Hi All,
I hope this board is still active,
Some Back Ground,
I have been the proud owner of a feral cat family for about 7 months now, momma cat showed up in our yard in July and we started feeding her, about a month later she showed up with 4 kittens in tow. They all decided to stay, we contacted our local TNS program and successfully trapped them all and fixed all kittens and momma. Released back into our yard a week later. We re did our shed to make a cat friendly home, straw for warmth we made beds out of insulation and wood and put toys and cat box and so on in the shed, exit and entrance for the kitties also. We kept them in the shed for 3 weeks after being fixed so they could heal and realize this was there home. When the 3 weeks were up we opened the kittie doors and momma took off the babies stayed behind, mom was gone for about 3 days and she came home again. We have been feeding them 2x day wet food and dry out all day, picking all food up at night. Heated water bowl so they have the comforts of home outside. We do have cold nights we live in the northeast so winter is long here.
New Years eve I fed the babies and momma, all the babies will stop running when the hear my voice and wait for me to feed them, JR and Fraya will come almost close enough for me to pet the others are coming around. Momma is getting better at being around me she will run but watch from afar while I put the food out. So all day New Years day no cat, this morning no sign of them being here over night. So all 5 kitties disappeared together. Is it common for them to roam away from their home for days at a time? I have never taken care of feral cats before. We have 6 kitties of our own inside that we never let out, I'm as worried about this kittie family as I would be of my indoor fur babies.
Any advice would be helpful, thank you.
I hope this board is still active,
Some Back Ground,
I have been the proud owner of a feral cat family for about 7 months now, momma cat showed up in our yard in July and we started feeding her, about a month later she showed up with 4 kittens in tow. They all decided to stay, we contacted our local TNS program and successfully trapped them all and fixed all kittens and momma. Released back into our yard a week later. We re did our shed to make a cat friendly home, straw for warmth we made beds out of insulation and wood and put toys and cat box and so on in the shed, exit and entrance for the kitties also. We kept them in the shed for 3 weeks after being fixed so they could heal and realize this was there home. When the 3 weeks were up we opened the kittie doors and momma took off the babies stayed behind, mom was gone for about 3 days and she came home again. We have been feeding them 2x day wet food and dry out all day, picking all food up at night. Heated water bowl so they have the comforts of home outside. We do have cold nights we live in the northeast so winter is long here.
New Years eve I fed the babies and momma, all the babies will stop running when the hear my voice and wait for me to feed them, JR and Fraya will come almost close enough for me to pet the others are coming around. Momma is getting better at being around me she will run but watch from afar while I put the food out. So all day New Years day no cat, this morning no sign of them being here over night. So all 5 kitties disappeared together. Is it common for them to roam away from their home for days at a time? I have never taken care of feral cats before. We have 6 kitties of our own inside that we never let out, I'm as worried about this kittie family as I would be of my indoor fur babies.
Any advice would be helpful, thank you.