Bush telegraph?

Graces7

We now have at least two feral cats coming into the bathroom to feed... Knew there was a difference as our cats have accepted Gingercat, but started howling the other night.. Looked out and saw the north end of a black cat going south.. never seen this one before...

How do they do this? The first week I was in Ireland, many years ago now, I fed three cats belonging to an old man in hospital, no provision made for the cats.. their hungry howling was so pitiful I gave them my chicken stew.. the following day there was a cat behind every bush.

Increasingly thankful for the chicken necks that are so cheap....

Pumpkinseeds

Both my cats just arrived at back door. One had definitely belonged to someone as he had a tattered collar, although he was so neglected and sick that we decided from day one that whoever he had belonged to wasn't getting him back.

The following year a feral kitten arrived, currently he is fast asleep in a sun spot on our bed. He loves a good snuggle up on the bed with us.

For the past month we've been feeding a black cat that we found eating out of our food recycle bin. Its no longer a bin, we've had to clean it out and put 2 pouches of food, perched on a container for easy reach, at a time in a bowl for him/her as our other cats would eat it. So far black puss just comes in to the garden, tucks into the grub and then leaves.

Graces7

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

Both my cats just arrived at back door. One had definitely belonged to someone as he had a tattered collar, although he was so neglected and sick that we decided from day one that whoever he had belonged to wasn't getting him back.

The following year a feral kitten arrived, currently he is fast asleep in a sun spot on our bed. He loves a good snuggle up on the bed with us.

For the past month we've been feeding a black cat that we found eating out of our food recycle bin. Its no longer a bin, we've had to clean it out and put 2 pouches of food, perched on a container for easy reach, at a time in a bowl for him/her as our other cats would eat it. So far black puss just comes in to the garden, tucks into the grub and then leaves.

Must be word of miaou...

The pouches are way above our small means, so our ferals have wholemeal bread and milk, or bread and meat stock, with chicken necks. It all vanishes and our cats ignore the bread etc.

I cannot get within ten feet of Gingercat and I respect that.

He is a true feral; only time i got a good look at him was when wee dog treed him. He looks fit and healthy enough.. Beautiful bushy tail like a squirrel.

Just glad to be here for them.

kylith

I wouldn't be giving them cow's milk or bread, neither are very good for cats.

Graces7

kylith wrote: »

I wouldn't be giving them cow's milk or bread, neither are very good for cats.

I beg to differ; see recent thread re milk. and read the ingredients on cat food also.

In all my years of breeding cats, I never had one that was lactose intolerant.
And wholemeal bread is a good staple also.

We have been caring for and feeding strays etc for decades and know what we are at and on an increasingly low income they still eat better than we do. Their diet has a good balance.. they will also of course find small prey outside.

I need to add that we do not feed commercial pet food to any of our cats or dogs. Mostly raw. In the past we have occasionally fed kibble to feral cats, but one of our own cats cannot have any dried food without getting serious cystitis so there is no way we can leave that out anywhere. I never have this in the house.

Home feeding is cheaper and also fine for pets and we have the time to do this.