Bleach is ineffective against protozoa like coccidia, Giardia, and toxoplasmosis, as well as panleuk though. It also will not help with the urine smell if they pee while in the trap. You need to use an oil removing option first (dawn and water), then vinegar solution to neutralize the urine smell, then a pathogenic controlling cleaner like Rescue or Virkon S.
This is a true experience that I'm about to tell you. I was at my dad's friends place after me, my brother and my mom got back from hockey. I was heading to the camper we were staying in for a few days because my brother had a hockey game And I saw something in the grass, it was a small black kitten. I got my mom and she got water for the kitten, my dad's friend came home and I told him about the kitten, and he brought the kitten inside. If it wasn't for me, the kitten wouldn't have survived.
If you direct me to an academic article that shows through empirical research that high density styrofoam has poisonous fumes, I would be very happy to read it and consider the issue. I do know that this styrofoam is used in the construction of houses for people to live in.
Big dog is sooo sweet playing with tiny kitten. Big dog doesn't just think he's the kitten nanny, he IS the kitten nanny! At least for socialization and play time. Thanks for uploading this heartwarming video!
Cameras never do black kitties justice. I'm glad they were able to find a furrever home! Having owned several black kittens myself, I can tell you they make some of the best pets!
When you get a litter of newborn kittens who have no mother cat, it will probably take two days of them fighting the bottle and giving you a difficult time before they clue into the routine and are eager to bottle feed and will latch. You have to persevere through that difficult time and get the food into them, as there is no other way for them to eat, and if they don't eat they'll perish. It takes experience to know how much food needs to go into tiny kittens of what size. To give you a very vague idea of how much food, you want the kitten to have a nice round belly after a meal. You do not want the kitten to vomit after a feeding. Once the newborn clues into the feeding routine and will latch onto a bottle, then it will let you know when it is full. I run through all kittens in the litter, feeding each kitten in turn, until the kittens will no longer latch, and then I know they are all full; I will probably have to run through the litter 4 times to get to the point that no kitten wants to latch again, and then that feeding session is done. (At some point I'll make videos about bottle feeding, weaning, etc.) For late-caught older kittens like the one in this video, he's past the point of me starting to bottle feed him, but he doesn't actually know how to eat solid food (his mom must have been nursing him extra long instead of taking him to the feeding station for some reason). One might have the idea that if he is just left with a dish of food, eventually he will get hungry enough and eat it like a normal cat. No, probably not. It's especially unlikely because he is a single orphan; there's no possibility of him learning by watching a sibling who has figured it out. He might, though, get so hungry and desperate that he crawls all through his food dish while rampaging around his enclosure, screaming at me that he's starving, and then inadvertently sucks some food off of his fur as he tries to wash his arms. That could lead to a lightbulb moment, maybe, but it's a messy method, and I probably don't have time to wash a kitten, multiple times per day, who has been 'swimming' in his food dish. And I would have to watch the situation closely to make sure enough food is actually getting into the kitten. For his first few days with me, he needed to have the canned food put in his mouth to learn that it is food, and that those hunks of meat should be chewed and swallowed, and to start thinking that he was actually perfectly capable of getting the food from a dish into his mouth himself. Once that lightbulb moment happens, then great, I no longer have the tedious task of putting bits of food in his mouth and hoping he doesn't spit them back out. He's not trying to be annoying and helpless; he just doesn't know what to do, like any other type of baby. I have never attempted tube feeding myself, and I would leave that in the realm of veterinary care.
Cush came from a colony that had FIV present, if memory serves me correctly, not panleukopenia. Cush did not have FIV, thankfully. He graduated from foster care eventually and was adopted. TNR happened for the adult cats of the colony where he was born who tested negative for FIV.
Thx. A feral cat is pregnant, And its going to snow in 3 days. Shes homeless. She will finally be warm. I hope her kittens dont come until she has a home. Edit: I hope noone invades the cats house and... Well... You know humanity.
Brings back memories of all the kittens we bottle raised and some we had to force feed just to get the hang of eating and also giving water with a syringe so they wouldn't get dehydrated. Thanks for taking care of this beautiful baby.
The audio files were recorded with volume on max, and the video was edited with volume on max. That was as loud as that computer could go. I have a new computer now, and it does have a max volume that is louder than the old computer's, but I can't spend the time re-recording all of the audio files and then re-assembling all of the footage in the videos. I figure viewers can just turn their computer's volume up to max or else use headphones.
My mom and I have rescued & finding homes for most (with the help of kind friends and a fabulous vet!) over 100 cats, found owners of 8 dogs, found fur-ever homes for 4 dogs, took care of several spayed / neutered (all our stray pets, feral or not, were fixed, before they went to their fur-ever home) received testing and vaccinated cat colonies, took a baby deer who had a broken leg to a wildlife expert along with several usually baby opossums and raccoons, one swan (they're beautiful but are really freaked by people but this one seemed to realize we were helping it) and even a fox pup. We used many plastic tubs and anything we could find to help the colonies which were too feral to be adopted out. We came up with some of the most unique and unusual but successful homes in which the cat's could be warm, safe and out of the elements. My mother was in a rehab facility after a fall and a massive infection. I'd go to visit her every evening while I was staying at her house, cleaning it out for when she came home. Then my husband brought over a little kitten who he found trapped in a wood pile. I had been upset at the thought that I wouldn't be able to visit her that day, but she was important too so she was fed she got her fleas taken care of with a Dawn liquid bath in which she played like a human baby. I decided to cheer Mom up a bit by taking her to see Mom on the way to the vet to get a new fur-ever home . The kitten let no less than 30 people from staff to clients at the rehabilitation center, hold, cuddle and enjoyed her. It was then that I was told in the elevator (two whole floors on the elevator) by a doctor, that they would be sending her home for hospice care. My mom was going to die. All too much to take in. But then there was "Amazing Little Gracie". It was a really inconvenient time for me to take a kitten in, or so I thought. Blessings sometimes come in the most unexpected ways and that little kitten was one big blessing! One of my most treasured videos I have, was because of the little kitten who came to me at an inconvenient time, whom I'd have to take to the vet after I stopped in to see my mom, whom I found that very day was coming home to die. It became worth more than I could imagine. Mom passed away last year, but her love for animals was extraordinary! To see the miracle of that kitten, go here, Amazing Gracie - "How did a baby change your life..." ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-eRUU6VYsDd4.html. A rescue can be a special gift, and with in such a short time that little baby made a huge difference to me, 30 other people but especially my mom.
If everyone just neutered and spayed that would start the ending of unwanted, homeless, pets and suffering. It breaks my heart but as long as it does, I think that will keep me trying to make at least a small difference somehow.
It's experience, having learned through very annoying trial and error what won't work. If you do transfers indoors, you're always safe that if something goes wrong, you can catch the cat, while it's running up and down the walls like Spider-Man, with a net and get it back into a its pen or trap.
There is a female cat that was part of a TNR about 10 years ago in my neighborhood. All were not feral and all found homes in the neighborhood except for two. These two were released and lived outdoors. The caretaker moved to Arizona 2 years ago. I've provided shelter and have been feeding her. I'm considering trapping her and see if she could be introduced to being an inside cat. Problem is I can't keep her due to family allergies to cats. I'm not sure which way to go. She is skittish but lets me pet her but on her terms. Sometimes she forces herself on me Its hard to believe that I can't just pick her up. There are so many cats in need for homes that rescue groups won't consider her. Its' the coyotes running through my neighborhood that's the main concern.
It can take several months (sometimes years, even) to make a skittish cat that has been living feral into a tame pet. With your household allergy situation, it sounds like if you trap her and have her as your house feral with the goal of making her into a tame pet, allergies could drive you to abort the mission and put her back outside before she's tame. It might be an idea to just work on petting her at the colony while she is eating to try to make her more tame. Maybe you could take a photo of her and post an ad online asking if anyone would like her and her friend as a pair of barn cats, with the agreement that the barn home provides a daily meal of cat food and fresh water forever in return for environmentally friendly rodent control. (In the ad, just be sure not to give away the location of the cat colony. Secrecy keeps feral cats safe.) You would have to check out the barn home beforehand and be satisfied that the people aren't going to flake out on you (people often do) once you've got the two cats trapped and ready to deliver. Also, the barn home people would need to be educated about the need to have the barn cats in lockdown for a month in a tack room or workshop or even a large dog crate so they get used the their new surroundings and caretakers and hopefully won't run away when released after a month. Although it's not easy to find barn homes, it's not impossible either. Whatever you decide, staying the course or looking for a next step, good luck! The cats are lucky to have you.
Just wondering why you didn't add straw before your got it all set up? It looked like a new "apartment" all empty with no bed :-) Joe T , Ti Rod Tactical
I could have put straw in there but chose not to because this shelter was going to be placed where there is a very large colony of cats. The more straw in there, the less room for cats. If the shelter is full of cats, they will keep each other warm as well as straw could, I think.
Your're wrong there, as even just a few inches of straw would make the shelter more comfortable for them to lay ON, and 4-6" of straw gives them some help to keep warmer and adding to the groups heat. Now go add some straw :-)
Thanks for converting this into a winter shelter, but you need to add a generous amount of straw (not skimpy). Adding straw does not mean there's less room for cats. The straw is vital for providing warmth. Leaving an empty space inside is very bleak, and even if many cats are using the house they will all benefit from having straw bedding around them..
Oh now the two cooler box really solves the problem of the two entrance thing because most of the cats I see won't go in if there isn't an out. I think I would cover them with a dark green garden refuse bag as camouflage too.
What's the issue with wool? The navy for a very long time used real wool for watch sweaters because wool has the property of still being warm when its wet (unlike synthetic materials). What's the issue in a cat shelter? My parents' indoor cats seem to love a wool shawl in their bed and our cat never seems to object to curling up on our wool afghan. Also, do cats in shelters usually pee/litter elsewhere? I'm assuming if they pee or mark in the shelter, it'll get pretty smelly. In that event, whatever you have in there will need cleaned or replaced I'd think and the container cleaned. The shelter designs using two bins (one nested inside the other) cost a few more $ and take a longer time to build, but this allows the insulation layer to exist between the bin walls and thus be safe from scratching by kitty. I notice nobody is putting a door flap on the entrance. Most litter closed litter boxes feature that sort of entrance. Would that not make sense? (Might have to make it of a clear material so the cat can see in or out. Take your cut out (make a square top to the cut-out) and put duct tape as a hinge. This might also help a bit to serve as a wind break. I do like the idea of a lip over the entry hole to prevent water entry.
If fabric, such as wool, is placed in a shelter, it gets wet when a wet cat sits on it, and it doesn't get a chance to dry out, in my experience. Then it gets mildew, and rots, and then once it's gross the cat will only go to the bathroom on it and the shelter isn't used as a shelter anymore but might only be used as a bathroom. I have cleaned out some truly vile cat shelters that people had put fabric inside with good intentions, but which turned into rotting messes (this video at 2:09 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ICKb1wu44yM.html). I do know of people who have cat shelters on their porch and they put wool blankets in them for their pet cats. But the key difference is that they launder those wool blankets frequently to keep them clean and dry. That could work fine for a shelter that is going to be attended to frequently; however, very often shelters for feral cats are not attended to often after they are situated. If I am going to place a pair of barn cats at a barn home, and the homeowner will accept a shelter for the cats and will promise to feed them once every day and make sure they always have clean water to drink, I'm probably pushing my luck if I also require them to launder the shelter bedding frequently. Since I wouldn't want to miss out on a viable barn home (because there is always a need to relocate feral cats that can't stay where they are), I need to make the shelter as low maintenance as possible so that the cats stay warm and the property owner isn't required to do more for the cats than they are willing to. Feral cats won't use their shelter as a litter box if they are indeed using it as a shelter. So long as they want to use the shelter for sleeping, they will do their other business elsewhere. They might spray the outside to mark their territory, but remember that spraying should decrease or stop entirely once the cat is fixed. I haven't found that the spraying of shelters frequently occurs, but I do remember one or two instances where I had to wipe down a shelter because of it. Making some kind of a cat door entrance is a possibility. It would be good for heat retention. (I used a cat door on this shelter: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-AL0DWI3nsEM.html). If used, though, I'd recommend the feral cats' feeder put in the effort to train the cats to use it (probably keeping it propped open at first). An open entrance hole to a seemingly safe cubby is enough enticement to get the cats into the shelter the first time (because everyone wants a warm place to sleep), but if there is a door flap and it is closed, I'm not sure that the idea would occur to the cats that they are looking at a shelter and can access it by pushing the door open. One thing that the builder of a cat shelter has to be really careful about is not to use a flexible flap over the entrance that could possibly end up in a position inside the shelter (like if the cat enters the shelter and the flap is left angled inwards, or if the wind can blow the flap inwards). If that happens, and it rains, water will run down the flap, drip inside the shelter, and flood it with water, making it useless to the cat.
You have some good tips here, your methods are well thought out. I've never really done this, always just used a drop trap, but I like the idea of doing this with an oversized cat trap like the 36 inch Tru Catch. It would work well in places a drop trap wouldn't fit. I do a lot of drop trapping sitting in the vehicle like you showed. At night I like to choose a spot underneath a street lamp of other light source and I point the vehicle towards the trap so I can illuminate it with the headlights.
Yep, headlights can work, or streetlights, or even a flashlight beside the trap. I often use a flashlight and luckily I haven't noticed cats or kittens being wary of it.
I follow these general guidelines in trying to sex and determine whether cats are already neutered or not. Males cats are generally larger than females and unfixed males will have very puffy large faces. They often have injuries and scars from fighting with other tom cats. Female cats are usually quite a bit smaller than males. Whenever I see cats that look fully grown, but are small and slinky I think, "Baby maker!" Both males and females generally put on weight after they are fixed and develop low hanging pouches often mistaken by rookies to be pregnant cats. Pregnant cats are usually small and their bellies, especially as they near the end of pregnancy are tight and round.
I think minimum 5 per level if they all get along and snuggle closely, but knowing how cats like to squish together I wouldn't be surprised if well over a dozen crammed in there.
From someone that has trapped hundreds of ferals, this video is very informative and extremely helpful. Some of the suggestions were things that I had already figured out on my own. That made me feel good. One of the more helpful suggestions was to take a standard trap, that does not have a rear door, and turn it on its side first. I had never thought of that, and will keep it in mind for the future. One question I have is: You mentioned checking the cat for signs a female may have given birth. What do you suggest if the cat is lactating? I work closely with a county shelter, and I have been advised not to let the cat go as she will be nearly impossible to catch again. What we usually do is make sure the spay takes place the following day and then release asap when recovered from the anesthesia. The newborns can survive up to 48 hours without the mom. I know it sounds harsh but it's vitally important to make sure the mom spayed to end the cycle.
Discovering that a cat in your trap is lactating is a huge wrench suddenly thrown in the works. To spay and return, or to release immediately unspayed. I could write an essay about all the things to consider, but I'll just write some key points here about what one can ask herself when confronted with this problem. If you have definite information about the kittens: - How old are they? Are they surely of an age where they are eating on their own and can live on the cat food that you provide for them at the feeding station? Are the kittens aware of where the feeding station is yet? - What's the temperature outside? Is it summer, and nice and warm? Or are you trapping outside of kitten season? Will the kittens freeze without their mom's body heat? If you have no information about the kittens: - Gather intel from anyone you can, fast. Maybe you can discover and grab the kittens straight away. Start knocking on doors with a big smile, tell the person who answers your dilemma, and ask if they have any information about where the nest of kittens might be. Have they seen Mama Cat going to and from a particular spot? Go check out the spot and see if you can discover the nest and snatch the tiny kittens. If you can, problem solved. Has the person seen mobile kittens running around? How old did they guess the kittens were (but people can be really clueless about aging kittens, so maybe just ask if the kittens still had blue eyes or not)? If the person shows any concern, you might even be able to enlist him/her as a feeder, or just a watcher, and then you've got a helper on-site. Try to form an opinion on whether or not a spayed lactating cat will continue to lactate or will dry up within a week. If she dries up within a week, and her kittens are not yet weaned, then even if she is returned to them she won't be able to feed them. - I have had a vet explain to me that lactation is controlled in the pituitary gland in the brain, and so a spay operation is not going to alter lactation (because a spay is certainly not brain surgery!). If Mama Cat THINKS she needs to lactate, then she will, whether she's spayed yet or not, according to that vet. - I have seen a feral cat in my care dry up within a few days of being spayed even though her kitten had been given back to her, she was attentive towards the kitten, and the kitten tried hard to nurse. That cat KNEW she needed to produce milk for her kitten but could not do so. - I really value veterinary knowledge, but I also know what I have witnessed first-hand. At this point, I do not yet have enough experience in monitoring lactating cats post-spay to have formed a firm opinion on what is the effect of spaying on lactation. I do know first-hand how frustrating it is to release a cat unspayed because she is then trap-wise and might be difficult to trap again - perhaps extremely difficult to trap again - and will in the meantime produce more kittens that you will need to trap; however, I don't spay lactating cats if doing so would be dangerous for her kittens. Every situation has its own nuances, but basically I use my fact-finding skills, awareness, risk assessment, and judgement to make a decision that I feel is safe for the uncaught kittens.
I know you are trying to do something good here, so I want to acknowledge your heart is in the right place.....but this is one of the worst videos on how to make a feral cat shelter. Firstly, there is no insulation on top where most heat escapes. Secondly, using insulation like you are using is not a good idea because some cats will chew it or use it to scratch on. Thirdly your hole is too close to the bottom. You guys should look at some of the other videos on RU-vid that use straw on all 4 sides as insulation.
Yes, filling a shelter with straw is one way to insulate it. Here is a video about how to do that: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HImeQUDZkro.html . These particular shelters were destined for a large feral colony of cats that had long hair, and so I didn't want to use straw as insulation because of it's one drawback: the combine can't get every straw seed out of the straw, and so there is a risk that the seeds will get embedded in the cats' fur or skin. I've had pet groomers warn me about this problem with straw seeds, so I generally will use straw for shelters that are going to be used by short-haired cats but will avoid it for long-haired cats, unless I have no other insulation. It's kind of a catch-22 in that I want to keep the cats warm with as much insulation as possible, but I'd like to keep the risk low of a cat getting a skin problem because of a sharp straw seed getting stuck. I weigh up the dilemma based on what shelters are going to what colonies of what cats. Also, with the particular colony that would be using these sets of shelters, there are a lot of cats there, over two dozen, and they help insulate each other when they curl up tightly to sleep. They are all spayed and neutered of course, so with the hormones out of the equation, they get along fairly well and don't all need their own bedroom, so to speak. If I had loaded these shelters with straw, then far fewer cats could fit inside. The top of the shelter is the Styrofoam lid, so that is insulation in itself to keep heat inside the shelter. I have not known cats to chew on Styrofoam (unless someone puts food in a Styrofoam dish for them, which is never a good idea). Cats might claw Styrofoam, yes (it must be fun). Again one has to balance a variety of factors: the desire for very warm and inexpensive insulation; what cost and skill-level would be required to make a shelter out of other materials, such as a wooden shelter with insulation between the inner and outer walls; perhaps specifics of the intended cats; etc. For me, if I know of homeless, fixed cats who have no shelter, and I am able to give them a shelter that is very warm, that I can afford, and that is of a feasible weight and size that I can lift and transport it on my own, then I'm probably going to go ahead and give them a shelter even with awareness of what could be potential risks, such as a cat making styro-confetti for fun and then eating it all and having a health crisis. Hypothermia and frostbite are health crises too. These shelters worked very well for these cats. If someone further develops my ideas in this video and builds a shelter that works well for their colony of cats, I think that is wonderful. I recognize that one mold does not suit every cat rescuer. People differ in what climates their cats live in; the level of privacy the shelters will have from public view; what free materials they can source, or what new materials they can afford; what size and weight of a shelter they can lift and/or fit in their vehicle; what building skills they possess; and what they know about the physicality and habits of the cats they intend to shelter. Furthermore, people have differing opinions on what aspects of a shelter are suitable and what are not. Some people won't build a shelter without two doors as a safety escape; others won't put a second door on a small shelter because of too much heat loss. Some people won't use any plastic containers because of the risk that they crack eventually from the sun, whereas other people want that waterproof exterior, even if they have to buy more plastic bins a couple years down the line. Some people insist that straw must go in a shelter; others try to only use straw for short-haired cats. Some people use plastic film inside a shelter; other people have found that plastic film barriers inside a shelter cause moisture to sweat on the walls. I have made a few videos of cat shelters using different designs and materials ( ru-vid.com/group/PL7RCHekDBa3GTgHmM9moUXt82mSanUIAf ). Hopefully somewhere in there is perhaps one idea that appeals to a cat rescuer's particular situation, budget, skill set, and opinion of suitability (but if not, that is okay, and the internet is full of other ideas for consideration). I do take an interest in how the cats I have helped have responded to the design of a shelter, and I would not display a shelter tutorial that I know from experience is not a viable option for me. Whether or not it is an option for someone else, I am happy to let them decide for themselves, and I am just happy that they have enough concern for feral cats' wellbeing to take a look at possible ways to help them keep warm. :)
