Feral cats – Step 3) Trapping that cat!
Whether you’re a master trapper or just a beginner, please thoroughly read our trapping protocol to make sure you trap safely according to the FixNation-specific protocols.
Key highlights to remember:
- Never leave a trap out unattended overnight or for any length of time, whatsoever, for any reason.
- Do not trap cats after midnight the night before your appointment; tame strays need to be taken in off the streets before midnight. This is due to the fact that if the cat eats after midnight, they will likely vomit while undergoing anesthesia and aspirate, causing them to die or catch pneumonia.
- Feral cats need to come to the clinic in traps. Tame cats can come in hard plastic carriers or traps. No cardboard boxes, cardboard carriers or pet bags of any kind.
- Make sure the trap is locked. Brown Tru-Catch traps should be locked or zip tied at the bottom on BOTH ends.
- Line the bottom of the trap with newspaper.
- Bait the trap by putting the bait food on a square of aluminum foil, putting the foil on the ground and setting the trap down on top of it. This way when you pick the trap up, the remaining food falls through the trap and you don’t have cans or dishes inside, so the cats can’t eat after midnight.
- Make sure the trap is fully covered as soon as a cat is trapped. Keep covered at ALL times.
- As soon as a cat is trapped, pull the trap from your trapping area immediately so the other cats don’t see their friend get trapped.
- Make sure you hold the cat the night before surgery in a safe, dry, indoor, secure location that is temperature controlled.
- If you catch a cat early in the afternoon, make sure food is available to them up until midnight, using the aluminum foil trick mentioned above.
- Kittens should be fed about a teaspoon of wet food around 6:00 a.m. the morning of surgery. Kittens can become hypoglycemic if they go without food too long, which is a surgical risk.
- Do NOT trap nursing mothers until the kittens are at least 5 weeks of age. If you do happen to trap a nursing mother, do not release her. Still bring her in to the clinic. We will prioritize her for the day and you will need to release her immediately after she wakes up from anesthesia — you will not hold her overnight after surgery like you normally would. That way she can get back to her kittens quickly.
- Do not transport any cats to and from the clinic in the back of an open-bed pick up truck or an open Jeep, or in the trunk of a car unless the backseat is folded down.
- Avoid using plastic, period. Never use any trap covers made out of plastic (trash bags, plastic table cloths, etc.) because the cats often pull their trap covers in through the trap overnight and they can ingest the plastic. Only use lightweight, breathable materials for traps covers to give the cats ample ventilation.
- Be extremely cautious if you use plastic to line your car when you’re transporting cats. Again, remember, ventilation!
- Do not try and transfer a feral cat to any other container for any reason once they’re trapped, because they are very likely to escape.
- If you catch two cats in one trap, do not release one. Try to bring an extra empty trap in to the clinic with you. If you don’t have one, we’ll loan you one. Again, do not try and transfer one of the cats, because they are very likely to escape.
- We do not allow Harbor Freight traps (collapsible traps) here at the clinic as we’ve witnessed these traps frequently failing and cats escaping from them.
Good luck trapping! We’ll see you for your appointment.
