ANY TIPS ON TRAPPING A FERAL

[mongoose]

I have borrowed a trap from Cats protection but my little friend is fairly nervous and I can only get about 2/3 ft away before he runs off, he is a unneutered male and I have already made arrangements and sorted out a neutering voucher, we will scan him first of course just in case but he is fairly feral. We borrowed a trap that closes from the inside and on both occasions that he has gone into the trap he stretches himself out so he has one paw at the back just in case (I think he may have experienced trapping before) so he steps on the plate with his front paws and that triggers the door to close but it hits him on the back and he is very wary about going in now. I have borrowed a hand trap so we will see if that works. He is spraying everywhere and he bit my cat Poppy on the back not hard but just enough to try and lord it over her, hes not overly aggressive but hes just trying to stake his claim I guess. I managed to trap a feral a few years ago in a normal cat carrier but she was friendly and went straight in after a few weeks. Does anyone have experience with the traps that close from the outside as I may have to buy one if I cannot borrow one, he must be caught.

[bobbys girl]

Ask your vet if they have a different/larger trap. Our vet has one that is quite long and if you put food right down the end - it would have to be a very long cat to stretch that far, i.e. take the food and still keep his back legs out of the trap! It has worked well for us when we have used it.
Good luck and well done for what you are trying to do!

[DollyB]

Hello Mongoose, I have just succeed in what you are trying to do. The trap we used was approx 1mtr long with the trigger plate at the far end.
We baited the trap for about 10 days without setting it to get him used to
going in, I also put a catnip toy in there as well, which was a huge hit! We had a camera looking at the trap and could see him playing, rolling around (and probably drooling!). He'd come back to play even after he'd eaten the food.

I have another cat on my radar who I caught in a carrier and took to be scanned (no chip). Now he seems to be wary of me again but I shall persevere.

Good luck!!