Watching and learning about Feral-born cats is so interesting to me!
I realize this topic may have been already discussed - yes I searched and most threads are pretty old, and some information repeats the behavior of a male cat harming or killing the kittens.
I have twin gold-colored (aka red or orange) males that I've yet to trap and get neutered.
In late December I had a chance to see a kitten with the same coloring as the twins boys - and was able to observe the kitten running and greeting one of the twins. I can only guess, but most likely the kitten's daddy(?).
I've seen Daddy grooming him, and just yesterday when it was feeding time & Daddy showed up talking - he usually will talk to me. This time, I also thought he was talking to me, but then I realized as soon as I went back into the house that Daddy was calling the kitten because the kitten came running, tail up, to his daddy..
I have the traps out ready to put into use. I can only afford one surgery so I am hoping that the kitten is the one that gets trapped. I am thinking about bringing him inside (to join the 12 others we have inside) because we live in the hot desert and he has medium length fur. Fur length has been the reason why we have so many cats inside with us.
Trapping isn't that easy because the other cats that I've already trapped will go right back into that trap for the food. This happened as I was attempting to trap the Twins and they saw what happened so are staying away from the trap. The traps are open so they can go in and get food and leave - I'm hoping this will help when I am actually ready to trap.
I just wanted to share this story because this feral-born male is taking care of a kitten like a female mother would be doing and it's really great to see this behavior because of stories I've heard/read about the opposite behavior of the male cat.
Another brief note - a joke on me, sort of ... I've made every effort to be sure any female kittens get spayed, especially so the numbers of cats I care for is kept to a minimum - but, here's the joke - it seems that not getting the male cats neutered doesn't prevent them bringing their offspring here for food and care, either. ugh!
I realize this topic may have been already discussed - yes I searched and most threads are pretty old, and some information repeats the behavior of a male cat harming or killing the kittens.
I have twin gold-colored (aka red or orange) males that I've yet to trap and get neutered.
In late December I had a chance to see a kitten with the same coloring as the twins boys - and was able to observe the kitten running and greeting one of the twins. I can only guess, but most likely the kitten's daddy(?).
I've seen Daddy grooming him, and just yesterday when it was feeding time & Daddy showed up talking - he usually will talk to me. This time, I also thought he was talking to me, but then I realized as soon as I went back into the house that Daddy was calling the kitten because the kitten came running, tail up, to his daddy..
I have the traps out ready to put into use. I can only afford one surgery so I am hoping that the kitten is the one that gets trapped. I am thinking about bringing him inside (to join the 12 others we have inside) because we live in the hot desert and he has medium length fur. Fur length has been the reason why we have so many cats inside with us.
Trapping isn't that easy because the other cats that I've already trapped will go right back into that trap for the food. This happened as I was attempting to trap the Twins and they saw what happened so are staying away from the trap. The traps are open so they can go in and get food and leave - I'm hoping this will help when I am actually ready to trap.
I just wanted to share this story because this feral-born male is taking care of a kitten like a female mother would be doing and it's really great to see this behavior because of stories I've heard/read about the opposite behavior of the male cat.
Another brief note - a joke on me, sort of ... I've made every effort to be sure any female kittens get spayed, especially so the numbers of cats I care for is kept to a minimum - but, here's the joke - it seems that not getting the male cats neutered doesn't prevent them bringing their offspring here for food and care, either. ugh!
