Advise for Colony caretaker

I have a question for those of you who care for feral colonies.  I feed about 8 or so feral cats that come up for food plus 2 that hang out around my house and aren't quite so feral.  I don't see the ferals very often, maybe a glance every now and then.  I place food out three times a day (wet once a day, dry all three) and it is eaten throughout the day.  My problem is that now I am getting over-run with possums.  Since I don't know when the ferals come up I feave out food.  Now I have the problem with the possums.  Besides that, if the ferals see me they won't come up to eat. 

My question is, if I only put out food at certain times, then pick it up, will the cats adapt to those times?   Like I said I don't even see these cats and assume most come out at night.  What will happen if I quit putting out food?  I feel like I've gotten these cats adapted to coming here for food and I'm pulling it out from under them.  I live in a highly populated neighborhood so some of these cats may not be feral just outdoor (just don't know that).  Just trying to figure out what to do here. 

Suggestions/comments?

Thanks!

Carla

Yes, they will adjust to the times that you put food out. This is better than leaving it out all the time, which as you have learned means that a lot of it is eaten by wildlife. If you want to be able to watch the cats , you can use an outdoor camera pointed the location where you feed them.

If you leave the food out overnight, the possums will come.  They only way you can avoid this is by taking it up before dark - or just at dark.  It may take a few days but the cats will learn the new schedule.  You may not be able to use this but calling the cats at dinner time will alert them that dinner's waiting.

Thank you for helping these kitties.

I am so glad to see this thread.  I am having the same issues, only we have drawn a skunk!  One night we saw 2 skunks on the camera come up on the porch!

We have had possums, skunks, and raccoons.  We keep seeing a fox in the yard, but at least it doesn't come up on the porch.

I'm going to start taking up all the food when we get ready to go to bed.  Our wildlife only seem to be visiting between midnight and 4am, or that's what we've been seeing on the security cameras around the house.

I have to pick up food most nights by 8pm as the possum and raccoons come out and will eat anything that remains.  I too use cameras to watch.  The critters will eventually leave and the cats will adjust.  

ShadowsRescue said:

 
I have to pick up food most nights by 8pm as the possum and raccoons come out and will eat anything that remains.  I too use cameras to watch.  The critters will eventually leave and the cats will adjust.  

Click to expand...

Thanks....I believe I will take mine up about 8pm as well.  I'll feed any hungry cat that comes, but I'm tired of feeding the forest life!!  One possum will clear an entire full bowl of cat food in seconds!

I can see the headlines if I don't-- "The reason they went in the poorhouse was because they were feeding the possums and raccoons"

hbunny said:

 

ShadowsRescue said:

 
I have to pick up food most nights by 8pm as the possum and raccoons come out and will eat anything that remains.  I too use cameras to watch.  The critters will eventually leave and the cats will adjust.  

Click to expand...

Thanks....I believe I will take mine up about 8pm as well.  I'll feed any hungry cat that comes, but I'm tired of feeding the forest life!!  One possum will clear an entire full bowl of cat food in seconds!

I can see the headlines if I don't-- "The reason they went in the poorhouse was because they were feeding the possums and raccoons"

Click to expand...

The possums don't bother me nearly as much as the darn raccoons.  Once they find a food source, it is so hard to get rid of them.  I have one possum that comes on my deck a few nights each week.  My feral boys all just sit there and watch him eat.  I usually catch him and retrieve the food.  I have been within inches of him and he is hardly scared of me.  

A few years ago, I had a baby in the early summer.  It was so ugly that it was down right cute.  He/she would try over and over again to get up onto the deck.  I had a feral boy living under my deck that summer so I had a surveillance camera under the deck.  At night this little possum would roll around on the cat bed.  He even slept there a few nights.

I also had a possum who would steal the towels out of my cats heated tent house.  I had one under the deck that was a tent like structure with a heat pad on the bottom.  I used a kitchen towel to cover the heat pad to keep it clean and make it easy to remove.  The towels kept disappearing.  I thought it was the wind.  I caught one on camera one night.  There must have been a nest somewhere with 5-8 kitchen towels!  

A friend of mine and I feed a colony of ferals as well, we have a problem at night, when the raccoons come out, and eat any dry food left out.  The only way to prevent this from happening was to make sure the dry food was picked up before dark.  I would imagine the same tactic would work for opossums as well.

Well, I tried it last night and had no visitors on the cameras at all.  The cats wandered around some, some of the younger ones played on the porch, but no visitors from the forest haha!  Thanks so much all....the kitties are going to have food out on a strict schedule now and only that way.