Catching cats near a feeding station??

So I had a near-catch tonight for one of the white cats I'm trying to catch. I had his nose to the trap, but no good.

So I'm choosing my last-ditch-method, which is to actually place the trap near the area where the cats are fed every night.

However, I don't want the already captured cats to hesitate to eat there in the future.

Bad idea? Or will the habit of feeding there override the trauma of getting caught again?

It never occurred to me to have the trap anywhere but near the feeding station. We never placed it right next to it, but it was within about 30 feet. We retrapped the same cats several times - it never seemed to affect them at the feeding station (and obviously some of the critters weren't afraid of the trap, despite having been trapped!).

Personally, if it's near the feeding station but not right next to it, I think you should be fine. They're scared of the trap, not the food, and if the feeding area is open, I can't see there would be a problem.

Good luck!

I don't have as much experience as everyone else here does, I put the trap right beside the feeding station. Then, when I wanted to trap someone, I picked up the food and threw in some pieces of hotdog to the back of the cage. If the hotdog didn't work, the bologna did. I was fortunate to catch 6 ferals in five days.