Trapping in winter

Mod note:  This thread has been diverted from a conversation in this thread.

We had the spca come in to the area where I live and trap a bunch and spay/neuter and clip there ears. In the summer I plan on trapping the rest, and the kittens that they missed this year.

Catfamily7995 said:

 
We do! We had the spca come in to the area where I live and trap a bunch and spay/neuter and clip there ears. In the summer I plan on trapping the rest, and the kittens that they missed this year.

Click to expand...

Good for you!

Is it possible to trap them now? At this time of year it's unlikely that any of the female cats will be pregnant. In the summer they probably will be, so you'd have to spay-abort.   There is also less chance of infection in the colder weather as there are less flies around.

I'd love to see some pictures of your colony too.

I dunno they all hide out in different spots, which is another reason why I wanted to build shelters for them. The neighborhood is like house on top of house and i dont want to be traveling around peoples back yards lol! Buutt that does make sense about the bacteria, I will defiantly try. There's this beautiful fluffy black mama cat that im absolutely in love with. She had kittens in the summer, and i spent months feeding them, and watching over them, and gaining there trust. It was probably the most rewarding thing ever for me when the kittens let me pick them up, I almost cried. my neighbor ended up taking the two kittens inside, and there now hers, but the mom is still outside. She hangs around with this gray cat which i think is the father of the kittens because one kitten was black, and one kitten was grey, just like the parents. They look like there in love, but I hope shes not in heat. She doesnt let me pet her, but she lets me sit with her while she eats....I can't tell if her ear is clipped because shes so fluffy and has tuffs of fur sticking out of her ear. When I feed them tonight, i will take pictures of her!
these are the two kittens though (took them about 2 months ago)

@Catfamily7995   They're both really handsome cats, I'm glad the kittens found a home. That's thanks to you petting them and getting them used to people when they were little.

I see you're in New York so the mother cat probably isn't in heat now.Their cycles tend to be in sync with the weather, which means she'll be in heat in a month or two and produce another litter in March or April. If you have a trap you could start feeding them in the trap now so they get used to going in there. Wire the door open and then set the trap once you've found a vet who can spay and neuter them. There must be a vet that's used to dealing with ferals somewhere near you.

If not you could use a large cardboard box turned on it's side and put the food at the back of the box. That will get them used to going inside of something to get the food.Then when you get a trap you can put it inside the cardboard box so they don't notice anything different.

I have a picture of my trap inside a box set-up somewhere, let me have a look for it and I'll post it later.

OK, here it is.


I used a large cardboard box with plastic sheets taped over it to keep it dry. The trap was half covered with a blanket and held open with a couple of pegs. I had cardboard inside the trap so they didn't notice they were stepping on wire. I had a few boxes that didn't have traps in that were used as shelters, so the feral cats were quite happy about going in. I had a slot with my vet every Friday morning to do a spay or neuter, so I'd set the trap on a Thursday evening. Once a cat was trapped I'd cover the trap with the blanket and close the open end of the cardboard box. This meant they had shelter and they were calmer as they were in a dark, enclosed space.

Mu and Sophie weren't being trapped in this picture. They were just checking out what I was doing. You know what it's like with cats and boxes.

WOW! That's awesomely done!!! my one cat is crazy about boxes ahaha she thinks she can fit into the tiniest boxes. Anyways, I do actually have a trap (well it's not mine) It's my bf's dads trap. I'm not sure what kind i need all i know is that its a non-kill one and when the animal steps on the stepy-thing the door to the cage closes....Should I use that or make one like you did since it's cold out? Also if any mom cats have kittens this time of the year, would they die? I read that kittens body temp have to be like 102. I was a bit crushed when the neighbor took them, but i knew it was best for them. I visit sometimes and i cant even believe how big they got, and they are SO sweet.

P.s. Your cat's are adorable i love  the patterns!!!

Catfamily7995 said:

 
WOW! That's awesomely done!!! my one cat is crazy about boxes ahaha she thinks she can fit into the tiniest boxes. Anyways, I do actually have a trap (well it's not mine) It's my bf's dads trap. I'm not sure what kind i need all i know is that its a non-kill one and when the animal steps on the stepy-thing the door to the cage closes....Should I use that or make one like you did since it's cold out? Also if any mom cats have kittens this time of the year, would they die? I read that kittens body temp have to be like 102. I was a bit crushed when the neighbor took them, but i knew it was best for them. I visit sometimes and i cant even believe how big they got, and they are SO sweet.

Click to expand...

The trap I had was one like you describe with a plate that closed the door when the cats stepped on it. I put it in the cardboard box because one really clever tom worked out how to pull the food out of the back of the trap without going inside. I thought I'd have more luck trapping if there was only one entrance. Also, I worried about keeping them warm and calm until I could get them to the vets.

The part of Japan I'm in is probably similar to your area in terms of temperature and snow fall. I only ever saw kittens being born after March. I think they probably would die if they were born earlier than that. I guess the mother wouldn't be able to leave them for long enough to go and find food if it's freezing cold. Nature probably times these things just right.

I've heard that it easier to spay a cat that's not in heat than one that is, not sure why. If you're able to trap the Mother Cat within the next month or two it would be better for her.

Funny how all cats love boxes, huh? The shelters I made for the feral cats were a cardboard box inside a box inside a box with newspaper between the boxes and straw inside the inner box for them to sleep on. I covered the whole thing in thick plastic and put them under the deck so they were a bit more sheltered. They were so used to going into boxes to sleep and eat that I managed to trap about a dozen cats with my trap-inside-a-box.

Let us know how you get on with black fluffy mama. The male is beautiful too, maybe has a bit of Russian Blue in him?

I think of tnr has pro-life and no kill. The thought of aborting babies inherently contradicts. There is a choice in these matters. You don't have to abort. That is a major deterrent for some on the fence of whether to tnr or not. And on many tnr websites you see the issue purposely skirted or glossed over.

Norachan said:

 
I've heard that it easier to spay a cat that's not in heat than one that is, not sure why. If you're able to trap the Mother Cat within the next month or two it would be better for her.

Click to expand...

The reason is the size of the uterus and blood vessels to the uterus when a cat is in heat. When she's not in heat it's a skinny little thing that can be removed through a fairly small incision and the risk of bleeding is small. When she's in heat, however, the uterus and blood vessels are enlarged which is harder to work with and the risk of bleeding and other complications is higher. You can still spay a cat in heat but it's riskier so if you can avoid it it's best to do so.

I think of tnr has pro-life and no kill. The thought of aborting babies inherently contradicts. There is a choice in these matters. You don't have to abort. That is a major deterrent for some on the fence of whether to tnr or not. And on many tnr websites you see the issue purposely skirted or glossed over.

The problem is that unless a female cat is far enough into the pregnancy that it's obvious that she's pregnant, there's no way of knowing when you TNR a cat if she's pregnant until the vet opens her up to perform the spay. At that point, if she's pregnant and the spay surgery isn't done and she's released back outside to have the kittens, chances are she'll never go into a trap again and will never get spayed, and will continue to go into heat and have more kittens who will then have more kittens. Feral cats who have been trapped rarely enter a trap again. I don't think this issue is glossed over. It's a sad reality and a dilemma for many TNR trappers. 

I know that cats do mate in the winter months--November through February--even in cold areas like where I reside. I believe many kittens do die in the winter months if they don't have adequate nutrition or warmth. It's difficult for the mother cat to hunt when the ground is frozen and get proper nutrition herself in order to care for her kittens if she doesn't have a human caregiver. The kindest solution is to TNR.   

I believe it best to take the time to truly observe a colony before tnr trapping. Watch the females and have an idea beforehand. We have caught several of our cats a few times for various reasons. So I haven't experienced the impossible second trapping. Population control is a sensitive issue that takes sensitivty. When you come to know each individual cat as an individual the bigger agenda of reducing numbers sometimes comes second. We have put mommies back if we couldn't manage to get all her litter and they were still nursing for example...I simply think it is going to far to abort. The ways in which nature designed cats to reproduce seems to indicate over producing and letting the strongest of litter survive. Kittens die by design in even ideal environments. Its not my place to argue with that design. Likewise, I also don't feel it is my place to abort.