I posted thisthread about my feral cat situation a while ago.
I am pleased to say that over the last couple of months I managed to catch three of the kittens and to get them fixed (two females and one male). There is still one more kitten around, and the mother is somewhere too. I will try to fix them too if I get the chance.
The four kittens (who are 9 months old now) are frequent visitors to our back terrace due to us feeding them all winter and giving them a makeshift cat house to sleep in. One of them will actually let us stroke her while she is feeding. But no more progress than that. Clearly they will never be domesticated. It’s still nice to see them around, and they seem to like us too.
However, we will be getting two Siamese kittens for the kids in a month or two, and I am wondering about the dynamic between the feral and domestic cats. Our plan is for the Siamese to be almost entirely indoor cats as I understand this is much better for their health. We may put them in a catio or try to walk them on a leash occasionally, but that would be it. So they won’t really be interacting directly with the ferals. But they will be able to see the ferals through our window, and will be able to smell and hear them too.
Will this pose a problem? We are still feeding the ferals (since I am still trying to trap the last two), but I plan to stop very soon in hopes that they will stop coming by. I hope that will work. We could also use cat repellent for a while I guess…
But for the sake of argument, if we tried to keep all 6-7 around us, would that be a sustainable solution?
Seems to me that any contact by you with the feral cats (even accidentally tracking in bits of cat poop) could place the domestic cats at risk of parasitic and other diseases.
It can work fine.
I have one indoor cat and 4 outdoor cats. (I hate the term “feral”–it implies wild and untamable.)
Two of my 4 outdoor cats live in my yard most of the day, and jump on my lap. The other two come to visit twice a day at meal time,will eat out of my hand, and let me skrich their ears, but don’t like to be picked up.
The indoor cat looks out and watches from the window; the outdoor cats jump up on the window sills to see what’s going on inside. (The kitchen window is their favorite, especially when I cook fish. )
No problems.And life is good.
And when I leave the house for travel, the indoor kitty goes to a kennel, and I have a neighbor who feeds the outdoors ones.
I naturally cannot predict anything with 100% certainty, but generally if there is plenty of food around then cats don’t particularly care that other cats have something to eat too. Especially if the one cat is not really in constant contact with the other cat. Based on your description, there is no reason to change what you are doing, certainly not to stop feeding or to chase away some poor stray cats. The only question of sustainability is to fix all the cats so they don’t reproduce, but it sounds like you are on top of that.
As for domestication or lack thereof, cat flaps, catios, etc., that’s beyond the scope of your question, but feeding 6-7 cats is quite unlikely to present any issue. You can watch videos where a guy feeds a dozen cats at the same time without any problems.
ETA:
Obviously the most ideal situation is to keep taking each of the cats to the vet, as you have been doing.
I had actually hoped that the vet would give vaccines, etc to the cats when I brought them in to be fixed, but they said that can’t do that at the same time they anesthetize them for the surgery.
It’s going to depend on the individual cats; but I think problems are unlikely. The outdoor cats were there first, and the indoor cats will probably adapt to this, whether by not objecting to them or by avoiding interaction. If they start off by hissing and growling at each other through the doors/windows, don’t worry about it; this will probably die down with time.
Indoor cats should IMO be vaccinated as if they were outdoor cats, whether or not you have outdoor cats hanging around immediately outside the door. Some diseases can be transmitted on clothing; and indoor cats occasionally escape outdoors.
If at all possible, I’d do my best to at least get the outdoor cats vaccinated against rabies (unless you live somewhere that has no rabies at all.) As long as you’re doing that, I’d also get whatever else the vet. recommends for that area.
Sure, easy peasey. I just need to capture all of the outdoor cats all over again. Will do my best!
Around here, you have to reserve the cat trap, pick it up and pay about $100 for the deposit, and then catch the cat within a one-week window. And the vet only takes the kitty if you have booked an appointment in advance!
We have 4 indoors kitties and have “acquired” 3 outdoor mini-lions. 2 of the outdoor group are still pretty skittish, but one has fallen in love with her male indoor counter-part and they do the whole Romeo/Juliet thing through the sunroom screens, even though both are fixed. Caramel (Juliet) has learned that when the dinner bell rings for the indoor group, it also means the pride will be getting fed shortly as well. Slowly they are all getting socialized.
I don’t think you’ll have any problems. We have some pet cats, and we also used to foster cats and kittens. We kept the foster families in a bedroom with the door closed. Our cats didn’t love that we had strange cats in the house, but so long as the strange cats stayed in their own room, behind a door, everyone was fine with the arrangements.
(We did once foster an only kitten that we let run around the house, because it desperately needed the socialization. Our cats made it clear that they hated the kitten [hissing, etc.] but nothing horrible happened, and we kept that kitten until it was big enough to go back to the shelter to be adopted out.)
Around here, at least, you can probably buy one for less than that; and then leave it out in the yard for them to get used to it, putting food in it from time to time; and have it around for the next possible use (one of your outdoor batch might be injured or get ill, for instance; and vaccinations generally need to be repeated occasionally.)
(I don’t know where they do or don’t ship to, or what the shipping charges are.)
ETA: Orville, you might start networking with some rescue groups in your area. You’re basically feeding a feral colony so you are a rescuer. They may be able to connect you with vets who will be more flexible on the appointments or at least give you suggestions for other things. You might come across a vet tech who could do vaccinations at your house. It’s good to be familiar with who’s in your area because you never know when you might need some advice.
I am feeling a bit more optimistic about the outdoor cats in light of this thread. I think they might have a future.
I think the advice about getting my own trap is a good one. If the outdoor cats will be sticking around, I can imagine needing to trap them for various reasons. And I can probably use it for carrying the indoor cats too (though it won’t be as pretty as a dedicated cat carrier). I can’t order from Amazon US, but see several reasonable options from Amazon France.
My own personal vet is a good idea. Now if only I can get one who will do sterilisations on my back terrace :dubious:
)