with two of his dogs in the woods and a coyote came up from the ravine and blatantly took one of the dogs off right in front of the man.  Nothing he tried saved the dog or scared off the coyote. Horrible for the fellow to see this happen to his beloved companion. 

Click to expand...

I suspect being in a coyote rich place, you shouldnt go out alone unarmed.  Have always with you a sturdy walking stick or at the very least, a sturdy umbrella.  Or something.

It may be they prefer cats or dogs, but you cant be too sure they wouldnt attack a lone human. Or??

I mean, better safe than sorry.

My heart goes out to you for Pepper. Hopefully his death was at least quick.

I'm going to agree with everyone else. When cats attack eachother, they claw and bite, but don't do much tearing. You usually don't see too much fur pulled out. And if one cat doesn't want to fight, they will run away, and the fight ends that way.
Even if the fight results in death, the other cat would stop immediately as soon as it happened. Cats don't eat each other and they aren't equipped to carry anything that heavy very well.

Regardless of who did what, if you get the feral cat fixed, it will solve the problems you are having.
Remember that it is only doing what instinct is telling it to, and nothing more. Once the hormones are gone, it will have no will to fight and will go on its merry way.

StefanZ said:

I suspect being in a coyote rich place, you shouldnt go out alone unarmed.  Have always with you a sturdy walking stick or at the very least, a sturdy umbrella.  Or something.
It may be they prefer cats or dogs, but you cant be too sure they wouldnt attack a lone human. Or??

I mean, better safe than sorry.

Click to expand...

Coyote attacks are VERY rare, especially on adults. There are only one or two each year for the whole of the United States.

I have been looking after feral cats for years and have never seen one killed by another feral cat, they chase them away and might run after them but kill them, I do not think so but one never knows?  So solution is to start going after the big bully and try to tame him to at least be civil to your own, you might try not chasing him away and luring him with food etc...try something of that nature.  good luck