Half-Feral cat being attacked by other(s)

Hi everybody,

I've recently started feeding 3 feral kittens which actually started as a pack of 5 but I'm not sure if they're all from the same litter (One was run over and another one disappeared and now they are 3). One of them is very friendly and vocal. I can even lightly touch him even though he's still a bit afraid of me. I trapped all 3 a few weeks ago for TNR.

These past few days, I've been seeing many wounds on the back of the friendly one.  I also saw one wound on the side of one of the other cats but certainly not as many as on the friendly one. I think it's one or several feral bullies because I saw one attack one of mine while they were eating. I'm planning on bringing it to the vet but I need to find a way to stop the attacks. I've read that half-feral cats can be attacked by colonies because they lack survival skills.

I would take him in if my son did not have asthma and a mild allergy to cats. I already have 2 indoor cats, one hand-fed and one shelter rescue, so I'm dreaming of finding a home for it.

Any idea how to help that poor little guy?

Thanks,

Rich.

RichR said:

 
Hi everybody,

I've recently started feeding 3 feral kittens which actually started as a pack of 5 but I'm not sure if they're all from the same litter (One was run over and another one disappeared and now they are 3). One of them is very friendly and vocal. I can even lightly touch him even though he's still a bit afraid of me. I trapped all 3 a few weeks ago for TNR.

These past few days, I've been seeing many wounds on the back of the friendly one.  I also saw one wound on the side of one of the other cats but certainly not as many as on the friendly one. I think it's one or several feral bullies because I saw one attack one of mine while they were eating. I'm planning on bringing it to the vet but I need to find a way to stop the attacks. I've read that half-feral cats can be attacked by colonies because they lack survival skills.

I would take him in if my son did not have asthma and a mild allergy to cats. I already have 2 indoor cats, one hand-fed and one shelter rescue, so I'm dreaming of finding a home for it.

Any idea how to help that poor little guy?

Thanks,

Rich.

Click to expand...

Welcome to the forums.  Also thank you for caring for these sweet ferals. A few suggestions that come to mind:

How about building an enclosure for them.  They could still live outside, but be safe at the same time.  There are lots of ideas if you search the internet. 

The second suggestion is to trap the remaining ferals.  They often fight since they are not neutered.  THey will continue to fight if they are not neutered.  They fight for territory as well as females as well as for food since it can be scarce. 

You could bring them inside temporarily and try to socialize them and then adopt them.  They would need to be in a room by themselves without access to your other pets. 

I hope you can find a solution to helping these little ones.

ShadowsRescue said:

 
Welcome to the forums.  Also thank you for caring for these sweet ferals. A few suggestions that come to mind:

How about building an enclosure for them.  They could still live outside, but be safe at the same time.  There are lots of ideas if you search the internet. 

The second suggestion is to trap the remaining ferals.  They often fight since they are not neutered.  THey will continue to fight if they are not neutered.  They fight for territory as well as females as well as for food since it can be scarce. 

You could bring them inside temporarily and try to socialize them and then adopt them.  They would need to be in a room by themselves without access to your other pets. 

I hope you can find a solution to helping these little ones.

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Thanks for the suggestions, ShadowsRescue.

Because of a small house surrounded by neighbors, building an enclosure or bringing them inside is very difficult to do. That's why I'm hoping to find at least a temporary home that could prepare the friendly one for adoption but I have no idea how to go about that.

TNR for the bullies, on the other hand, is something I was thinking about doing especially if you say they might stop torturing the young ones. However, I'm not sure how to trap specific cats while avoiding the others. Can it be done?

RichR said:

 
Thanks for the suggestions, ShadowsRescue.

TNR for the bullies, on the other hand, is something I was thinking about doing especially if you say they might stop torturing the young ones. However, I'm not sure how to trap specific cats while avoiding the others. Can it be done?

Click to expand...

That is not easy, bu if you intend to TNR all, it wont matter much WHICH you do catch.

Also, the already catched and TNR will tend to avoid the traps.

You do have probably some rescue / TnR group nearby, who can help you with the catching and the costs...   Where do you live?

RichR said:

 
Hi everybody,

I've recently started feeding 3 feral kittens which actually started as a pack of 5 but I'm not sure if they're all from the same litter (One was run over and another one disappeared and now they are 3). One of them is very friendly and vocal. I can even lightly touch him even though he's still a bit afraid of me. I trapped all 3 a few weeks ago for TNR.

These past few days, I've been seeing many wounds on the back of the friendly one.  I also saw one wound on the side of one of the other cats but certainly not as many as on the friendly one. I think it's one or several feral bullies because I saw one attack one of mine while they were eating. I'm planning on bringing it to the vet but I need to find a way to stop the attacks. I've read that half-feral cats can be attacked by colonies because they lack survival skills.

I would take him in if my son did not have asthma and a mild allergy to cats. I already have 2 indoor cats, one hand-fed and one shelter rescue, so I'm dreaming of finding a home for it.

Any idea how to help that poor little guy?

Thanks,

Rich.

Click to expand...

This I havent heard.  What can happen, the cats already belonging to a colony, dont wants  new wanna bees, ie, they may be very reluctant to admit new cats into the group.

But some bullying may surely occur, both here and there.  That is the nature of the bully, after all. And most vicious, among these unspayed / unneutered.

Start with one and work your way through the colony.  Trap them one at a time and the job gets done.  But before you trap, make a plan.  What do you plan to do with any females?  The males can stay the night after neutering in the trap but females need a day or two to recuparate.  A large dog crate in a shed will work if you can't set something up inside your house.  You can use your basement, too, if you have one.

As to the friendly one - might you have a friend who can foster him while you get him the attention he needs?  If you have a rescue nearby, they may be able to help. Your vet may also have some suggestions.

Stefan is correct - the previously trapped will usually avoid the trap.  But trapping the bullies, and anyone else who wanders by, is key to getting the situation under control.  They will continue to breed until the place is absolutely overwhelmed and the bullying with only get worse.

Thank you for taking on this challenge!

StefanZ said:

 
That is not easy, bu if you intend to TNR all, it wont matter much WHICH you do catch.

Also, the already catched and TNR will tend to avoid the traps.

You do have probably some rescue / TnR group nearby, who can help you with the catching and the costs...   Where do you live?

This I havent heard.  What can happen, the cats already belonging to a colony, dont wants  new wanna bees, ie, they may be very reluctant to admit new cats into the group.

But some bullying may surely occur, both here and there.  That is the nature of the bully, after all. And most vicious, among these unspayed / unneutered.

Click to expand...

Well, since the 3 of them are TNR'ed and I also see some passing ones with tipped ear (making me very happy that someone else around here is doing the right thing!), I hope that they would avoid the traps as you said. I also don't want to scare the young ones away with new traps. Even the friendly one took some time before approaching me again after TNR. They seem to be staying closer to my house these days, maybe because of the bullies.

I'm in Freeport, NY and did try to find volunteers to help when I realized it was time for TNR but I had no way to find anyone. The local shelters and rescue groups would not give me any contacts because of privacy issues. I actually thought that an app and/or website to keep tabs on people doing TNR and feeding them would be useful but it seems that most people are fearful of being recognized as friendly to feral cats.

The information about semi-feral cats being rejected by colonies is from the ASPCA site:

"Occasionally they were born feral but for no particular reason are less fearful of humans than is typical. Many semi-ferals lack the knowledge to survive on their own, and are often rejected by established colonies."

https://www.aspca.org/adopt/feral-cats-faq#19

The bullying of the semi-feral one is, in my opinion, pretty extreme. He's the only one who's that badly hurt.

Yes, unfortunately, people caring for feral colonies often have to deal with poor attitudes.  It is so unfortunate that TNR is not more widely understood and accepted.  In our town, there is a registry of caregivers but it is only open to the coordinator and city officials.  If it was made public, the colony caregivers would probably find their cats being poisoned or attacked.  Sad...

Do what you can for them.  It is more than many people are doing!

Ondine said:

 
Start with one and work your way through the colony.  Trap them one at a time and the job gets done.  But before you trap, make a plan.  What do you plan to do with any females?  The males can stay the night after neutering in the trap but females need a day or two to recuparate.  A large dog crate in a shed will work if you can't set something up inside your house.  You can use your basement, too, if you have one.

As to the friendly one - might you have a friend who can foster him while you get him the attention he needs?  If you have a rescue nearby, they may be able to help. Your vet may also have some suggestions.

Stefan is correct - the previously trapped will usually avoid the trap.  But trapping the bullies, and anyone else who wanders by, is key to getting the situation under control.  They will continue to breed until the place is absolutely overwhelmed and the bullying with only get worse.

Thank you for taking on this challenge!

Click to expand...

Ondine said:

 
Yes, unfortunately, people caring for feral colonies often have to deal with poor attitudes.  It is so unfortunate that TNR is not more widely understood and accepted.  In our town, there is a registry of caregivers but it is only open to the coordinator and city officials.  If it was made public, the colony caregivers would probably find their cats being poisoned or attacked.  Sad...

Do what you can for them.  It is more than many people are doing!

Click to expand...

Sorry, I had to wait for my last post to be reviewed because of the link.

For TNR, I'm lucky enough to have the Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter offering it for free including sheltering the cats for as long as they need to recover.

I will definitely focus on capturing the other ones even though they just pass by 1 or two times during the day.

I'm actually feeding a fourth female that had kittens last year. One was run over and the other one, which started to get friendly and vocal, just disappeared.  I've tried trapping her too but she's acting like she knows exactly how these traps work.She will not touch that plate. Also, while trying to catch her, I realized that a neighbor was feeding her which made it even more impossible.

I'm thinking that a record of the feral cats being fed in an area without specific addresses might be useful for TNR plans and sharing of feeding cost. If I know some neighbors in the area (knowing their real identities being optional) are willing to share the feeding of certain cats and take care of TNR for some of them, that would make things much easier.

Yes, many of our caregivers are aware and supportive of one another.  It's the people who either hate or don't understand cats that usually cause the trouble.  The coordinator helps match people up and asks for help from everyone with trapping, feeding, etc.  The nice thing is, if you need help, there's always someone who there.

We've helped caregivers buy food, trap new cats andter kittens.  Plus, the bigger your network, the more likely you'll find homes for any strays or kittens.

Keep up the good work!

Thanks, Ondine. I hope to find a network like the one you're describing in my area soon

Fingers crossed you do!