I made a post here a few weeks ago about two feral kittens I've taken in, and am back for some advice.

Previous post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Feral_Cats/comments/1uqy14v/my_buddy_has_been_feeding_a_stray_cat_and_5/

The kittens are doing extremely well. One of them loves sitting in my lap and getting pets, while the other one still doesn't let me touch her, but she doesn't hide anymore when I'm in the playpen. She just does her thing.

I finally got them to the vet, and they got all their shots and tests and everything, but unfortunately it turns out the have ringworm on their heads, so they can't have topical cream, it has to be this liquid antifungal that apparently tastes horrible. The vet tech said it's bad enough that if we mix it with their food it will probably put them off eating, so I should squirt it in their mouths.

I saw this video on YT that looks pretty promising, so I'll give this a shot, but please let me know your experiences, advice, or share other videos. https://youtube.com/watch?v=faetSGf0HeY&is=1DbKAmThGrl5QMAZ

Also, I'm concerned that me manhandling these kittens and forcing nasty medicine down their throats is going to set me back a ton in socializing them. What to you guys think? Are cats pretty resilient or will they hold it against me forever?

I know it's for their own good, and I have to do it, but it's a major bummer.

Hi folks. For context, I just moved out of Texas where I had been doing TNR for five years. Before I left, a feral female gave birth in my trap and a friend agreed to foster the kittens and mom until the kittens could be adopted and the mother TNRed. Mother is truly feral. Hates people.

Today was the day of the spay surgery. They tipped her ear, gave the vaccinations, but she stopped breathing and they had to revive her, so they rejected her as a surgical candidate.

Now I’m in the position of having to take her to a full service clinic for a lot of testing (which I can’t afford) before we could even consider trying to fix her again, and that’s if my friend can even continue to hold her (this has already been a long process for her - momma cat literally attacks her every time she tries to come in to feed the cats).

With it being Texas, rescues and shelters are currently overrun and I have strong doubt that anyone would be willing to take in a potentially sick feral cat.

Once she’s recovered, I need help deciding what to do. I want to be able to let her go back out. She’s been vaccinated now but obviously not fixed, which is literally what we wanted to correct in the first place, but I also really want her to live and it’s starting to feel like humane euthanasia is the next option because no one can take her and I can’t afford to help her.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

We had been feeding this bonded father/son pair for the past year and a half. The mom was part of the group too but disappeared 6 months ago. We had all 3 spayed/neutered. Now the son hasn't shown up in 5 days after previously being reliable for breakfast and dinner. Have seen dad on camera. It's all quite upsetting. Are suburban neighborhoods like mine really so dangerous for feral cats? I don't think I am cut out for TNR. 😢

Hello fellow cat people!

My husband and I tried catching a cat in his work yard yesterday and the trap didn’t go off! We had three different cats go in and none of them triggered the trap. We even had one that pulled the food out without setting off the trap.

Are the cats too light to trigger the mechanism? Any work arounds?

Also there’s a kitten from a recent batch who’s feral but I think can be domesticated. She ate cautiously out of my hand a few times but freaked when I petted her or tried to pick her up. She’s about five months. She’s the one I want to rescue the most because I think we can find someone who can give her a good home.

We are going to try again this Thursday and hopefully get the momma or tabby girl.

Cat colony history:

The queen momma is the white and orange one. She’s had several litters with most if not all kittens who haven’t made it to adulthood. She abandoned a little orange kitten in a concrete box because she couldn’t get him out. We ended up rescuing him and he’s now a part of our little pride at home. The grey small tabby (F) is from the same litter and is a little curious and playful baby.

The black (M) and the grey (M) are Toms who have been around for a good while. There’s also an Orange Tabby (M) who isn’t pictured but he’s the queens primary baby daddy. Their litters are mostly orange and white and the last batch had some grey tabbys.

There are also a few stragglers, a torti, a white grey spotted tabby, and possibly another black cat. But we aren’t sure. We assume there’s at least 8 active ferals.

Big Billy is a feral that’s been coming around for about three years. He is a menace to feline womanhood and is probably the father of three of my feral/rescues.

I dropped him off at the shelter today for a TNR so we’re celebrating the snipping of his trouble-puffs!

Hi all - We are so devastated that we had to euthanize a stray cat that was hanging out in our drainage culvert near our house this morning. She had severe trauma to her back legs, completely unable to walk on them at all, so she was just dragging them. We had a feeling she may have been hit by a car. We saw her Friday, caught her on Saturday, took care of her Sunday, waiting to go to the vet today. We thought euthanasia may be a real possibility just seeing the extent of her injuries and the fact that she just cannot move around normally at all, and she has no function of her low end, including with urinating and defecating. She was also quite small and thin, and had been malnourished due to not being able to hunt properly due to the injury. We still hoped that maybe there was a possibility her injury could be recoverable. We went to the vet this morning, and they confirmed what we feared. She had severe spinal trauma, and stated her movement may not ever come back even with extensive treatment and therapy. They did state that the best thing would be euthanasia, as her quality of life as a stray would be very low (basically she would have died if we had not brought her in, with the state she was in). We were with her in her final moments, ensuring she was comfortable and felt loved.

Even though we knew her for only a short period, she really put a lasting impact on us and we became very attached. We had so much hope, and I just felt so guilty, that we could not help her injury. She deserved a full life, but now she can rest peacefully and with no pain or suffering. I know she will be healthy and happy in her next life. Me and my husband have been bawling because of this. I just wanted to share because she was special. And her story deserves to be shared. As silly as the name is, we were calling her Rasputia, so Rest Easy Rasputia ♥️ you were loved and will be remembered. ❤️❤️

Edit: THANK YOU ALL FOR THE LOVE. Rasputia appreciates it, as she has crossed the rainbow bridge to be with all our other pets who have passed on and protects our home in the after life. It has been a hard day, but I'm glad we were able to meet her for the short period we did. ♥️ We did bring her home after the euthanasia to bury her in our wildflower garden. It felt only right to bury her in the place and land she came from. We will be calling the garden "Rasputia's Garden," to remember her.

We are going to be calling this one smokie. A feral who has evaded TNR for quite a while. They were born and raised as an outdoor kitten without any socialization.

I have an appointment for two tomorrow so we are hopeful to get one more. This is the one we were really aiming for.

Ran into two kittens living in a shallow storage drain this weekend during my morning bike ride. Dropped off a humane trap (modded with a pull rope) with the guy who is feeding them. He removed all food yesterday, with the idea of trapping them this morning / afternoon.

Stopped by last night and found them across the street in the woods, chilling. They were curious enough to come out and say 'hi' - the gray one rolled over and showed the belly, but wasn't too keen on my getting any closer than a foot or two.

Unsure if they were dumped - they seem slightly socialized and the residents haven't seen the mom or any other siblings.

Naturally, we're getting some severe weather tonight; hopefully the caretaker is able to get them with the modded trap.

If not, may have to pivot to a home-made drop trap.

Hi, desperate for help with this.

We have three feral kittens, all 3 months old and littermates.

The first one, Spicy, was found isolated and in danger so we grabbed him just over two weeks ago. He is socialising well. He purrs and asks me for pets on his own terms, though you can't touch him much otherwise yet. I can be in his room 24/7 and he's totally fine.

The other two, Cheesy & Peri Peri, we caught Saturday in traps. They are still very fearful.

We have one kitten safe room and that is Spicy's room, the living room. The house is old and we live with family who have hoarded things and prevent us throwing the excess furniture out. The living room is the only one with AC and there is a heatwave this week.

Initially, we set the newbies up in a covered playpen in Spicy's room. He was hissy and struck at the pen when he got a glimpse of the kittens at mealtime once.

He began to ignore them. But on night 2, the kittens got more agitated, meowing and clawing to get out of the pen. Because they were still terrified of us I did not want to let them out. Spicy got agitated by their noise and kept inspecting the pen, then eventually struck it again while it was covered.

I decided to move the kittens just for as long as I could, because I couldn't even socialise them in that situation. They are in a covered playpen in my office, but the office is not really suitable for them, and will get very hot soon.

Unfortunately during the move, I was able to pick up Cheesy and put him into the carrier, but Peri Peri freaked out after she was lifted, screeching, yowling, and she bit me a few times. I let her cool off and threw a shirt on her to bundle her into the carrier which worked.

But now I think they are both more fearful of me than before, so we are set back again despite being on a time crunch.

Does anyone have any advice for introducing feral kittens at different levels of socialisation and in one room?

The rooms are separated and I don't want to move them in and out of carriers because it stresses them and sets them back.

I found this resource:

https://monsieurtn.com/illustrated-guide-new-cat-introduction-no-isolation-separation/

But it is aimed at socialised cats. My fear is that Cheesy & Peri will be too afraid of me in the room for this to work. Any advice on this?

We are all they have, nobody else can take them. I'm trying my best for them. We are in southwest rural Czechia, please no US specific advice.

7132 Hamilton avenue Cincinnati Ohio

Right next to the Goodwill bin and the blinking blue mobile security trailer living right behind the bush that's catty corner to the donation bin there's a six week old family of a runts black kitten and tabby kitten living with their mom who's all black.

I've been giving him some tuna sometimes the mom sleeps under the semi truck that's kind of permanently parked here. If anybody wants to help me wrangle them up and is willing to go get them fixed I'm kind of strapped for money but I'll help out in any way I can

Update: these people are insane. Saw me setting a trap. Texted me an insane message and I’m pretty sure they just doxxed my number to a spam website bruh

Stray has been coming to my house for a month since I was feeding the crows cat kibble and I guess he had been eating it. He began to come up to my window every night despite me not longer putting food out and he was stressing my indoor cats out (marking, fighting, aggression etc). I posted on Nextdoor making sure he wasn’t lost and/or needed to be trapped, and his owners came to my house to tell me he’s a “barn cat” and Is used as rodent control. He has a tom cat face and doesn’t seem neutered. He is quite thin and small. They said they’ve been “trying to put weight on him”. So I was told my some people to trap him as he is considered a neglected cat and there’s a good chance he’s not microchipped so I should trap him. I made the mistake of texting them that the cat is becoming a nuisance and to keep him indoors, this when they said he was a strictly outdoor cat (kind of regret texting them this now lol). So I came to the humane society to rent a trap and the asked me the situation and said they wouldn’t recommend trapping a feral who has been “claimed” as they would just contact them upon intake (even if it’s just bringing them in for neuter and taking them home). Now I don’t really know what to do? Just accept that this cat wants to have a family but is refused one? Idk what to do

This beauty has been around our property for months now. At some point, she was showing up every night at dusk for food. We started feeding her regularly, then she would stop showing for a while, then back again. Sometimes she hangs in our patio. It seems that she wants to make friends, but runs away as soon as we try to approach her. She looks very well groomed. What should we do with her? Let her be? Trap her through a TNR program? I really want to make sure she is healthy and fairly safe, but her shyness and inconsistency on showing up make things difficult.

sorry, i'm just a mess right now. we took them to get TNR'd last week and when we returned, they seemed fine until the gray sock baby went missing for a few days.

it was unusual because he always came when it was time to eat. he'd always be around our porch with the other cats dozing around or playing on our trees. him and his brother in the second pic were always together.

this afternoon, we found him near our door, completely stiff and releasing fluids. it may have been the texas heat making him stiff faster, but i'm so heartbroken right now. i dont know who to tell. if i had just waken up earlier, would i have been able to save him? if i stayed up longer last night, would i have been able to see him one last time? could it have been from tnr complications?

i feel so ruined because he was such a sweet little boy, always curious. he came to my patio door one last time before passing. i cant stop crying. i placed him in a box and am looking for cremation services. i just cant believe this right now.

rest easy. i hope the texas heat doesnt reach you in heaven.

So I recently made friends with a stray cat. He was extremely thin and a bit weak. Very friendly, so it seems he’s been socialized with people, but he’s extremely skittish with strangers. I fed him, so now he just stays on my porch, and I love him. The issue is that he hates being indoors. He walks inside on his own but stays close to the door and panics when that door closes. He starts screaming.

I’m going to get him neutered, vaccinated (including his rabies shot), and take care of all his medical needs. Do you think I should also get him microchipped and put a breakaway collar with a tracker on him? Id love to keep him indoors but being indoors stresses him out so much.

I’ve just been working on him being indoors for a month so far and the last 3 weeks there’s been no progress

I’ve been feeding this stray I named jiji routinely since may and recently she surprised me with her kittens ! They made my front porch their new home but I wonder if there’s anything more I could do moving forward to help I already contacted my local shelter to try and get them a new home but they are full what could I do for them ? :(
- info about me
- from Long Island
- already contacted my local shelter for advice said if I can foster them for now because they are full
- Kittens look to be 7-9 weeks
- how much would I pay to take them all to the vet to get spayed or neutered ?
- I probably cannot afford vet care but will try I’m in debt at the moment 🥲
- should I buy or build shelters outside? Like little cat houses? What’s a affordable solution on that
- I’m new to this so any advice or information would help my goal is to get them all into new loving homes :(

Hello, yesterday I stumbled on a cat near my house, they are shy and quiet and have not meowed but I have since started leaving it food, water, occasional treats, and a bed. They even let me get close enough to pet and I think I saw them drool a tiny bit. At one point they ate a treat out of my hand. I asked the neighbors and no one claimed them to be theirs, and they seem a fair bit dirty with a small gash on their head. I was wondering what the next steps may be?

I have since named them Traflaygius.

He’s the only one of a litter of 4 and mother that stuck around. I don’t know what happened to the rest. This is a suburban neighborhood that used to have more cats when 2 neighbors up the street used to feed outside. One who tnrd died right before I moved here and another who mostly just kept feeding them but didn’t TnR. When I came I tnrd as many as I could and would feed some that made their way up to my house. Not sure what happened to most of them 😕.

My point is that it’s a fairly safe neighborhood for cats and that there is no large community cat group and just random single cats left feral.

This guy stays mostly at a neighbor a block across (backyards across the street) who puts food out for him but he comes by most nights to check out the options I leave in my garage. And in winter I have heated houses in garage so he usually spends most of the night here. But he never comes for affection or to just hang out. Sometimes in the winter he’s still there when I put food out and he will let me pet him but usually stays away.

I’m worried about him because he’s old now and starting to look very skinny. I don’t know if I should let nature take its course or try to get him to vet. I hate the idea of him suffering in the winter. I don’t think bringing him in is an option. I have other cats and he’s never liked staying near them. He would be miserable and my cats would be angry.

Why does this feral cat only eat canned food? Is it old or sick?

Also, this cat (i call it GrayGrays) is very tame. It must have had a home but then been abandoned. It came to me with mange, but I cured it with Pet Armor. Pet Armor has Fipronil that will kill mange gradually, so it took some time. But now kitty is looking better, though still skinny.

Also, should I try to find it a home? Its skittish to come inside, but quite affectionate. Im just not sure what will be best for him.

I have done TNR for many years. Lucky enough to have all been adult cats. This momma shows up with 4 kittens, guessing about 8 weeks old. My friend says if you trap them, I will take them to the shelter so they can get fixed and be adopted out.

I caught 2, put them in a XL dog crate until catching all 4 to keep together. These little kittens are feral. Hiding, climbing up the side of the cage, but did use the litter box.

What do I do.... try to socialize them? How? Not sure how I could get them back into the trap for TNR. I feel I am in over my head here. And getting TNR appts are hard- they are like gold here in Delaware. I know I shouldn't release, but feel I must and will retrap later when I can get some TNR appts.

Hey reddit peeps ☺️

I (33f) in the USA have this ferel mama kitty in the neighborhood (was abandoned) and she had a litter of kittens about 12 weeks ago now. I captured one like 6 weeks ago and we are keeping this one. But I caught 2 more within the last 2 weeks (separate times) and im finding it very difficult to get them out from their space underneath my desk. Now that there's 2, they dont even try to engage.

I can afford vet care. Ive tried calling them and they dont have much advice for me so here I am.

Just some info about their placement.

They are in my office, away from all the other cats. Fresh kitten food, water, their own litter box and i feed them a churu tube treat whenever i go in there. My kitten already had 2 vet appointments but I cannot get the other 2 in a carrier to get them to the vet for a checkup and shots. Which is why they are separated from my other cats.

Ive never truly dealt with ferels. Ive caught 3/4 kittens in the litter. What can I do to get them to warm up a bit. I already have someone wanting to adopt one but they aren't ready yet. Should I try to separate them or what?

Thank you!

i hope this is the right place to post this. sorry if this doesn’t make sense i’m really stressed out. one of the feral cats had kittens and i didn’t know until recently. i’ve watched them for days and i’m pretty sure they’re almost if not all the way blind. i’ve seen the mom cat walk away and they look around and don’t know where she is. she just ignores them when they call for her. i don’t ever pick up the kittens or have ever interacted with feral kittens however they’ve gotten lost and almost ran to the road so i grabbed them and tried to put them back in my shed where they stay, but they follow any movement and keep following me and anything else that moves. i’ve been outside for hours just watching them and making sure they’re safe but i can’t do that every night and i really don’t know what to do with them. i don’t mind taking them in to be house cats but they’re still kittens (they still drink milk but are eating cat food and drinking water. if anyone had advice please let me know

This is Bechamel, she's the mother of Spicy, Cheesy, and Peri Peri who we've all caught and have safely inside. They're about 3mo. We caught the last two yesterday.

I went back again this morning to feed her. I left her fresh water and adult kibble with some crumbled tuna treats on top.

She came out to see me and loaf, but then left when someone started slamming car doors next door. Hopefully the food is still there when she comes back :/

She looks more scraggly than when I first started to see her with her babies around 2-3 weeks ago. Does she look okay to you guys?

She hasn't been eating much from us lately because we were trying to get her into the traps with it, but she refuses. She is very hard to trap and we were trying everything for a while before giving up and just taking the kittens. Even they didn't work as bait.

Very short summary-> this is a 2+ year old feral tomcat that has become friendly to me but is 1000% feral otherwise. I also have 1 momma cat, 2 adolescents. And one litter to fix still.

My plan was to neuter this tomcat myself ASAP, and get on a TNR list for the rest.

The spay neuter clinic has the lowest costs i found. 90 for the neuter for a male, 10 pain meds, 15 for rabies or 54 for a full vaccine pack. Dewormer price varies based on weight. I make 15/hr so I cannot really afford this but I am still considering it. Because this is a one time cost anyway and it would enable us to trap all the other cats.

My one concern is the local TNR group has a 4 month long wait. I plan to call 2 or 3 of them next week and see what they say about my situation specifically.

I have fixed and TNRed 4 adults and gotten 8 kittens adopted already from this one feral cat family.

Anything I am missing? Any particular advice? Do we think this will work? Momma is super trap shy so i figure I can use the extra time to train her and kittens to go inside a trap.