Wild cat pregnancy

[EggSighted4Life]

I use cedar chips on my outside cats for bedding fleas hate the smell of cedar and lavender and other strong cents like that

Hmm, I'm used to avoiding cedar for the chickens and guinea pigs.. I wonder if the cat cares about cedar..

Guess I'm hoping to kill them off of the cats more than just repel them.. however, any amount of making them feel less welcome will definitely be considered as PART of the solution, thanks for the suggestion!

This invites the question about Neem oil.. is that also just a repellent. And wonder which one is less annoying to the cats? I did have a cedar stuffed dog bed in the past and my dogs didn't mind it AT all.. that would mean the cedar oils were NOT in contact with fur/skin but still heavily smelling wonderful (to me).

However I recognize the OP's question is not focused on parasite control even though it was about feral cats, and will try and be sure not to hijack the thread.. though it *may* be helpful to Waves as well in the future.

 

[Don 27]

What does that mean regarding feral cats?
They aren't really 'natural'.

I agree, but in our area the feral cats have been around awhile and have adapted fairly well. I pretty much consider them part of nature much like The pheasant. The farmers had brought them over seas for mice control on the threshing floor and they have been here ever since. Although We do live in farmland, so the cats might be more of a problem in suburb areas .

Feeding feral cats is like feeding coons, unless you plan on getting them fixed, but then you'd would want to keep up with feeding them or they might get mangey .

 

[Ginmary]

Spaying is the most important issue. It helps prevent female cancers, pregnancy stress on the body, and keeps them away from feral males that can spread disease and cause physical harm from the mating in addition to controlling the population. Many if not most feral kittens are not born or remain healthy and frequently soon develop eye and respiratory infections.

Kittens must be handled by humans before 12 weeks if there is any hope of socializing them. (Past that, not impossible but extremely difficult.) This can happen if they can be approached when mama goes to hunt food if you intend on leaving them outside.

As far as fleas: If the cat is trapped to be spayed, they will treat for the fleas as well. However, if that is not the case, bathing is not really an option. Bathing an unwilling house cat is traumatic enough, let alone a feral!

I once had 6 cats one of which used to talk to a stray through the screen. Yup, fleas can go thru screens. The house became infested. I tried everything. I bombed the house 2x while bathing each cat sitting in the tub wearing jeans. Bombed the house again to get newly hatched fleas. No go. (There was no such thing as Frontline etc at the time)

I was staying away from flea collars because I heard they can cause irritation etc. Ii got the idea to use one in the bed that most of them used.

That one flea collar killed every blasted flea in the house. Fleas don't live on the animals. They jump on to eat and then off to live in the carpet and beds etc. At some point all the fleas ended up jumping off in the bed since the cats spend time there while they slept.

I don't know if current flea collars are as effective since that was back in the 70's.