My War with cats.

[James the Bald]

So with the warmer weather, I put my quail outside on my covered patio last saturday. My daughter checks on them during the day, and she reported that a cat got it's claw under the egg collecting area and killed the ONLY female that I had. Tomorrow, I will be calling JMF to order some eggs. The quail have been relocated indoors for the time being.
On my way home from work tomorrow, I'll be stopping by the local feed and seed and pick up a few live catch traps. I live in a subdivision where cats and dogs are required to be on a leash, so any cats that find their way into my yard will be fair game. I'm going to relocate every stray cat in my neighborhood.

 

[Chick Charm]

Go get em jamesthebald. Catch a few for me too.

I have just the opposite problem right now with my ratios. I have 14 girls and 2 boys. Need to get some more.

 

[creekrocket]

Red Rider...

 

[veggiecanner]

i have trouble with cats too, but I don't bother with live traps.

 

[James the Bald]

i have trouble with cats too, but I don't bother with live traps.

I am an "ethical hunter". I won't kill something that I'm not prepared to eat. Although I've had people tell me, "if you've ever eaten at a Chinese restaurant, you've probably eaten some cat", I'm not prepared to test that theory.

I'm actually in a unique situation: I work at a federal facility that has traps set up around the place to catch feral cats. I'll set a trap at night on my patio, and check it in the morning. If I have an intruder, I'll take it to work and release it into one of the traps at work. If I don't catch anything, I'll spring the trap so I don't have a cat hollering on my patio during the day attracting attention.

 

[DoubletakeFarm]

I'm glad this came up because I have a question. I have 3-4 stray cats around my property that I'd like to catch and "re-home". I have live traps but I haven't set them because I'm afraid I'm going to get a skunk or coon instead. How do you release a coon out of a live trap without getting bit? Seems dangerous to me but I don't know, I've never had to do it. Someone want to give me a quick lesson on live traps?

 

[creekrocket]

All You Do Is Open The Door And They'll Take Off. I Trap Them All The Time And Never Had One Try To Bite.

 

[James the Bald]

I'm glad this came up because I have a question. I have 3-4 stray cats around my property that I'd like to catch and "re-home". I have live traps but I haven't set them because I'm afraid I'm going to get a skunk or coon instead. How do you release a coon out of a live trap without getting bit? Seems dangerous to me but I don't know, I've never had to do it. Someone want to give me a quick lesson on live traps?

Well, catching an opposum would be bad... a skunk even worse. As an avid hunter, I have many trail cameras that I put up to see where deer/hogs travel. I had a problem with my trash getting ripped into, and the trail camera was able to take photos of the offending cat. So, to ensure that what you catch "what you intend to catch", you can either put out a trail camera, or set out a CamCorder to record what animals travel through your area.

Here is a simple lesson on live traps. First of all, it you are going to set one during the day, you should be able to check it hourly. If you were to catch something in the daytime in warm weather, you could have an animal die in the cage from dehydration (sounds like a "win-win", but it's not humane to let an animal suffer). So, what I've seen on the TV show "Billy the Exterminator", he drapes a cloth over the trap so it would be dark and calm the animal down. So, once you've caught your critter, put the cage into the trunk of your car and re-locate it MILES AWAY. For the most part, all you have to do is open the cage, the cat will high tail it. If you're lucky, you can re-locate it to an area that has kids who may want to adopt it. I relocated a dog once taking it a mile down the road, and the next day, the tick ridden dog was on my driveway. So I made the mistake of taking it to the humane society. Their policy is, "if you bring us a dog or cat, you must leave a large bag of food or a donation" (if Animal Control brings in an animal, the county pays for it). So I took the dog and let it go across the street from the humane society.

 

[Chick Charm]

Leaving a cat in a live trap in view of all the neighbors has a great influence on them keeping their pets contained.

I set a live trap with a big tom cat on my brick yard fence for all passerby to see. The owner (my neighbor) came to claim it. We had a laugh and everything was to be solved. The next night, same cat, same trap. Again I left it on the brick fence. All the neighbors saw. Everyone talked about it. After that, I didn't see any cats pooping in my mulch for a long time.

Wish the best to ya.

 

[Ntsees]

...I'm going to relocate every stray cat in my neighborhood.

I strongly recommend that you not relocate it.