Trapping Your Lost or Stray Cat
If you are feeding or trap a cat that is not your own - Be aware of your city and county feral/stray cat intake policies and of the free roaming cat ordinances in your municipality
- Live traps can be borrowed from the Dane County Humane Society, 608-838-0413 or Madison Cat Project (MCP), a rescue specializing in feral cats [email protected] You can also borrow a HAVE A HART or similar raccoon trap from a neighbor or buy one from the hardware store. They run about $40. The Tru-Catch traps are easier to set and have two doors for easy access when feeding.
- Go online and find a youtube video on how to set the type of trap you have. Practice setting it and triggering it. Some of them have brackets that you need to pop in the door so that it does not get pushed open by the cat.
- WINTER FEEDING DIRECTIONS: Put the trap on a heating pad to keep the canned food warm. If that is not possible, do a chemical hand warmer in between two paper plates and that keeps the canned food warm for a few hours. Replace the warmer once it is cold.
- Before you trap, set up a consistent feeding schedule. Your cat will learn very quickly that you hand out food and will come to the same location at the same time. Even if they are afraid of you, they will still wait in the background and then come and eat when you leave. Feed in the morning. Feeding at night can bring all kinds of critters, such as raccoons, opossums, and skunks and you definitely do not want to trap those. Worst case, you may have to feed at dusk but in that case, watch the trap and who goes in it and deter any non feline visitors. See pictures and instructions below for a raccoon and possum proof platform.
- If you are not sure who is eating the food, use a trail camera or a ring camera that detects motion and you will have a record of who is coming to feed.
- Once the cat has been eating consistently, put the food in the trap but not set it so that the cat is used to eating in the trap (see picture below of how to unset a trap). Tru-Catch traps will need to be zip-tied since their doors have a different mechanism. Put a thin piece of cardboard, or linoleum or even astroturf or on the bottom, cats don’t like the feel of the wire on their paws, and push the food further into the trap each day. Make sure the fake flooring does not interfere with the mechanism of the door closing or the trip plate.
- The day before trapping, don’t feed the cat too much. You want it to be hungry. The day of trapping, set up the trap and put something very smelly like sardines or deboned fried chicken on a flat small paper plate in the trap and set it. See winter trapping directions on how to keep this tasty food warm. You don't want anything like a bowl to interfere with the mechanism of the trip plate. I like to set it right past the metal step that springs the trap. That way they have to step on it to reach over to the food. Dribble a a tidbit trail in the trap and around the trap. It will be irresistible. Basically be very OCD and triple check everything before you actually set the trap. Then leave and observe from a distance or from the inside. Traps should be checked once an hour and in the cold weather, every 30 min. If you don’t get the cat, keep trying the next day! Do not ever set the trap overnight, you are liable to have a stressed cat or raccoon or possum in the trap and they can die from exposure and stress.
- Once the cat is trapped, throw a towel over the trap to reduce stress. You can spray the towel with feliway. Since your cat has been outdoors, you may need to take it to the vet and if you do not want to bring a cat with fleas in the house, leave it in the trap overnight indoors (like a garage or bathroom). Zip tie all trap doors to the trap frame because cats have been known to escape. For good measure put a few bricks on top. Box in the trap so it does not rock it and flip it because that can open the door.
- FYI call Animal Control about nuisance or injured wildlife. They will trap wildlife but not cats. Four Lakes Wildlife Center and Wisconsin Wild Care are also good contacts for injured wildlife. They rehabilitate and release. You can also find an animal rehabber by location on Animal Help Now.
- DO NOT use raccoon/cat HAVE A HART traps for kittens. They are spring loaded and if one kitten follows another one into the trap, the door will slam and may break its back. Use the smaller rabbit HAVE A HART traps or the Tru Catch traps. These are easier to trip for a light weight kitten and the Tru Catch trap comes in a kitten version too. Traps should only be set when the kittens are walking and can eat solid food. This is approximately at 5-6 weeks. Otherwise they are too small to leave mom. A good rule of thumb is if their eyes are still blue, they need mom. If you have a cam and are consistently feeding, you can observe the kittens eating and then make the decision to trap them or let them grow a bit.
- The process is the same as with the adults. Make a trail with food and bait. Kittens are curious and will actually go into the trap very fast. They do not have the sense of caution that adults have. Monitor the traps every 30 min or so, especially when it is too cold or too hot, as kittens cannot regulate their temperature as well as adults.
- If you have mom and kittens, definitely do not use the spring loaded traps, in case the kittens go in there. Once kittens are caught you can use that type of a trap to catch mom. Put the kittens in a carrier and put the carrier behind the trap. Bait the trap and cover the trap and carrier with a towel. The kittens will meow and mom will have a tunnel to her kittens. If you don't have access to kittens, put your phone by the trap and play a newborn kitten video with the sound on full blast.
- A video with kitten meows is handy when looking for kittens too. Play it for a few seconds on your phone and pause to listen for a reply. Walk around where you think the kittens are seen and keep doing this and hopefully you can find them.
- Trapping kittens with a carrier and string: Tie a long string to the door of the carrier and thread thru the inside of the carrier. Bait the carrier with canned food and put a heavy brick or block on top so that the carrier does not move. Sit as far away as possible holding the string. When the kittens go in the carrier, pull on string very quickly to close the carrier door!
- Bear in mind that mom will move the kittens often, so rely on neighbor observations, trail cams, ring cams to see where they are. Keep the source of food in the same place. Eventually mom will bring the kittens there, but if they are seen under someone's deck, you can try setting a trap there. Often you will get a few in a trap.
- Once you get the kittens, they may be hissy and can bite and scratch. Wear heavy duty gloves when handlings. Set up in a cat carrier, or kitten proof a dog crate (seal up any potential holes between the cage bars that a kitten can get thru), put in a litterbox. Feed wet food that has been diluted with water or kitten milk replacer so it is more of a slurry. Kittens can crash very fast, so if you are not an experienced kitten foster, please pass them on to a shelter or a knowledgeable kitten foster.
- There may be emergency situations where you need to get the whole cat family before kittens are weaned or mom is injured. Please check with your local feral cat rescue or look at the resources I have on my TNR page.
If you are feeding or trap a cat that is not your own - Be aware of your city and county feral/stray cat intake policies and of the free roaming cat ordinances in your municipality
- You can take it to a vet clinic for a chip scan and post on Nextdoor, check with your neighbors, post flyers, post lost pet sites, file a report with the Dane County Humane society, to make sure that it is not someone else's lost cat. Please see the Lost Pet Resources for these links and more from Dane County Humane Society lost and found page. Be aware that is an under the radar population of stray cats in every neighborhood.
- Do screen anyone who claims that the found cat is theirs. Ask for pictures, vet records, check with the landlord if a cat is allowed, look through their social media to see if there are pictures of the cat. If you provided vet care, ask them to reimburse you. If the cat is not fixed, suggest low cost spay neuter resources and keeping it indoors.
- If the cat is friendly and not owned, check with the Dane County Humane Society and make an appt to turn in it. You can also call non emergency police dispatch for your city/town/village and they will send an animal control officer to pick it up and transfer it to the humane society. The number for Dane Co dispatch is 608-255-2345 and they will send a humane officer to pick it up.
- If you are in Dane County and have a feral or skittish cat, please reach out to the Dane County Humane Society to discuss options. If it is turned in, there is a possibility that it may be euthanized for feral behavior. Dane County Humane Society may refer you to the Madison Cat Project. They work with feral cats but they have a long waiting list, so try to get on that list. Madison Cat Project advises on trap, neuter, and release as an option and you can use the clinics below for low cost spay neuter services.
- If you determine that the cat is not owned, then strategically trap so that you can either go the WI Community Veterinary Center (Spay Me clinic), Precision Veterinary or Madison Cat project for the fix and vaccines. Some places are flexible with appointments because they know that it may not be possible to live trap the day of the set appt. For example WI Community Veterinary Center has drop offs 8-12 Mon, Tues, Wed. Precision Veterinary has morning drop offs that you can work out with them.
- Let it recover for a few days in your garage in the trap or a wire dog crate. Put a towel or a puppy pad underneath the trap. You can feed it wet food through the cage bars. Opening the trap is not advised, or you may have a loose cat in your garage.
- Most feral cats will back away from you, and all you would have to do is feed, water and scoop the litter. What I have found useful is to bring the cat to the clinic in a trap, but provide a carrier, so that once the cat is returned, it can be in a more compact carrier and it would be easier to transfer to a dog crate. That way the cat can have a nice hiding place as it recovers.
- Once it recovers, it can be released outdoors and you can continue the regular feeding schedule. It may take a few days for the shock to wear off but it knows where the food it and will come back. See the Trap Neuter Return and Outdoor cats and kittens section of this website for more info on feral cats, shelters, etc.
- If you are relocating to a barn home, please advise the owner to keep it contained in a shed or a crate or an enclosed area for about 4 weeks so that it does not take off. It will see the caretaker as a regular bringer of food and will be less likely to wander.
Raccoon Proof Cat Feeding Platform Unset trap
Through a few months of trial and error, this is the type of a platform that seems to be a deterrent to raccoons and possums
Through a few months of trial and error, this is the type of a platform that seems to be a deterrent to raccoons and possums
- Buy a bunch of cinder blocks, a 4 ft x 4 ft sheet of plywood that is at least 0.5 inch thick and 10 inch roll of metal flashing or sheet metal
- Set up one row of 3 cinder blocks and put your plywood on it. Set up the food. At this point both raccoons, possums and cats can get up there and eat.
- After a few days, add another row of cinder blocks to raise the board and food. Keep it at this level for another few days to get the cat used to eating. Then raise it again.
- The possums will give up trying at level three. The raccoons are more determined and climb the cinder blocks. This is where the sheet metal flashing comes in.
- Staple the flashing to the side of the board with a heavy duty stapler. Do cover the edges with duct tape, because you don't want anyone to cut themselves on the sheet metal while trying (yourself included).
- The raccoons will give up at about level 5 or 6, when the platform is about 4 to 4.5 ft off the ground. Put a cinder block close to the platform so the cat can use it to jump on the platform. Raccoons can't do that.
- Continue feeding on the platform and then introduce the unset trap and follow the directions above to trap it. This is also a good place to put in a heating pad and/or a cat house that no one by the cat can use.
- You can also use a wooden or a plastic box or bucket to protect the cat food from the train/snow.