Trapped young stray. What to do next?

We have a young cat, maybe 7 month old, which we trapped yesterday night from a parking lot in between a cluster of highways and shopping centers. We used a [color= rgb(24, 24, 24)]Tomahawk style of trap.[/color]

We would like to have him neutered and train it to become accustomed to humans and possibly keep it or have it adopted.
 

We are looking for suggestions on what steps to take. The cat seems frightened and didn't touch the food/water after being trapped. Thank you for suggestions.

The cat is very likely feral. Keep the trap covered completely with a towel or something.

Get him/her in to be fixed and given a vaccine and dewormer.

When the cat comes back to your home, I wouldn't allow it to come out of the trap just yet. He (I will call him he for now) will still be groggy and unbalanced from the anesthesia.

Just place trap in a quiet place, covered and allow a few hours.

When you do release the cat, he will immediately hide.

This means that you want to let him out in a small, closed in place, a spare room, etc.

Hopefully there is no bed in it, or he will hide under that bed a loooong time.

The idea is, in a closed room with quiet, nobody coming and going other than you, it allows him time to calm down. Do not give food, just some water in a spill-proof bowl.

Late that night, or the next morning you can take some food in.

Canned food is best to start with.

You should be the only one going into the room he is in. Block or remove any place where he will be able to hide from you. This sort of forces him to see you and vice versa.

Get down on the floor to his level, and using a calm, gentle voice quietly talk to him, try not to stare into his eyes. This is a threat to them.

Off the food and watch his reaction. If he will eventually come to you for it, or meow for it but won't come, or if he wants no part of you, the food, or anything except getting the hell outta there, this will tell you what you are dealing with, whether a feral, a semi-feral, or a frightened tame cat.

Depending on his reaction, will tell us the next steps.

Be sure to leave the canned food, a full can, he will eat when it's quiet and you are not around.

If he is feral, this will be the only time you will be actually leaving food down for him.

The future will be forcing him to come for food, and he will eventually do it regardless of how scared he is, they are survivors.

If feral, you can tame to an extent, but to you, strangers will not be able to interact. He will disappear, often it will always be this way, but at least he will become a friend to you eventually

When I say you, I mean you and your spouse, but it takes time and patience.

I am here and will check the 'notify immediately' tab so I can help.

Thanks for all your suggestions, so far I managed to have the cat move from the trap into a rabbit hutch in my backyard which is larger and has a privacy room in which I put a large soft towel, the cat immediately went in there. I also covered up the whole thing with a linen so even the part with the grid is covered. I thought the hutch might be better also because it has two doors opening so I can easily open one side to access food, while the cat is hiding on the opposite side.
I am also calling him 'he' but I am not quite sure yet. It is a flame point with tabby pattern in the point in the face so I heard it most likely a male.

I took appointment for de-sexing and vaccines but it might be available in 2 weeks. The shelter in my area do have a feral program on a walk-in basis but they also cut the tip of their ear and I would want to avoid that. Once the cat starts eating again I can probably stuff half of  tapeworm tab into some treat food and see if he eats it. 

I don't quite have a spare room indoor I could use for the cat. I do have a room I could try to setup for that which is my studio and is where I usually feed my cats. I have two other cats which are mostly indoor. I kept the stray cat in the garage overnight. I am not sure how much feral or stray he might be, yesterday before I offered him a can of food I would approach him from a distance talking and slowly blinking at him and looking away and the cat also blink back at me a couple of times. But he certainly got frightened once the trap triggered.

I though that keeping it in the rabbit hutch in the backyard would be less stress-full for the cat than being indoor as he is not used to, and would give him an opportunity to get to know the place and surrounding. At the same time I am afraid he will work all night to rip the hutch open and try to escape. I was thinking maybe too get a large enclosure like a dog run for when I would 'release' him, maybe a week from now.

The rabbit hutch sounds fine, unless of course he is going to be able to escape.

Also not going to be an easy task to get him into a carrier to take to the vet either.

I had suggested a spare room inside, thinking you might want to keep him.

You can always keep him long enough to get neutered, then bring him back to recover for a few, then set him free.

Since his vet appt is not for 2 weeks, then a few more days after he is fixed, once you release him he will have acclimated to the idea that you are a food source, and will continue to come to your yard for food.

I'm not sure what you would like for the cat's future, so let me know what you think and we will go from there on all the 'how-to's'

Ear tipping is very common.  It lets others know that the cat has been spayed/neutered.  It also helps if the cat gets trapped more than once as the vet will see the ear tip.  It's really not a big deal.  I have ear tipped all 3 of mine.  If the cat gets back outside and happens to leave or move else where, the ear tip will alert a vet that the cat is already spayed/neutered.  I have used a walk in clinic for all 3 of my ferals.  It is just so much easier than worrying if you will trap the cat at the right time.  It also greatly reduces the amount of time they need to spend in a trap.

My first feral, Shadow has been with me for almost 3 years.  When I first found him he was 7 months old.  I trapped and neutered him around 9 months.  I was not able to pet him until he was 14 months old.  I worked with him daily.  It has been a very long slow process.  My DH and DS can now both pet him, but only briefly.  I am the only person he trusts.  He does come inside my house for visits and has even learned to use the litter box.  Yet, he prefers to be outside.  Even in the dead of winter.  It breaks my heart, but I have a wonderful set up for he and the other 2 ferals.  They have a shelter with heat pad, feeding stations, heated water bowl for the winter and toys to play with. 

Alley cat allies has alot of resources for taking care of feral cats.  There are also some awesome youtube videos on socializing ferals.  I found a great one that suggested using Gerber turkey or chicken stage 1 baby food.  It took me tons of reading and lots and lots of patience, time and effort.  It ultimately consumed so much of time working with him.  Yet, it was worth it.  He is a happy boy.
 

Exactly.

Ear tipping a cat who will most likely be outdoors again can actually save his life.

I know the cats who end up at the shelter who are deemed as feral, or even semi-feral are held for 2 days in the feral cat barn, and unless they have an eartip and one of us rescue groups pull the cat, it will be euthanized.

It's not so bad.

It also alerts animal control/rescues who may spot the cat, that it is fixed and likely a managed feral, meaning it has a food source and will not be reproducing.

Also when he does get neutered, while he is knocked out they can give him an FVRCP vaccine and dewormer.

Thanks for trapping the cat.  And unspayed female cats especially thank you!

If you have any thought about integrating the feral cat with your resident cats, he needs to be tested first for FIV/FeLK.

Before you test, ask the testing agency what their policy is regarding cats who test positive for FIV/FeLK.  Some (uninformed) places with euthanize a cat that tests positive for either.

The semi-feral cats I trapped and a friend co-fostered were ear-tipped; that did not affect how quickly they were adopted. Potential adopters didn't really notice the ear tipping, and when mentioned, it provided us an opportunity to educate them about feral cats (and a nice background story).   In fact, one man actually was glad the cat was ear tipped; the man had had a part of his ear removed due to cancer.

Hi again, the cat has been eating and drinking fine last night and today. Today he looks slightly less frustrated. I keep him covered with a light linen most of the time but I also partially uncover during the day so he can look around and in the late afternoon he can even enjoy some sun. I stepped outside today to find him the 'patio' side of the hutch, eating some dry food and, I guess, enjoying the sun. He got scared and run inside the inner room though I will remember to step out slowly or maybe I will consider moving the hutch to an less trafficked area.

That rabbit hutch is an excellent idea! When you get ready to take him to the clinic, you can put a carrier on the "porch" Prop the carrier door open with asmall rock and and then open the door to the "house.". He will most likely hide in the carrier. You can use a stick to move the rock and close the carrier door. Good luck!

Thanks everyone for the replies, I didn't see them yesterday when I posted so I will reply now. 
Together with spay/neuter, I did 'sign-up' for vaccinations and FIV/FELV. I will call to understand better about the testing vs vaccine options and to know what is their policy if the cat if found positive to any of these. About FIV vaccine, I read that it will make the cat test positive after it so I wonder again if a microchip carrying vaccine information would prevent the cat from being euthanized due to being tested positive due to vaccine.

Instead of ear tipping I was considering microchipping. Thank you for all your information and consideration about the advantage of ear tipping. I have TNR 3 ferals (one of which was a female who had a litter and was very starving and distressed) in my neighborhood before and they all got ear tipped.

It is true that the ear tipping is well visible for a rescuer and I myself look for it when I see strays around, so I totally got your point and you half convinced me already. I was wondering if the microchip would prevent a shelter from killing the animal if they were to collect it in some way. I understand that is not as easy to see as the ear tipping but I don't quite know how it works.  

When I need to get the cat out of the hutch I will probably do as Ondine suggested, Propping a carrier opening against the hutch porch entry, tie them up securely, cover the whole thing with blanket. Wait an hour or two. Then slowly open a little the door on the inner room and if the cat still doesn't go in the carrier, poke or simply aim a stick at it to make it move.

Yesterday I crumbled half tapeworm tab and mixed it with food (also sprinkled some fortiflora onto it), looks like he ate it all. I did the same for my spoiled cat, he didn't eat all of his.

I got you a picture of the sweetheart, so far I named it Fireball. That is day one and day two pictures.

Oh, he's so pretty!

As far as I know, the micro chip holds the contact info on the cat's owners but I am not sure if it will hold other info (like vaccinations, etc.).  If he is found by a shelter with a microchip, they will contact the company, who in turn contacts you.  You are then expected to go get him.  Same holds true for if he's found by someone who takes him to a vet.

Eartipping just signifies to those in the know that the cat has been fixed and has had initial vaccinations.  He has no 'owner" so to speak.  What you do depends on whether you want to be able to retrieve him if he does not stay in your vicinity.  If he turns out to be friendly, you may be able to find a home for him.  You will know better after the recuperation period.

BTW - you have given me an idea.  I am thinking about getting a rabbit hutch for when I recuperate cats after surgery.  I currently have a crate set-up in my shed but I need the storage.  Plus, with the rabbit hutch, I won't have to get down on the floor for feeding/potty cleaning.  Thanks for the great idea!

I would hope any cat caught by Animal Control would automatically scan for a microchip, in which case you'd be notified. 

A number of vets are now tatooing with an identifying number the female cats they spay, in part because it can be difficult to tell if a female has been spayed.  Logic holds that if the owner cared enough to get the cat spayed, the cat is likely owned.

Some low cost/TNR vets will notch the ear instead of ear tipping; one organization I went through did not require ear-tipping, the other required it.  I always opted for ear tipping, it was the only way I could determine if I'd retrap any one of the 35 cats I TNRd over a two year period. 

Ear tipped cats can and do get retrapped by Animal Control.  In Anne Arundel and Prince George's County in Maryland (adjacent counties, near Washington, DC), AC is required by law to contact the caregiver of a colony if they trap an ear-tipped cat.  Alley Cat Allies and some local rescue groups gets these emails, "is this your cat"? 

You have several days to reclaim the cat or it will be euthanized.

In PG County animal control officers scan all cats, even those deceased (and run over by cars); they want to notify the owner if at all possible.

I myself, incidentally realized I could use it. I had the hutch for my rabbit. The rabbit doesn't actually use it, he has another cage and we actually let him free around the backyard and he enters the garage from an opened vent opening and sleep in there (we were thinking to build a caged zone around that entrance in the garage to prevent him from going everywhere in the garage).

Anyway, so after I had the cat trapped, I incidentally realized I could put him there. My hutch is similar to this:
 
Except it is actually raised a bit more from the ground (probably twice what you see in the picture), so there is no bending needed for feeding. The porch room of my hutch actually has grid also on the short wall side. The bottom has drawers you can slide out to clean and they have plastic inside designed to collect their waste, which sounds like might be very useful. I had mine already filled with clean wood chips. The fact that it has two doors, one for each room makes it very convenient for the purpose.

I guessed it would be even better if there was an easy way to close the arch passage in between the two rooms, like by sliding a panel in an out. Also if the top of the big room, would open up, so that one could drop a carrier inside the porch room to have it match the door to the inner room, and then close. Kind of sophisticated way of easy handling the animal. Even better, lets imagine the door to the inner room is a double door with a grid door inside. So you can open the wooden door and there is a still a grid in there that prevents the cat from escaping, but you can look at the animal and also hint him at moving to the other room. 

Now what would be also great it so have a tray that hangs from the grid wall, to put food and water so its raised up from the bottom, So the wood chippings don't get inside the bowls so easily.

I have this linen that is the type used to cover the mattress, so it has elastic on the corners. It works great to cover-up the rabbit hutch, since the elastics corners prevents it from flying away with the wind and allow to easily prop it to cover the whole thing or partially. It was a linen we bought then realized its 100% synthetic and didn't like to use it.
 

I went in there and wanted to check the conditions of the towel in the inner room, so I wanted to poke the cat. The first item I had around was a semi-flaccid carrot hanging on the ground (which my bunny had ignored). So I put the tip of the carrot inside one of the holes on the wall of the inner room, right next to the cat. He didn't move but turned around to smell the tip of the carrot somewhat curious. I rubbed his cheek with the tip of the carrot, then he actually slowly grabbed the tip of it with his teeth and hold onto it.  So we kind of played this game of tug with the carrot. I would pull and release very slowly and the cat would hold and lightly pull onto it. How cute was this?
So then I grabbed a ostrich feather I had to play with my other cat and used to rub the face of the cat from the small round opening. He would let me rub is face and cheeks with the feather. How cute is that? I wish I could hug and snuggle that little fella. And give him a clean-up. I also opened the door a bit and the inside and the towel seemed ok, no strong smells so I let it be for now.

He looked very calm, I think he simply wants me to trust him and open the door so he can escape eheheh.

He's not feral if he's reacted that way.  Maybe he got lost or was abandoned.  If you continue to  interact with him as carefully and slowly as you have, he should come around.  You are doing the right thing - both by taking care of him and by going slowly.

You might want to add a small ball or belled toy for him to entertain himself with when you aren't there.

If you want to, try some chicken baby food on a spoon.  No cat I know of can resist it and it will draw him to you.  You can also use a back scratcher or wooden spoon to scratch him with.  All these get him used to being touched again.

You are probably correct about him wanting to escape, so do everything slowly and cautiously.  Good luck!

So far he got to keep one of the feathers. I had left it half-in on purpose, and after some time he had pulled it inside. He seemed much more relaxed (although he must be very tired) or maybe somewhat happy of the gift. I will think of what kind of toy go to give him. I was wondering if a new toy would be better or a toy that has been hanging around and carries some scent from me or my cats would also be good to get him to get used to us.

Today I repeated the rubbing with the feather, he seemed to want to smell by sticking his nose on the round opening, so I took off my sweather and held it closer to the opening, but he attacked it and didn't seem to want to smell it. Maybe it was too much

He is only eating at night, and hasn't come out in the 'porch' of the hutch during the day ever since day one when I stepped out and he got scared. (or if he did he didn't eat much of what I gave in the morning). Yesterday evening I left it with a bowl of canned food, a bowl of kitten formula with added milk, (and a bowl water of course). This morning it was all gone, including the bowl of water which was flipped over. He left me a poop in the wood chips. 

I think he was very starving and he is skinny and his fur is all in poor conditions. I noticed the top/inner part of his ears very dirty. I think he might have been stray, maybe escaped and lost, but he must have been stray for a while.

 

What a beautiful fellow, good for you Penelopess!   I surely hope he (or she!) comes around to trust you in no time. 

Just a suggestion - but I wouldn't give him any more milk.  Most adult cats are lactose intolerant, so it has the potential of giving him the runs.  You and he don't need that!

Sounds like you are doing the right things otherwise.  If you plan to bring him in, a toy that smells like your other cats is a good idea, although I would wait until he's gotten calmer and used to the idea of being someone's pet again.

You have no idea what he's been through, so you have limited ways to help him get over it.  Trial and error is all you can use and taking it slowly is the key.  Once he's neutered, he will calm down even more.

. 

Hi Again and thanks for the no-Milk suggestion. I haven't given any more to the cat. And probably should quit myself. but haven't start to work on that yet.

About the cat. We confirmed he was a boy one day we were changing his bedding and he moved to the hutch 'other room' with his tail up.

During the last two weeks we kept feeding him twice a day and spending some time talking to him.  Every day he seemed more calm and comfy but would still prefer to hide in he inner room.

Some times I would roll-up and tie-up a small wet towel to the end of a wooden stick, and use it to rub/clean the cat. I was able to rub his ears a lot and they came out almost clean. The next day they were even more clean which tells me the cat got the the point and incentive to finish cleaning them himself. He also liked to be rubbed under his chin and behind his neck.
Sometimes when I first approach him with something to rub him he reacts with a short-fast hiss and with a short-very fast false-attack (?), but then I talk to him and slowly continue and he lets me rub him. I use a stick with a towel rolled or one of these sticks to un-dust the home with the feathers at the end.  

So I am not sure how to interpret these false-attacks other than he is still scared. Should I insist or take it slower and give him time to get over it?

He also got his appointment yesterday, so he got neutered, all vaccines, microchipped and de-fleaed.
And now I have him indoor in my office-room (so this room is off-limits for my other cats for now). Here he's got food water and a large plastic litter-box with raised edges.

He has explored the room a bit then found his favourite hiding spot inside small furniture with a drawer he can enter from behind. (I can pull out the drawer from the front to see him, and often if I do this, he will exit and look for another hiding spot).

I offered him some baby-food (these gerber turkey&gravy small jars) on a wooden/rubber spoon. He lets me rub it on his chin, basically, but doesn't move. I let the spoon there overnight and he did eat some.

So basically my questions are: Should I let him hide calm inside his drawer, or should I something open the drawer to force him to be seen/see us?
We do spend time in this room while on the PC so he will be exposed to stay with us.
Is depriving him from food to force him come eat close to me the only or best way to make him turn around to us?

I would let him set the pace. Its great you are going to be in there - it will help him get used to humans again. Bribery with the baby food is a good way to bring him closer to you but I wouldn't deprive him of food. He needs to learn that you are the source of food and eventually, comfort.

Continue to try to touch him wih your hand. You can start by holding your closed fist level with his face and let him come sniff it. If he lashes out, a firm "no" will let him know that's unacceptable. Withdraw your hand and make no other moves. He'll learn soon enough that he doesn't need to lash at you. But again, let him set the pace.

He's been through a lot between the new home and surgeries, etc. Take it slow, have patience. He'll soon be part of the family.