Moving skittish cats!
June 17, 2011 7:00 PM Subscribe
We've moved into a new house, how do we wrangle two very skittish, formally feral, cats into moving with us?
OK... Ms. Swift and I have moved into the house we purchased months ago. All the big stuff has moved, we're staying at the new place, the dawg has moved, as have the two pretty tame Siamese Cats. The old house (which we'll be disposing of eventually, but not quickly, we have plenty of time) is pretty empty on the first floor, 2nd floor is closed off, basement (the refuge of the two cats (Bonnie and Clyde) still has lots of kid stuff in it (never let your kids store stuff in your basement!) , lots of places to hide).
We went back two days ago to get Bonnie and Clyde. Clyde came out for the wife, she picked him up and carried him into the attached garage where we were going to put him in the back of my car (large dog crate back there). Clyde went nuts!!!!! scratched the heck out of her trying to get free, bit her scalp (this really needs treatment, but she refuses, that's another story), got loose, went back into the house, terrified, hissing, wouldn't let either of us near him (he's usually a bit shy but affectionate). I eventually let him back into the basement where he feels safe. I never did see Bonnie, she's still in hiding.
I've been back the past two days to feed, water, and clean boxes... cats are eating, pooping and peeing.
Question: How do I move these little buggers.
I called the Vet's office, they stated that any tranquilizer they have needs to be given orally, and, if I could do that, I could move them. They did suggest that, if I can catch Clyde again, I should put him in a pillow case, that it might calm him a bit.
My plan is to give them a few days to settle down. I've opened the basement door, they can get to the main floor, I'll probably move food and water to that floor (fewer places to hide, most of the furniture is gone).... Hopefully they will eventually settle down...
Ideas???
OK... Ms. Swift and I have moved into the house we purchased months ago. All the big stuff has moved, we're staying at the new place, the dawg has moved, as have the two pretty tame Siamese Cats. The old house (which we'll be disposing of eventually, but not quickly, we have plenty of time) is pretty empty on the first floor, 2nd floor is closed off, basement (the refuge of the two cats (Bonnie and Clyde) still has lots of kid stuff in it (never let your kids store stuff in your basement!) , lots of places to hide).
We went back two days ago to get Bonnie and Clyde. Clyde came out for the wife, she picked him up and carried him into the attached garage where we were going to put him in the back of my car (large dog crate back there). Clyde went nuts!!!!! scratched the heck out of her trying to get free, bit her scalp (this really needs treatment, but she refuses, that's another story), got loose, went back into the house, terrified, hissing, wouldn't let either of us near him (he's usually a bit shy but affectionate). I eventually let him back into the basement where he feels safe. I never did see Bonnie, she's still in hiding.
I've been back the past two days to feed, water, and clean boxes... cats are eating, pooping and peeing.
Question: How do I move these little buggers.
I called the Vet's office, they stated that any tranquilizer they have needs to be given orally, and, if I could do that, I could move them. They did suggest that, if I can catch Clyde again, I should put him in a pillow case, that it might calm him a bit.
My plan is to give them a few days to settle down. I've opened the basement door, they can get to the main floor, I'll probably move food and water to that floor (fewer places to hide, most of the furniture is gone).... Hopefully they will eventually settle down...
Ideas???
P.S. If you are worried about locating your sleepy cats afterwards then buy a cat trap (40 to 50 bucks on amazon) and place their drugged food into the trap and check on them every couple of hours. They aren't going to like being trapped but they'll eat the food anyway and mellow out soon enough.
posted by Poet_Lariat at 7:23 PM on June 17, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by Poet_Lariat at 7:23 PM on June 17, 2011 [2 favorites]
Yep, Hav-A-Hart traps are what TNR workers use to catch feral cats for vax/neutering, although they generally sedate them at the vet site rather than prime the bait food with tranquilizers.
This should work, although YMMV with the tranquilizers once they've taken them. Our cats behaved hostilely to each other when sedated (for a long cross-country move), and although they were too dopey to hurt fast-moving people, they were plenty irritable with each other and had to be kept separate until they slept it off.
posted by toodleydoodley at 7:54 PM on June 17, 2011
This should work, although YMMV with the tranquilizers once they've taken them. Our cats behaved hostilely to each other when sedated (for a long cross-country move), and although they were too dopey to hurt fast-moving people, they were plenty irritable with each other and had to be kept separate until they slept it off.
posted by toodleydoodley at 7:54 PM on June 17, 2011
I wouldn't drug and trap them, if it were me. Traps are very scary to cats and they also aren't very easy to transport. For example, if Bonnie or Clyde gets scared and pees, your trap won't be riding in the back of an animal control truck that can be easily hosed out afterward.
The most effective and humane way would be to slooowly transition them out over a couple of days. You would need two separate cat carriers for this. Which you really should have anyway.*
Here's how I see it: cats are creatures of habit and they also are very devoted to their spaces. Bonnie and Clyde's space (the old house) has just changed a lot. They are certainly stressed about all this. Then, you tried to carry them out to the garage (a space they never go), where everything smells weird and awful and wrong, and there were weird car noises and possibly the smell of the dog crate, etc. Cat alarm goes FREAK OUT NOW!
What I would do: go to a pet store and buy two cat carriers. You want a small one that fits the cat's size, where the cat can comfortably turn around but only just. Cats like to feel secure and cozy. Also buy some treats, and a couple of cans of really stinky tuna fishy cat food.
Day M-2: Go to the old house. Put the carriers near the door that you will eventually use to take the cats out. Place them near each other and with both doors open. Inside each carrier, put a t-shirt that you've slept in overnight. You want it to smell like you (the head of their pack). Also, inside the carrier, on top of your t-shirt, put a couple treats. Put a couple treats in front of the carrier door, too. Move their food and water near (but not too near—maybe five feet away) the carriers. Then leave.
Over the night while you are gone, they will come out and sniff and check out the carriers. They will go inside them, even, because it smells like Dad and there are TREATS nearby.
Day M-1: Carriers are no longer scary. Now you just need to get them into the carriers. Go in the morning but only put out enough food for one small meal. Don't leave out any food overnight, so that they will be hungry when you arrive.
Moving Day: If you can possibly do this one cat at a time, it would be better. For example, put Clyde in the basement so he doesn't see what goes down and scram.
Then, put a couple of treats in front of one carrier, and then put out a bowl of stinky tuna fishy food. When hungry Bonnie comes out for the lovely fishy aroma, sit quietly and just let her eat. After a minute or so when she's really into chowing down, grab her and quickly herd her into cage.
She will probably meow or cry, which is okay. Take Bonnie in carrier to the waiting car where Mrs. Swift has the A/C running.
Then, go open the basement door for Clyde. He'll come out, because he's hungry and smells tuna. Bait, rinse and repeat.
They'll mewl and complain en route, but they'll be fine. If someone gets nervous and pees in a carrier, you can just throw the t-shirt in the wash.
When you get them to new house, put both carriers in a small quiet segregated room (laundry room, guest bath, etc.) with food/water/box. Leave both cats in carriers for a few minutes to calm down, and then let them out into "quarantine room" to get used to new house smells. This will let them decompress from the trauma of the carrier and car ride.
*The reason that I advocate having as many carriers as a family has pets: Yes, you might only ever need to take one to the vet at a time... but what if there is an emergency, like a house fire? We also put our cats into their carriers when we hear the tornado sirens. God forbid we have to evacuate for weather or disaster and we can't find a cat nor wrangle them into a carrier. So, we have one per cat, and we make sure they are accustomed to going into them.
Seriously, we do drills. About once a week, we'll just put everyone into carriers with treats and t-shirts just because, and let them hang out with us in the living room for 15 minutes or so, and then lots of praise and cuddling after. We don't want carriers = scary bad freakout. But I have been told we are Those Cat People, too, so.
posted by pineapple at 8:17 PM on June 17, 2011 [10 favorites]
The most effective and humane way would be to slooowly transition them out over a couple of days. You would need two separate cat carriers for this. Which you really should have anyway.*
Here's how I see it: cats are creatures of habit and they also are very devoted to their spaces. Bonnie and Clyde's space (the old house) has just changed a lot. They are certainly stressed about all this. Then, you tried to carry them out to the garage (a space they never go), where everything smells weird and awful and wrong, and there were weird car noises and possibly the smell of the dog crate, etc. Cat alarm goes FREAK OUT NOW!
What I would do: go to a pet store and buy two cat carriers. You want a small one that fits the cat's size, where the cat can comfortably turn around but only just. Cats like to feel secure and cozy. Also buy some treats, and a couple of cans of really stinky tuna fishy cat food.
Day M-2: Go to the old house. Put the carriers near the door that you will eventually use to take the cats out. Place them near each other and with both doors open. Inside each carrier, put a t-shirt that you've slept in overnight. You want it to smell like you (the head of their pack). Also, inside the carrier, on top of your t-shirt, put a couple treats. Put a couple treats in front of the carrier door, too. Move their food and water near (but not too near—maybe five feet away) the carriers. Then leave.
Over the night while you are gone, they will come out and sniff and check out the carriers. They will go inside them, even, because it smells like Dad and there are TREATS nearby.
Day M-1: Carriers are no longer scary. Now you just need to get them into the carriers. Go in the morning but only put out enough food for one small meal. Don't leave out any food overnight, so that they will be hungry when you arrive.
Moving Day: If you can possibly do this one cat at a time, it would be better. For example, put Clyde in the basement so he doesn't see what goes down and scram.
Then, put a couple of treats in front of one carrier, and then put out a bowl of stinky tuna fishy food. When hungry Bonnie comes out for the lovely fishy aroma, sit quietly and just let her eat. After a minute or so when she's really into chowing down, grab her and quickly herd her into cage.
She will probably meow or cry, which is okay. Take Bonnie in carrier to the waiting car where Mrs. Swift has the A/C running.
Then, go open the basement door for Clyde. He'll come out, because he's hungry and smells tuna. Bait, rinse and repeat.
They'll mewl and complain en route, but they'll be fine. If someone gets nervous and pees in a carrier, you can just throw the t-shirt in the wash.
When you get them to new house, put both carriers in a small quiet segregated room (laundry room, guest bath, etc.) with food/water/box. Leave both cats in carriers for a few minutes to calm down, and then let them out into "quarantine room" to get used to new house smells. This will let them decompress from the trauma of the carrier and car ride.
*The reason that I advocate having as many carriers as a family has pets: Yes, you might only ever need to take one to the vet at a time... but what if there is an emergency, like a house fire? We also put our cats into their carriers when we hear the tornado sirens. God forbid we have to evacuate for weather or disaster and we can't find a cat nor wrangle them into a carrier. So, we have one per cat, and we make sure they are accustomed to going into them.
Seriously, we do drills. About once a week, we'll just put everyone into carriers with treats and t-shirts just because, and let them hang out with us in the living room for 15 minutes or so, and then lots of praise and cuddling after. We don't want carriers = scary bad freakout. But I have been told we are Those Cat People, too, so.
posted by pineapple at 8:17 PM on June 17, 2011 [10 favorites]
I don't have advice for catching, other than lots of patience (and possibly letting them get a little bit hungry so they come out when you feed them). However, I have had much better luck with unhappy cats in cotton laundry bags than crates. We had a half feral who would go insane in a crate, but in a bag he would just curl up and sit there. Put them on the floor of the car so they can't roll around.
posted by oneirodynia at 10:44 PM on June 17, 2011
posted by oneirodynia at 10:44 PM on June 17, 2011
I caught my own feral cat. A couple of months before I was ready to adopt her, when I was only feeding her, I bought her carrier, and started getting her acclimated to that.
I put food in the carrier, got her to go into it. Next night, I did the same, and briefly closed the carrier, avoiding her hissing and claws.
A few nights later, after a no-carrier break, I re-introduced it, put food in it, closed it after she went in, carried it to my car, out it in the car, waited a bit, took it back out of the car, opened it, watched her streak out.
Repeat a week later, open the carrier inside the locked car.
Then some driving around (without the carrier, her loose in the car). Then some driving around with her in the carrier.
You need to acclimate them to the carriers (one each), until carrier becomes a safe space that smells like them. Then you carry them out to the car.
You deposit them in the new house in the carriers, and open the carriers and leave them there as a safe "home base" while they explore the house.
I used a walk-in closet: carrier at the back of the closet, litter box a few feet closer to the door, food dish in between. She always had the "safe" carrier to retreat to as she explored first the closet, then the bedroom, then the rest of the apartment. First several night she slept in the carrier.
When we moved three months later, she did the move in her carrier, carrier got set up in the extra bedroom, and she almost immediately didn't need it or the extra bedroom. Carrier is ignored, possibly because I have foolishly used it as a punishment space for timeouts, mostly because the second move really didn't faze her at all.
posted by orthogonality at 12:28 AM on June 18, 2011 [2 favorites]
I put food in the carrier, got her to go into it. Next night, I did the same, and briefly closed the carrier, avoiding her hissing and claws.
A few nights later, after a no-carrier break, I re-introduced it, put food in it, closed it after she went in, carried it to my car, out it in the car, waited a bit, took it back out of the car, opened it, watched her streak out.
Repeat a week later, open the carrier inside the locked car.
Then some driving around (without the carrier, her loose in the car). Then some driving around with her in the carrier.
You need to acclimate them to the carriers (one each), until carrier becomes a safe space that smells like them. Then you carry them out to the car.
You deposit them in the new house in the carriers, and open the carriers and leave them there as a safe "home base" while they explore the house.
I used a walk-in closet: carrier at the back of the closet, litter box a few feet closer to the door, food dish in between. She always had the "safe" carrier to retreat to as she explored first the closet, then the bedroom, then the rest of the apartment. First several night she slept in the carrier.
When we moved three months later, she did the move in her carrier, carrier got set up in the extra bedroom, and she almost immediately didn't need it or the extra bedroom. Carrier is ignored, possibly because I have foolishly used it as a punishment space for timeouts, mostly because the second move really didn't faze her at all.
posted by orthogonality at 12:28 AM on June 18, 2011 [2 favorites]
Oh -- please inform your dear wife that cats' mouths are full of nasty bacteria, and at bites frequently develop into bad bad infections, especially in highly vascularized tissue like the scalp.
Not getting a cat bite to the head treated is asking for a long, lingering, dangerous infection that may spread to the face, eyes, or brain.
A great deal of caution on my part means that my feral has never bitten me hard enough to break the skin (she "pulls" her bites when we play fight, I think), but had she, I'd have gotten it treated quickly. Admittedly, the scratches I'm more cavalier about.
posted by orthogonality at 12:36 AM on June 18, 2011 [1 favorite]
Not getting a cat bite to the head treated is asking for a long, lingering, dangerous infection that may spread to the face, eyes, or brain.
A great deal of caution on my part means that my feral has never bitten me hard enough to break the skin (she "pulls" her bites when we play fight, I think), but had she, I'd have gotten it treated quickly. Admittedly, the scratches I'm more cavalier about.
posted by orthogonality at 12:36 AM on June 18, 2011 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I have a feral colony in my barn. They're gradually more touchable as time goes on, but not tame. I'll be moving at some point soon, and will take them with me. Here's the "moving feral cats" plan based on previous instances where I *had* to handle them within a specific time period (getting them fixed, vax'd, boosters, injuries), and based on recommendations from other people who have ferals/former ferals:
I'll have a carrier for each cat right there. Pick up cat, put cat RIGHT in carrier, latch closed.
If I can't pick up one or more of the cats (which is likely, as I can barely touch some of them), I'll borrow traps from the local TNR group. Set up traps with towels over them and very smelly food as bait (they recommend sardines, I've also used tuna in oil).
When I have transported cats in traps or carriers I make sure there's a tarp underneath inside my car, and the trap/carrier is covered for the cat's comfort.
I expect to be making at least one trip for each cat, not to be able to catch them all at once, although that would be nice.
Once we get to the new home, I will keep them enclosed--in a much larger crate or even a large cage--for several weeks, while they get accustomed to the new farm. We can't keep them inside (allergies) but we can make sure they have some time to get used to the new location--and calm about it--rather than just opening things up and letting them bolt. If I understand correctly, this is also recommended for moving feral cats from inside-home to inside-home as well as for outside-only feral cats. They'll be upset by the change in environment, and keeping them enclosed in the new environment will help them adapt without as little upset as possible.
The cage setup needs to be placed somewhere the cats can feel safe (a corner, a dark cubby, etc), perhaps covered or partly covered while they get used to being in it, and needs a crate or other hideyhole for each cat. They need enough room to put the litterbox a ways away from the food and the hideyhole.
Depending on the new barn layout, after a few weeks I may put out cat food where I'll be feeding from then on and open the crate and walk away (to let them leave on their own). Or, I may be able to open the crate (and leave it open and available as a hideyhole), and continue to keep them enclosed in a room in the barn for several more weeks. This would be preferable, but I may not have an enclosed room. After a few weeks in crate and a few weeks in room, I'll then leave the room open so they can have full access to their new home.
posted by galadriel at 6:04 AM on June 19, 2011
I'll have a carrier for each cat right there. Pick up cat, put cat RIGHT in carrier, latch closed.
If I can't pick up one or more of the cats (which is likely, as I can barely touch some of them), I'll borrow traps from the local TNR group. Set up traps with towels over them and very smelly food as bait (they recommend sardines, I've also used tuna in oil).
When I have transported cats in traps or carriers I make sure there's a tarp underneath inside my car, and the trap/carrier is covered for the cat's comfort.
I expect to be making at least one trip for each cat, not to be able to catch them all at once, although that would be nice.
Once we get to the new home, I will keep them enclosed--in a much larger crate or even a large cage--for several weeks, while they get accustomed to the new farm. We can't keep them inside (allergies) but we can make sure they have some time to get used to the new location--and calm about it--rather than just opening things up and letting them bolt. If I understand correctly, this is also recommended for moving feral cats from inside-home to inside-home as well as for outside-only feral cats. They'll be upset by the change in environment, and keeping them enclosed in the new environment will help them adapt without as little upset as possible.
The cage setup needs to be placed somewhere the cats can feel safe (a corner, a dark cubby, etc), perhaps covered or partly covered while they get used to being in it, and needs a crate or other hideyhole for each cat. They need enough room to put the litterbox a ways away from the food and the hideyhole.
Depending on the new barn layout, after a few weeks I may put out cat food where I'll be feeding from then on and open the crate and walk away (to let them leave on their own). Or, I may be able to open the crate (and leave it open and available as a hideyhole), and continue to keep them enclosed in a room in the barn for several more weeks. This would be preferable, but I may not have an enclosed room. After a few weeks in crate and a few weeks in room, I'll then leave the room open so they can have full access to their new home.
posted by galadriel at 6:04 AM on June 19, 2011
Response by poster: OK, folks, here's the solution, worked like a charm.. thanks to all for the advice.
posted by tomswift at 8:12 PM on July 21, 2011
posted by tomswift at 8:12 PM on July 21, 2011
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You crush it up and mix it in with their food. Canned food would be best. Give less food than normal to insure that they take it all.
posted by Poet_Lariat at 7:20 PM on June 17, 2011 [1 favorite]