Stray Cat Problem

[JustMickey]

We're cat lovers at our house, so when we found a family of cats in our backyard a few months ago, we did our best to take care of them. We trapped and found homes for the kittens, and did a Trap, Spay, and Release for the mama cat. Well the mama cat apparently likes us because she's been in our backyard ever since June. We feed her and have actually grown quite fond of her, I definitely consider her one of our pets (even though she's wild). She won't come into the house (scared of our other cats) and won't let us touch her, but she loves seeing us and will come running up to us when we call for her.

Anyway, we have to feed her outside of course. Lately we've noticed her bowl emptying quicker than usual, and a few times we've caught another animal eating out of her bowl. so far, we've seen two other cats and several possums coming into our backyard to eat out of her bowl. We love cats but we can't just become a truck stop for all the neighborhood cats! We're not going to stop leaving food out, and we've been trying to give her smaller portions more often so we know she'll eat all of it, but does anyone have any suggestions to keep the other cats/animals out of our yard?

 

[dogodisney]

If you are going to keep putting out food they are going to keep coming. There really is no way to keep the other animals out of your yard. You could always put out traps but then what are you going to do with the animals if you catch any?

I think you best bet would be is to try calling "your" cat, let her eat, then take the food away. This way there won;t be any food ledt out to attract the other animals.r

 

[snarlingcoyote]

I can't speak to the possum sitch, but is it possible your cat is part of a larger feral community in the neighborhood?

If so, you could try googling "feral cat" and the name of your town. There's likely some organization around that spays, neuters and helps people feed feral cat colonies. (In our town, we have an organization that traps, spays, neuters and does some feeding. They also provide free food for some colonies.) I would NOT call animal control unless you want all the cats carted away and euthanised. They're just doing their job, but in most places, the policy at animal control is to destroy feral cat colonies (They don't have manpower or resources to do anything else!) unless they know that the colony is being managed by a feral cat organization.

If not, these cats may have a home somewhere. If that's the case, they're being mooches. Feed your kitty twice a day and take the food away.

 

[kacaju]

aww...we had a cat like that!! I like to say she came with the house when we moved in!!
She was the funniest little thing, she loved our dog at the time. We could never touch her yet when i let the dog out she ran to him and used to follow him around the yard rubbing up against him.
Over the years we finally did get her in the house. She hated it at first, but slowly came around and was my dh's best buddy when he was recovering form heart surgery.
We had to put her down about 4 years ago.. I still miss her!!

Anyway, sorry to go OT there... I would feed your cat only when she was around to eat it. We had to do that too. Puzzle was her name. She used to come when i called her!!

 

[JustMickey]

Thanks for the tips everyone. I guess we'll just have to give her a little bit of food a couple times a day in order to keep the other cats away. I feel bad if those cats are going without food, but at the same time we don't want to have to feed ALL of them, and we don't want them scaring our cat away.

aww...we had a cat like that!! I like to say she came with the house when we moved in!!
She was the funniest little thing, she loved our dog at the time. We could never touch her yet when i let the dog out she ran to him and used to follow him around the yard rubbing up against him.
Over the years we finally did get her in the house. She hated it at first, but slowly came around and was my dh's best buddy when he was recovering form heart surgery.
We had to put her down about 4 years ago.. I still miss her!!

Anyway, sorry to go OT there... I would feed your cat only when she was around to eat it. We had to do that too. Puzzle was her name. She used to come when i called her!!

Aww thanks for that story! Puzzle sounds like our mama cat. We've named her Leaves because she always has leaves in her fur when she comes out to see us. She's very sweet but gets nervous if we get too close. I'd like to think that one day she'll let us pet her and bring her inside (especially during the winter) but for now she's happy! I hope it's not weird to talk about bringing a feral cat into our house lol. We did get her rabies shot when we spayed her.

 

[luvsmickeymouse]

Aww thanks for that story! Puzzle sounds like our mama cat. We've named her Leaves because she always has leaves in her fur when she comes out to see us. She's very sweet but gets nervous if we get too close. I'd like to think that one day she'll let us pet her and bring her inside (especially during the winter) but for now she's happy! I hope it's not weird to talk about bringing a feral cat into our house lol. We did get her rabies shot when we spayed her.[/quote]

What a great story. I am glad you are taking such good care of her. It is very possible she may get very friendly. I have sort of the same thing going on at my house, this cat did belong to someone, she is fixed, very friendly. She is a great hunter, I never have mice. I feed her every day.