Hi, I have an indoor/outdoor cat and one night he woke me up screaming at the sliding glass door, scratching and hissing at a cat that was outside. The outside cat didnt have a collar, and it was my cat that was freaking out. It was just chillin there. The next night I left some food out, and sure enough it came back. I've been feeding it every night for 2 weeks now, but anytime I get close enough for it to see me it runs off and wont come back for 30 minutes or so. It's been eating a can of wet food along with a medium plate of dry food in 1 sitting every night. It's stomach seems much bigger now. I'm wondering if this cat is feral, stray, male/female, or pregnant. I'm wondering because if it is a stray, I'd want to see if it has a microchip so I can get it back to it's owner. If its feral, I'll continue to feed it outside, hoping one day it will trust me enough to socialize a bit. Any tips on this identification situation would be helpful. Thank you!!
-
Too many ads? Join our community of cat lovers now to reduce ads by 90%! Click here to join for free!
Is this cat feral or stray?
- Thread starter cyrus
- Start Date
Hi! It does sound like it may be pregnant.
A Feral Cat Or A Stray Cat? How To Tell The Difference – Cat Articles
A Feral Cat Or A Stray Cat? How To Tell The Difference – Cat Articles
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #3
Have you asked around I’m your neighborhood? Maybe it’s a lost kitty or just got out accidentally. Whether stray or feral, it seems to need food. I’m glad you are helping kitty. If it’s an unneutered male, a picture from the rear would help. Lol Both strays and ferals can gobble up food if they have been struggling to get enough nourishment. We are in kitten season though. Can you trap the kitty? I often used food put inside a cat carrier to encourage trust in both strays and ferals. I put a shirt with my scent on it in the crate and spent time nearby while they ate. Most ended up trusting me enough to come and eat near me and eventually from my hand. The next step was just shutting the door with them inside the carrier. I hope you can get it to trust you soon to be checked for a microchip. If it’s pregnant you don’t want the kittens to become feral. Having them around a human from the start prevents that. Thanks for taking notice of this kitty and caring! Sounds like a beauty too!
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #5
That's a great idea. I'll start putting things with my scent out on my porch. Ive tried to be on the porch with the food out by the grass to see if it would come near me, but when it strolled up, it ran off as soon as it saw me. That's what makes me think its feral. But I hear ferals usually dont go to porches? Each case is different I guess. There's signs in favor of both, so the next step is gonna be to humanely trap it and bring it to the vet. I wasn't gonna do that cuz I wanted to let it be free and do whatever it wanted, but when the stomach started getting bigger, it makes me worry that if it has kittens, they might go without food at some point. Cant have that!!! Thanks for everyone's support. I'm brand new to this site, but everyone has been really great so far.
We're super glad you're here, and that cat is fortunate to have you
!
You are really nice to try to help this cat. The coloring of a cat, such as black and white, does not have anything to do with gender unless you are talking about calicos, or possibly orange cats...but there can be exceptions even there. I once decided, during a kitten apocalypse here a couple summers ago, that a kitten who was the exact image of the father cat was a male and felt that I could skip getting that one fixed for the time being. Fortunately, some people here cautioned me and sure enough, she was not a boy, but was fixed in time.