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About a month ago I took a class (I had a thread about it) at All About Animals in Warren, MI. TNR - Trap, Neuter, Release. Once you do the $10 class, you get a little card saying you're "Certified Feral Cat Caregiver" LOL and get drastically reduced rates on spay, neuter, shots and basic veterinary care.
It was an excellent class, and depending on how I arrange it, I can get cats spayed or neutered for as little as $10 and this includes a rabies vaccination and ear tipping. I live in an area with bazillion stray and feral cats, and they reproduce like crazy. Several of my neighbors were feeding the ferals, I found out about this class and decided that a good goal for my neighborhood would be to speuter enough cats that there won't be multiple litters produced, especially since most of the kittens won't make it to adulthood.
Last Sunday night, I had five traps and they had a spay/neuter clinic Monday morning. So I drove my van down to the abandoned house and barn that had the largest concentration of feral strays, set the traps out baited with canned cat food (also the lady across the street agreed not to feed them that day so they were hungry) and then went and sat in my van for 15 minutes.
All About Animals loaned us traps - I should have taken more! The traps have doors on each end. If one needs to remove uneaten food - or give the trapped kitty food, water or litter - you use a multi-pronged fork thing that slots through the bars to keep the cat at one end, then open the other end and do what you need to do. This is also how they sedate/anesthetise the wild cats - they use the fork thing to get them contained at one end of the trap, then give them the shot through the bars.
Took no time at all. Snap, snap, snap, snap, snap. Five curious older kittens were wary about the baited traps for 30 seconds, then one after the other braved them to get to the canned food at the other end. As soon as the door dropped and they realised they were trapped, they completely freaked out. But once I dropped a towel over each trap, they calmed down immediately, resigned to their fate, poor things.
I had the floor of my van lined with plastic so if they peed or pooped (and two did) they wouldn't permeate my van with forever pee and poop smell. The temperature was moderate, so the kittens spent the night in traps in my van, then I took them to the clinic in the morning. Unfortunately they were all males - I was hoping to get one of the mama cats, or at least a female kitten or two. But that's OK, they all got snipped and rabies shots...I let them out Tuesday evening, they took off like bats outta hell from the traps.
October 16 is the next date. Hopefully I and a couple of neighbors can keep this up until the local stray cat population is stable and not producing multiple litters per year.
I'm not even a cat person! Seriously. But this seems like a sort of no-brainer thing to do. And I admit that my inner hunter/gatherer/trapper was like YEAH every time one of those traps snapped shut with a cat inside.
Good stuff. Thanks for sharing your experience. I hear and read a lot about this sort of thing but don't have occasion to do any work like this myself. There are no feral colonies anywhere too nearby that I know of. There has been recently a wandering cat that's come by maybe 2-3 times (that I know of), might be feral, might not. Since it goes away quickly when it sees a person I'm guessing it would be. I know there are indoor cats in the neighborhood, never seen any outdoor. It seems to have come by a couple times and looked in the back sliding glass door at my own cat, whose reaction is what prompted us to notice. But then again it hasn't been back in I think a couple weeks now so may have moved on, or maybe only turns up when we're not around. Amber seems to look outside more often again, perhaps waiting to protect us from the intruder.
Oh man I love this! Warren MI - that is a super progressive approach! How cool of the town to take this approach! And I think its great that you are stepping up.
I heard about those traps, I still have the old hav a hearts with no way to water, feed or clean. But they sounded heavy?
What did they say about females in the class? One of my big issues is I have no place to keep a female after and you can't release them for at least 5 days. The vet doesn't want to keep them because if they put them in a regular cage they can't get them back into the trap which you cant do with a hav a heart. I need one of those new style cages.
Keep us informed? I love hearing and sharing about feral cat caretaking.
I'm not even a cat person! Seriously. But this seems like a sort of no-brainer thing to do. And I admit that my inner hunter/gatherer/trapper was like YEAH every time one of those traps snapped shut with a cat inside.
It's a win even if they're males! Keep up the good work.
When we were trying to trap the stray that is now our little lap cat, Cookie, we trapped a few of the neighbor cats before we got the right one. One neighbor's cat, Shadow (RIP) wouldn't speak to me for a week! LOL
What did they say about females in the class? One of my big issues is I have no place to keep a female after and you can't release them for at least 5 days.
I'm curious/confused. I've been doing TNR for over 15 years and reduced the feral cat population in my neighborhood to close to nil but I've never heard of keeping a female contained for 5 days after spaying. As with the males I keep them caged until they're well over the effects of the anesthesia before releasing them and have never had a problem.
I admit I expected to be horribly shocked when I clicked on the thread's title and I was ready for a fight lol. But you're doing a very good, and necessary, job
I'm curious/confused. I've been doing TNR for over 15 years and reduced the feral cat population in my neighborhood to close to nil but I've never heard of keeping a female contained for 5 days after spaying. As with the males I keep them caged until they're well over the effects of the anesthesia before releasing them and have never had a problem.
The surgery is much more invasive for a spay (female) than a male (neuter).
I have read and been told by the vet to hold them longer.
This sheet at the link says 3 days for non-pregnant cats and 5 for cats that were pregnant (surgery on a pregnant cat is even harder on them.)
This guideline sheet also discusses the dilemma of lactating females, another big issue. Females are just hard!
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The temperature was moderate, so the kittens spent the night in traps in my van, then I took them to the clinic in the morning. Unfortunately they were all males - I was hoping to get one of the mama cats, or at least a female kitten or two. But that's OK, they all got snipped and rabies shots...I let them out Tuesday evening, they took off like bats outta hell from the traps. 
