feral cat advise plz!

loz9

loz9

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Sorry its not horsey but wasnt sure where to post!

We are having huge issues with a male feral cat that passes through our land regualrly. It also causes havoc with other neighbours too. Basically it is attacking our own cats to the degree of regular vet bills for stitches, etc. & it definately attacks to inflict damage. But we dont know what to do with it :S It will sit outside our backdoor & wait for our cats to come out, we now have to keep ours locked in overnight as it has also come through the catflap before. When in the house it started to hiss/lunge at us & also went for our golden retriever dogs!! It has also managed to pull one of our cats back out of the cat flap when it was trying to get in! Oh & its huge! Much bigger than the average male cat!

So... we need to get rid but whats the best/most humane way? Will a rescue centre take a true feral? We cant keep seeing our cats being injured, but cant exactly keep 6cats as permanent house cats, especially as we live on a farm so they are here for a purpose!

thankyou in advance

edited to add: by get rid, i dont necessarily mean to pts, & want to explore other avenues first. My wording heres not the best, im hoping it wont come to being pts.
 
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I would try a local rescue, rspca, cats protection etc...maybe they would move him to another area/farm where he won't cause as much havoc...they would prob nueter him to see if that helps at all maybe! Good luck
 
I would try to contact your local CPL.

Many rescue centres have feral colonies, and semi ferals and such can be rehomed as farm cats ect. They should be able to set up a trap cage with food (keep your own cats locked in whilst thats out though) and will certainly help to get him neutered.

We 'tamed' a feral stray and took it to the vets with a voucher for neutering. When you do this they will also test for FIV incase the cat needs to be put down :( Sad but nessesary.
 
If only you were closer I would have him! We need a couple of ratting/mousing cats but not sure how to introduce them to full-on Patterdale whirlwind dog so a cat that will duff up a dog would be perfect lol
 
phone your local cats protection. they can lend you a cat trap, trap him and get him neutered (CPL will usually pay for this) and release him a few miles away. he might come back but his temper will mellow in a few weeks after the chop.
 
another vote for CPL. we had female and male ferals around us, they gave us a trap and vochers so we could get them all 'dun'. they were brilliant with us so can definitely recommend them. i also agree that if he is neutered his temper should be much better
 
Definitely Cats Protection, they are brilliant! We had a Feral cat (huge) that was attacking our cats. They took him away to be neutered and, on our request, brought him back. He became much less agressive over a period, even to the point where he was coming in and sleeping on the chair. Our cats became ok with him and we were even able to smooth him. Very sadly, he died two weeks ago, gutted :(
 
Sorry to hijack the post but we want feral cats but can't get any! I have tried RSPCA etc but they are not happy with the road (although we have acres behind and to the side) or the dogs we have. Any ideas where else we might try? I should ad we have had 2 CPL cats but now they won't pass the home check due to this road although both died of old age and never crossed it..
 
Shoot/live trap and vet to pts the cat if it is causing problems.

I'd be wary about rehoming it as it could have feling HIV/leukemia. In a way you would be passing the problem on if it was to be placed somewhere else.
 
thanks for all your replies!
Sadly the CPL in the area arent interested in the slightest, so will have to investigate other rescue centres.
Brownmare & Bens_Mum, where abouts are you located? We were also thinking of taking a drive with him to a nice area & relocating him :) Im not keen on the idea of having him pts, but obviously our pets come first so it maybe the only option.
 
If it's injured then the RSPCA will deal, but if not then CPL will be your best bet. They regularly maintain feral colonies, have lots of traps and are usually more local. I'm not so sure if they would necessarily relocate him, colonies don't usually take to new ones coming in, and if you just moved him up the road he'd have no established hunting ground/territory and therefore may end up suffering. The best bet is to get him neutered first, that should calm his temperament and he'll hopefully be less likely to want to fight. Also make sure there's no easy food access for him at your place, if there's a free meal on the card for him there, you'll never get rid of him.
 
I once got a feral cat from a place in Essex (sorry, can't be more specific). When I said my yard was next to a busy stretch of the A2, the lady in charge just said 'well, nowhere's perfect dear.' The cat lived here very happily for another 13 years...
 
The vast majority of my cats are feral ones I have trapped on my farm or others have brought to me, there is a huge problem in our area with farmers not neutering the feral cats - they are considered vermin in Cumbria. We tried the CPL to start with and they weren't interested at all unless the cat was tame, they will however pay for feral cats to be neutered no problem as long as they don't have to re-home.
I caught a little grey one 3 months ago as he was raiding the dog food bin in the barn!, totally wild, let him settle for a few days in my bathroom then took him to the vets, had his nuts off and a general check over, brought him home, kept him for a few weeks as he had a chest infection so was on antibiotics, wormed de- flead him and let him out when he was better. Now like all the others he came back the same day and 4 weeks after being let out is now asleep on my bed curled up with the others - he's now named Burt and loves attention and even sits on my lap!!!
The oldest totally wild cat we caught was the vet reckoned about 8 or 9, cost me £150 to get him neutered/teeth cleaned and a few removed/ ears sorted - eeeek!! But well worth it even though he did take 3 months before he would let me touch him, he now is very friendly will never be a lap cat but sleeps just by my head at night and purrs and dribbles every where!! I've got 18 of the darn things - I must have mug lives here written on my door!!:D

So it is do-able if you put a bit of time into them, they do calm down hugely after being neutered and have food available, they do sort them selves out with the existing cats, the first one we caught was an enormous bruiser of a mog who turned into a teddy bear after he was done, so do give them a chance, you'll always get a very grateful pet if you do - they're not daft!!!
 
loz9 said:
thanks for all your replies!
Sadly the CPL in the area arent interested in the slightest, so will have to investigate other rescue centres.
Brownmare & Bens_Mum, where abouts are you located? We were also thinking of taking a drive with him to a nice area & relocating him :) Im not keen on the idea of having him pts, but obviously our pets come first so it maybe the only option.
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I'm in North Oxfordshire but we do B & B (for horses too) if you fancy a trip down here. On the other hand I'm up in Derbyshire quite often too...

As someone suggested would CPL neuter him instead of rehoming? Just thinking it might be better for our good neighbourly relations :eek: although the nearest is a mile away
 
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