Looking to trap a cat? These tips and recommendations will aid increase your likelihood of success and keep yous and the trapped cat prophylactic.

If you need to infringe a trap from CNYCC, please email united states of america at cnycc@outlook.com.

Before returning a borrowed CNYCC trap, please wash thoroughly with dish lather and water, so disinfect with one office regular bleach to 32 parts water, so rinse. A dish or toilet castor works very well for scrubbing inside the trap.

Trapping Tips (Download PDF version of information)

  • Trap/Neuter/Release or TNR is a proven method of reducing the feral cat population humanely. A feral colony should take a caretaker who provides nutrient and water daily and advisable shelter. The cats should likewise be monitored for disease or injury and for any new cats that might need to be altered.
  • Even though a cat may seem friendly, getting it into a carrier is quite some other matter. Use of a humane trap is advised for both the safety of cat and human!
  • Ever have a spay/neuter appointment already set up for the true cat earlier you endeavour to trap because information technology can take weeks to get an appointment. The exception is if you are trapping relatively young kittens (nether 4 months old), you should attempt to get them as soon as possible to begin the socialization process right away.
  • To improve guarantee trapping a true cat a twenty-four hours or 2 before surgery, feed the true cat in the trap (tie upward the trap door so the cat tin go in and out without setting information technology off) for about a calendar week prior to the appointment. Feed at the aforementioned time each twenty-four hours, preferably in the early evening. This is but possible if the trap is safely in your thou or is under constant surveillance by y'all. Other people could activate the trap and make off with a cat and damage it. E'er get permission to trap on property that is not your own.
  • Try to notice the colony to learn which cats are female, pregnant or nursing.  Remember that calicos (white, orange, black or white, peach, grey) and tortoiseshells (orangish and black or peach and gray) are e'er female. Most orange cats are male person, but treat unknown orangish cats as possible females.
  • If kittens are immature plenty, they might be able to be socialized and adopted. They can be taken from their mother when they have been weaned and are eating soft food at about 4-5 weeks old. Any older and it gets harder with each passing solar day to socialize them for adoption.

Preparation

  • Deeply tie the trap door open, so there is no gamble of it beingness activated. Use twine, a bungee cord or fifty-fifty a stick pushed through the wire openings under the door.
  • Identify information technology on level ground. If information technology rocks or tips when a cat tries to enter, the cat may get scared and non get in.
  • If the trap is non under comprehend (garage, covered porch, etc.), use a plastic trash handbag or tarp to protect the food and cat. Secure it over the summit and two sides with bungees or twine—tape may not survive in the rain. A towel helps on superlative of the plastic so the rain will be "softened" and the plastic won't flap too much. Placing a towel under the trap can help to keep information technology steady and protect the cat when in that location is snow.
  • Newspaper or cardboard can be cut to fit on the bottom of the trap to make information technology more inviting for the true cat to enter.
  • Sometimes placing fabric from the surrounding environs inside the trap and partially on the trip plate itself helps to encourage the cats to enter. A towel or small piece of coating works too. Use care not to obstruct the action of the trap.
  • Exercise non modify annihilation about the routine of using the trap to train or using it to actually trap. The cats volition become suspicious!

Trapping

  • Practice non trap until you have a vet or dispensary date for the cat(s).
  • Do non feed the dark before and don't put food in the trap until you are ready to grab the cat. This is to make sure they will exist hungry and more likely to go in to get the nutrient. Utilize only a small amount of food when yous actually ready the trap. Most of the food will go to waste matter when the trapped cat is upset and too afraid to eat. Best to trap in the early evening (if that'south their regular feeding time) and then the cat does not have to exist in the trap excessively long.
  • The evening before the appointment, remove the twine, bungees or stick from the door and set up the trap.
  • Do not place any food inside the trap. Instead, place the same wet food normally fed on a flat newspaper plate or folded pieces of newspaper underneath the trap and allow the nutrient push through the wires. This is to prevent a plate or tin existence trapped with the cat, making more than of a mess and perhaps injuring the cat.
  • Discover the trap from a rubber location similar a car or house window. If that's not possible, come back to check the trap regularly. Practice not always leave a trap prepare overnight without checking information technology.

Later on the Cat Has Been Trapped

  • Once trapped, immediately place a sheet or towels over all sides of the trap to calm the cat down.
  • Wait at the cat to see if information technology has a "tipped" ear, showing it has already been spayed or neutered. A tip is a clean, directly cut removing just the tip of ane ear while the true cat is nether anesthesia. This is a universal sign a cat has been altered.
  • If a cat is trapped, and is already ear tipped release it and reset the trap. If you catch a different cat than you meant to, take this cat to the vet appointment anyway considering if you lot release it and try to catch it later on, information technology may not go in the trap again.
  • The exception is a nursing female parent cat. She must be released until her kittens can be establish and defenseless. Sometimes you tin tell if a female is lactating if, when observed from underneath the trap, the fur around each nipple is disordered down. If yous tin can't tell, observe the cat again from below in about 8-10 hours; her mammary glands should be bloated with milk if she has nursing kittens.
  • Motion the trap, canvas and all, to a condom, warm location under cover for the nighttime. Set up plastic on the basis or flooring first, then newspaper, and so woods blocks (2x4s), then that carrion and urine will drop through the trap floor. See that there is a flake of airflow under the sheet while notwithstanding keeping the trap covered.
  • This method creates an automatic fast for the cat before surgery, equally the nutrient should drop out of the trap when it's moved. And at that place is no dish or basin inside to injure the cat.
  • It is important to act quietly around ferals – during transporting, at clinics and in their recovery intendance. Take intendance not to blindside the trap or carrier into things, limit stacking traps on superlative of i another and, overall, accept your time when working around these very scared animals. This will help to reduce the stress on them.
  • One time you take defenseless a cat, put out more nutrient for the rest of the colony.
  • When transporting the cat and trap to the veterinarian, go on the canvas loosely over the trap.
  • Use plastic or towels under the trap in your vehicle to protect the upholstery. DO Non place the trap in a torso or open pickup bed. This is besides dangerous for the cat.
  • Bring a cat carrier with a make clean towel to the appointment, every bit the cat will be placed in the carrier while even so nether anesthesia.
  • Label the trap and carrier with your name and telephone number and then they tin can be easily returned to you.

To catch a trap-shy feral cat or a specific cat

  • If the cat just won't go into the trap, endeavor making information technology more enticing by trying new food options that it might observe irresistible, like canned tuna, sardines, or mackerel, or try a few different flavors of regular canned cat food.
  • Put a pile of catnip in the back of the trap. The downside is that the cat may rub against the exterior of the trap so vigorously that the door may snap shut from the trap'southward movement.
  • If the cat goes partway into a trap, but won't pace on the trip plate, you may take to trip the trap manually. Use an empty gallon or one-half gallon plastic canteen or cut piece of wood to prop upwards the corner of the trap door. Tie a long rope to the bottle/forest that allows yous to sit down 20 anxiety or and so away. When the cat is far enough into the trap, you can yank the bottle away and crusade the trap door to shut.

Using a drop trap

  • These tin exist used when a true cat is trap-shy.
  • The drib trap is a large metal cage with no bottom that is propped upward on 1 end. When a cat is underneath the trap, the leg prop is pulled by a rope, dropping the cage down over the cat.
  • Often, this method tin trap multiple cats or kittens at once when they all come to swallow from a plate of food.

Surgery recovery

  • A cat should be kept confined for a brusque recovery after existence spayed or neutered. This lessens the chance that an infection volition develop or that a female person will rip out her stitches.
  • A male true cat's incision has no stitches and will be similar to an open wound. It will have 2-3 days for this area to scab over, and then that bacteria volition not exist equally apt to start an infection. A female cat will have stitches that gradually dissolve and practise not take to be removed.
  • Keep the cat in a iii-foot-long wire dog muzzle or small-scale room for its recovery period.
  • Males: 3-5 days; Females: vii-10 days or longer if possible. Considering females will have their entire belly shaved, information technology's of import to keep them longer in the winter to allow some hair to grow back to help them stay warm.
  • The dog crate should exist large enough to accommodate a true cat carrier for the cat to sleep and hide in, a small litter box, and a nutrient and water dish. Keeping the carrier in the crate makes it considerably easier to ship the cat back to the place where it will be released. Apply a small litter box or a plastic shoebox secured with a clamp to the side of the crate. The clamp is to keep the true cat from tipped or moving the box. You can become inexpensive and adept quality pocket-size clamps at a local hardware shop. Yous can also clench the food and water bowls to the sides since feral cats frequently knock them over as they frantically try to escape the crate.
  • Get a long-handled "gripper" tool, back scratcher, or other long narrow stick to suit things in the crate when the cat is inside and has acquired a mess.
  • Place a sheet over the muzzle except for the front door, so the cat will be encouraged to hide in the back and non feel so exposed. If non too hot, the sail can besides be pulled downwards over the front after the cat is inside. That way, it may not try quite as much to leave through the wires of the door.
  • If you need to access the crate to make clean the box or fill food/water, try to get the cat to go into the carrier. So from the exterior using the gripper or stick, close the carrier door and agree it shut so you can safely reach in and lock the carrier. With the cat safely locked in the carrier, y'all tin practice any cleaning. One time y'all're done, apply the stick to hold the door shut while yous unlatch it and close the crate door.

Releasing the cat

  • Secure the cat in the carrier in the crate and cover it with a sheet or towel for transport.
  • Ideally, the true cat will be released in the same location where it was trapped so it is familiar with the expanse and can detect food and shelter over again.
  • Release the true cat from its carrier with the door facing away from y'all and any potentially dangerous traffic or situations.
  • If you detect whatsoever problems during recovery, contact the vet or clinic per their instructions.

Relocating ferals

  • It is not recommended to relocate ferals to some other colony. They can go disoriented in a new surround, driven out, and fifty-fifty killed by surface area cats.
  • If you must relocate a feral to another colony or barn, they must be bars in a canis familiaris crate for at least 2 weeks in society for them to understand that they are in a new domicile and cull to stay at that place.

Equipment

  • Equipment and accessories should exist washed and and so disinfected between cats or before returning borrowed items. After a scrubbing with hot soapy water and rinsing, employ one role bleach to 32 parts water to disinfect. A toilet brush is a handy tool for cleaning traps. To stop, spray down everything over again with h2o.

Cheers for caring nigh the cats and taking the responsibility to foreclose futurity litters.