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Sun Nov 05, 2006 3:17 pm  |
Since the beginning of this fall, these three absolutely adorable wild kittens and their mother have been living around my neighborhood. They, right now, have found a dwelling underneath my neighbor's deck but during the day, they come to my house to play and catch chipmunks and birds! [I know, Yuck! i found a snake on the front of my back doorstep last night!] These cats are so gorgeous and so friendly- each of them have a different calico pattern  I call the boy one Diego.. cuz he looks like a little spanish cat, lol! and the other one [a girl] i call Dina:) They both have these huge, beautiful black rimmed eyes in the most amazing shades of green! so pretty  A couple weeks ago, the mother and one of the kittens stopped coming around and all day long the two other kittens are in my back yard rolling around in the grass. Maybe it was a mistake on my part, but I began to feed them so they come every now and then for food. I try to limit how much I do feed them as they are wild and for survival purposes they have to learn how to hunt, but they are very attached and lately they've been hangin around at my house more! i'd let them in but i'm allergic!!  Because they are still relatively small and their mother has abondoned them, I'm a little bit worried about them seeing winter is coming! The snowfall here can be very heavy and harsh, and I'm not sure if underneath an open deck would be sufficient for them! I've thought about leaving my shed open, putting some hay in it and showing them where to go, hoping that they will follow and recognize it as shelter. But some farmers i've spoken to in the area said that most of the time cats just wander. They're almost like my little pets though, and knowing its getting so cold outside, I hate to leave them scratching at the door at the end of the night! [even though their furr gets thicker and all to protect them].. maybe i'm just a huge sap!!
Has anybody kinda... "housed" any wild animals? Would it be bad to create a little spot for them to help keep them warm in the snow/do you think they would they come to it  |
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mwa :* |
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Sun Nov 05, 2006 4:27 pm |
Hi nikkilici0us,
The same thing happened to my boyfriend last year with a baby fox. We actually ended up etting it medical help, and now there's a fox that acts like a normal dog living in our house 
I would just keep feeding them (if you feed them more they may kill the other animals less). I don't think they are intelligent enough to lose their hunter instinct, even if you are feeding them. When I was a kid I fed my pet cat for years but it would still find it's own.. food
Opening up your underneath deck and filling it with hay sounds like a wonderful idea. They may love it and they may not, either way I'm sure they'll be fine in the winter.
That's so sweet of you to care about them |
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Sun Nov 05, 2006 6:16 pm |
nikki--I have actually dealt with wild cats on a few occassions. are the kitties pretty much domesticated? if so, maybe you can try to give them away maybe? i know cats once they become wild or feral, can't be "turned" back like dogs can. if the animal shelters ever get a hold of them, they will be put to sleep immediately.
one time, my friend and i picked up a cat that was to be auctioned off as a pet for a good cause, and we ended up with a wild cat. it was gentle around its owner but once we drove it 50 miles back to a vet by our place, it went absolutely nuts, scaling the vet's office wall, hissing, and scaring the vet and ME like crazy!
as dealated said, making a place in your shed is a very kind and nice idea. the mother might not have abandonned them, maybe something bad happened to her
dealated, that is so cool about the fox. has it gotten shots and everything then? |
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about to hit my 40s, retin-a user, differin, LRP |
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Sun Nov 05, 2006 6:27 pm |
| dealated wrote: |
| ... The same thing happened to my boyfriend last year with a baby fox. We actually ended up etting it medical help, and now there's a fox that acts like a normal dog living in our house |
Dealated - that is so great about the fox! I LOVE foxes, they are so darned cute and ... well, foxy - especially the baby ones! What did you guys name her/him? "Foxy"?!  |
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Sun Nov 05, 2006 6:41 pm |
Nikki, cats can live in the "wild" fairly well - there are alley cats living behind my apartment and they've been there for 2 or 3 years now, probably longer because they are not kittens. However, this is Southern California and it does not snow here, and rarely gets very cold (though we do get down into the 40s at night sometimes). That said, feral cats have a really short life span (they are predators, but because of their small size, they are also prey) - even domesticated cats that spend time outdoors have a significantly shortened life span on average than strictly indoor cats.
It is kind of you to feed them and to care about their well-being. I'd be scared that they'd freeze during the winter, so if you can put down some hay and old blankets that would be great. Cats LOVE to burrow and to be enclosed in small spaces, so if you could rig up a not-too-small, fully-enclosed box with a big enough hole cut into it for entry/exit and put hay and blankets inside, the two kitties could cuddle together and keep warm.
As far as their food and water is concerned, continuing to feed them dry food will be fine, but extra care needs to be taken for their water. I know people who have outdoor snow dogs (Samoyeds and Huskys) and they put the dogs' water in a heated water bowl. It keeps the water at a nice temp and prevents it from freezing (but doesn't make the water "hot"). The water bowl is electric and plugs into an outlet at the side of the house, but if you could get the thing to work inside the shed, that would be perfect.
I'm sure CareKate, the Dr. Doolittle of feral cats, will be able to offer you some wonderful tips in dealing with wild kitties. She has captured and domesticated several of them and probably is as close to an expert on the topic as you can get.
BTW, both of my cats were raised by feral moms. However, I got both of them when they were kittens, and they have been domesticated perfectly well, except the little one (got her at 5 months) is still shy around strangers.
Good luck with the little critters, I'm sure they appreciate your kindness! |
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Mon Nov 06, 2006 10:00 am |
| I'm afraid I'm going to have to be the voice of dissent here. (I'd like to preface this by saying I love cats, and have two of my own). It wasn't so much a good idea to start feeding the cats. You already mentioned they're becoming dependant on you, and unless you're willing to take full responsiblity for them (Take them to the vet and domesticate them), you should take them to the Humane Society. A few years ago, we starting feeding a cat, and it started lurking around all the time. It became dependant on us, and we started feeling bad that if we didn't feed it, it would starve. Soon, it became pregnant. OUr other female cat would go into fits when it was around (alpha female!), and once even busted out the screen door to get at the stray (we never brought it in). We realized we were putting our own cat's health at risk by feeding this stray cat (they can have numerous diseases). But at that point, it wouldn't go away even if we stopped putting out food, and there was no way we could take it in seeing as our female wanted to maul it. We took it to the Humane Society. After that, we've been careful never to feed cats that come around, even if they are adorable and we are cat lovers. |
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Tue Nov 07, 2006 2:42 am |
| We have a "feral" cat that I think may have started out as a domestic that was either dumped or it ran away, I already have quite a few cats, some of them just moved in or were found dumped and a couple were wild kittens that had been deserted at the local rubbish dump, anyway I just leave food out for it in our hayshed (I live on a farm) and it visits every night at least that way it doesn't attack the wildlife. We have domesticated feral cats with success and I too have an Alpha female who detests any newcomers, I just altered the living arrangements so that she has very little contact with them. If you don't wish to "keep" the kittens, in my opinion the humane thing to do is to take them to the Humane Society or a similar organisation. Feral cats live a dreadful life, some of the kittens we've been given to save were in the most appalling condition and on occasion their condition is so bad they don't survive. Very sad |
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