Should I feed feral cats and kittens?

brenglee

The house behind me has a lot of feral cats living in the garden. They seem to range in age and there's kittens as young as 6 weeks and some who are 3 months,and some adult cats. There seems to be one particular cat watching out for the others ( I dont know if he is the boss cat or what) and practically 'asks' me to feed them. I think he (or she) could be owned by someone around the area.
I have been feeding them,but my son told me Im not doing them any favours and they wont be able to hunt for themselves if I feed them.
I know I will have to trap and neuter as many as I can but I was trying to wait until the young kittens are older,and the Spring weather starts.
Should I feed them or not? Its hard to ignore them.
I have my own cat who tolerates me feeding them,but Im afraid they will spread disease to her,although she is fully vaccinated.
I have brought to the attention of the home owner,about the cats in his garden,but hes hardly ever home and doesnt seem to care.
Any advice on the best way to deal with these cats? In particular, should I be feeding them or not??

kildare.17hmr

you have just discribbed to a tee a house i know in a town in kildare

charlemont

Just feed them only enough so that they don't give up on their hunting as a result. I'v been feeding an outdoor cat for over 2 years but she still hunts birds.

brenglee

what the hell are u talking about you fool

star-pants

brenglee wrote: »

what the hell are u talking about you fool

Banned

Bubs99

Ive just moved from a small town in Kildare where I lived in an apartment block with a few ferals there too. There was "the boss" and then young cats who then had kittens.

I couldn't resist feeding them for the 2 years I lived there but nobody owned them. My landlord said that their owner of the oldest ones abandoned them years ago when she left.

I watched them grow and helped them through the rough seasons of cold weather and even watched them mate and have more kittens.

I did contact the KSPCA and other cat rescues to trap and neuter but they didnt help me. Only 2 would come close to me. Im the only one they trusted of all residents and came to me for food daily.

I actually miss them alot and worried when I left. I could picture them looking up at my balcony daily waiting and waiting and I had to move county.

I hope they're ok.:(

seanybiker

I have a few that come around my back garden for a feed. Grand fellas
Never any hassle apart from robbing my actual cats food but he doesn't mind cos he hangs around with them now. Feed away but as someone already said, dont overfeed them

kildare.17hmr

:rolleyes:


last house we lved in the house behind us had abut 10 cats of all ages, owner lived most of the year in spain

star-pants

Guys the post has been actioned - do not respond to it.

aquarian_fire

Feeding them won't stop them from learning how to hunt. It's innate in them. Believe me, I've had a few generations of feral cats living in my garden. I fed them, and every so often they would in turn bring me gifts of things they had caught. A trade off. They still hunt, so don't worry.

Zapperzy

Do these cats belong to the owner of the house?
If you wait until spring the now kittens will be much older and much more feral (at least if you were to take the young kittens now you'd have some chance of getting them used to handling and finding them homes) and possibly have kittens of their own. I would ring around a few vets and ask them would they give you a reduced price for neutering a large group of ferals, most vets will give you some discount for it. A lot of vets will have traps that you can borrow too, or contact rescues to get some traps.

I would continue feeding them. But don't just stop at feeding them you will have to neuter them at some stage as well fed cats will produce stronger kittens more likely to survive so you will just end up with loads more kittens.

What you could also do is set up a few cat boxes at the end of your garden or in a quiet area, just a small basic wooden box or kennel filled with straw or blankets. If we have a bad winter again they will really appreciate it.

Chinasea

you could borrow some cat traps from Cats Aid (I believe) and catch them and get them neutered. You could than release them back.