Feeding cats but not raccoons

I have 3 ferals that I am feeding. I've been feeding one in my garage since last fall. I recently discovered two more, who have not discovered the cat door into the garage.

Unfortunately, one of the nights I left the garage door open, 3 raccoons also discovered the food. And the next night, they learned to use the cat door into the garage.

I am working on TNR-ing (or TN+socialize, if possible) the 3 cats. Afterward, I want to keep feeding them. But I obviously do not want to feed/encourage the raccoons if possible.

For the immediate future, I'm going to remove all food from the garage. I will put the cat food outside the garage door. Two of the ferals come right after dark, so they will eat the soft food. So far, the raccoons have come after 4 AM. That will let the ferals get first dibs.  But this isn't a good long term solution.

Any ideas?

Kalynnda

Do the ferals run from you when you're around, or do they eat in your presence? I leave dry food out for my feral during daylight (the swarming starlings have finally left, hooray!) but do not leave food out when it gets dark. My feral knows to come to my porch for his wet food and fresh dry food at sunrise and sunset, when the raccoons are not out. If I do have to feed him when it's dark or twilight, I sit beside him on the porch and talk softly to him. The raccoons, opossum, and other wildlife will not come near his food when I sit with him. If your cats won't eat in your presence, then you have to try to get them on a feeding schedule during daylight hours, because once a raccoon discovers a food source, it will continue to come back until it's clear this food source no longer exists. I don't think anyone has discovered a permanent solution for keeping starlings and raccoons out of cat food except to not make it available to them--these creatures are very clever!      

Unfortunately the best  solution is to not feed after dark.  The raccoons will start coming at different times looking for more and more food and they can be a danger to the cats too.  Try to put the cats on a schedule by feeding them early in the morning or before dark.  I always bring the food in by 10pm or earlier if I am not around.  Once the raccoons start coming, they will not leave.  You will have no way of knowing who is eating the food. 

Thanks for the advice. I'm planning to bring the food in just before bedtime. Hopefully, the kitties will get used to that schedule soon. I'm also thinking that doing that will perhaps let me start getting them used to humans. So far, I've just seen them on video, or the quick flash as they run from me. If they are coming around at a regular time, I can start sitting far away while they eat, and slowly move closer. I'd love to get them tame enough to come for affection.

And good news....I caught one last night! Mr. StubbyTail, who we've been feeding all winter, is now at the spay and neuter clinic getting the Feral Cat treatment :-)  Based on his behavior, he will be a "release". I'm willing to work with ones that are just scared, but he was throwing himself at the cage and hissing at me. At least he'll be fixed, vaccinated, and get his scar/wound looked at.

Thanks again!

ShadowsRescue said:

 
Unfortunately the best  solution is to not feed after dark.  The raccoons will start coming at different times looking for more and more food and they can be a danger to the cats too.  Try to put the cats on a schedule by feeding them early in the morning or before dark.  I always bring the food in by 10pm or earlier if I am not around.  Once the raccoons start coming, they will not leave.  You will have no way of knowing who is eating the food. 

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I agree.  Raccoons will come at different times if they know there is food available.  They're a real pain to get rid of.

kalynnda13 said:

 
Thanks for the advice. I'm planning to bring the food in just before bedtime. Hopefully, the kitties will get used to that schedule soon. I'm also thinking that doing that will perhaps let me start getting them used to humans. So far, I've just seen them on video, or the quick flash as they run from me. If they are coming around at a regular time, I can start sitting far away while they eat, and slowly move closer. I'd love to get them tame enough to come for affection.

And good news....I caught one last night! Mr. StubbyTail, who we've been feeding all winter, is now at the spay and neuter clinic getting the Feral Cat treatment :-)  Based on his behavior, he will be a "release". I'm willing to work with ones that are just scared, but he was throwing himself at the cage and hissing at me. At least he'll be fixed, vaccinated, and get his scar/wound looked at.

Thanks again!

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So happy you trapped Mr. Stubby Tail!!  He will be much happier without all of those hormones!!!  Good luck with the raccoons.

Mr. Stubby Tail is now back in his territory. He's been fixed. The wound on his shoulder (which was huge but superficial) has been cleaned. He's had an antibiotic shot and flea treatment.

He's about 4-5 years old and weighed 13.9 pounds. He's a big black boy! It was amazing how fast he was getting out of the cage :-)  I'm sure he'll be back in a few days for food.

I'm going to wait until next week to try for another stray. I have to de-stink the cage...intact male cat urine reeks, as I'm sure you all know.

My longer term plan is to get them used to timed feedings (i.e. no food out overnight), then slowly move the feeding location to the back yard. I'll build, or have built, a raccoon-proof feeding stations (there are some good ideas out on the web). That way I can keep hard food out all the time.  I will provide soft food in the evening. Once they are used to that, I'll start trying to be in the vicinity while they eat, hopefully moving closer as time goes on. I'd really love for some or all of them to get friendly with me, but we'll see how it goes. I know it will be a slow process.

Thanks for your suggestions and encouraging words.

Let me know if you build something that is raccoon proof.  We have tried and tried here.  We did a table with only a center support and put flashing up all around it.  Those buggers climbed up the side of my house and got onto the table.  I finally just gave up.  I am able to leave some dry food out during the winter as the raccoons stay away.  I still use the table and then DH had built the feral as Feral Villa http://www.feralvilla.com/Shelters_c_1.html with a hinged roof to open and close.  The ferals would not sleep inside the Feral Villa, but I am able to get some food in it so it stays dry.  The darn raccoons can even fit inside the small 5" openings.  I would love to figure out how to outsmart a raccoon!!  Hopefully you will succeed.

Raccoons at times can be a real headache for us. We had two raccoons in our neighborhood. Pets were finding it hard to have their food safe from these bandits. Finally, the community decided to get rid of the doubles, but didn't want to hurt them. We decided to call up an environmental pest control service.

If you guys are planning to get rid of these animals, do consider a animal control services but most importantly, they should animal lovers.

Nice to see others having this problem with raccoons lol. I have been trying to find and lure a kitten and a young cat to my house for feeding instead of my neighbors across the street. I say find because a few loose dogs killed my neighbors outdoor cat, the kitten stuck close by this cat and the young black cat would eat the same food. I have since seen the black cat but not the kitten. I'm guessing they got scared off by the dogs or worse. The black cat will only come out to look for food after dark and he won't come to anyone so I'm not sure how to feed the little guy. Have been putting food out and watching it, tried wet to lure him in with the smell but no luck. it's being eaten but unfortunately I just found out by whom... a family of coons... about 5 lil babies. I too would really love to see an out of the box idea to feed the cats instead of the coons. I will keep trying to get the black cat on a schedule though and just plug away at it.

I am having problems with starlings during the day and raccoons and possums at night. I work, so I can't monitor. I tried for a while to open the door and scare the starlings when they came around. That worked for about 15 minutes lol. The next thing I knew there were at least 15 starlings covering the bowl. They ate everything in minutes.

For the previous member who spoke about "de-stinking" the have-a-heart trap, I have a link you may find useful. I had a male (indoor) cat that refused to use the litter box. At one point I had 7 litter boxes, 3 self-cleaning and 4 regular, each with a different type of litter. No luck, he would pee right beside the boxes. I tried every product I could find and nothing works until I found this:

PlanetUrine: Pet Urine Stain & Odor Cleaning Products - Guaranteed Results - Planet Urine

I highly recommend it and I am not connected to the company in any way except as a customer.

I am so happy I found this site and see how many kind and gentle people there are!

I just posted a picture of a bird proof pet feeder I used that kept the starlings away from the food on a similar thread. You could construct something like this yourself since the company that produced these feeders evidently no longer exists.