Capturing Feral Cats for Rehoming

I have 3 cats of mine own.  I live alone and have a 2 story house.  I keep my patio slider door open a crack so my cats can play and sun in the backyard.  I live mostly upstairs which is where my cats' food and water are located.

There are suddenly a huge amount of cats in my house -- adults and 8-10 week old kittens. I cannot feed 10-15 cats.  I'm not sure how to get them out of the house.  I know how ridiculous this sounds.

I placed ads for the feral cats (who won't let me near them), but I have no idea how to get them.  I can't pick them up.  I can't get them out of my house.

I suppose my alternative is to get my cats into a spare bedroom with litter box and food/water.  Then not put food out for the feral cats, but that is cruel.  I don't know where they came from, except that we have several rentals where people move out and don't take their cat.

Any ideas?  I called Animal Control but they said I need to bring the cats to them.  How?

Hi @Cat Mama 88  Welcome to The Cat Site. First of all please don't take the cats to Animal Control. They will just euthanize them and not bother trying to rehome them. Your best bet would be to try and find a local TNR group. If you check Google you should be able to find some in your area.

They use humane traps to catch the cats, get them spayed or neutered and then either rehome the ones that can be socialised or release the wilder ones back where they were caught. If you want to do this yourself you could look for a low cost spay and neuter clinic in your area and get a humane trap of your own. I believe Walmart and Tractor Supply stock them. Some clinics even rent their traps out.

They young kittens should be easy to rehome. Call around the no-kill shelters in your area and see if they will help. If you are happy to carry on feeding just a few adult cats the best thing to do is get them fixed so the numbers don't increase and then put them back outside. 

Are your cats chipped? You can get cat doors that only open when they read the chip in your cat. That could be one way to let your cats have outdoor access but stop others coming indoors.

Good luck, keep us posted on how it goes.