Hi Jenn- I don’t know if this advice will help, but Dori is crazy like that too. While she has free roam of the house, we have things set up where she also has areas that are just hers, and that seems to have helped a little bit. She still “kills” furniture and pillows, but it isn’t as bad as it was.
I adopted a feral cat just over a year ago. My elderly father was feeding him twice a day for two years. He moved to a condo when my mother passed and the cat sat at the empty house day and night waiting for my Dad to come home. I ended up taking the cat and have worked on taming him. I’ve been making progress but not quite where I can pick him up.
He’s been mostly healthy up until 8 weeks ago. He seemed to be straining to urinate in his litter box and had decreased appetite. I took him to an animal hospital. At this time, I couldn’t touch him. He was anesthetized and examined. His exam and bloodwork were all neg. He was put on a urinary diet and given mirtazipine to stimulate appetite. I was not able to consistently get the stimulate in his ear but he would eat, just not a lot.
Followed up with my vet who said maybe he isn’t that hungry because he doesn’t have to worry about food and just watch his weight.
Weight continued to drop and found out last week he has tapeworms. He got a topical dewormer. Since then, it seems like he’s lost more weight and his lack of appetite is worse. He does eat enough to poop and pee daily.
My vet does house calls only and is coming Thursday. She’s limited in what she can offer for interventions. I am contemplating taking him back to animal hospital for evaluation,
It gets dicey though because he’s not completely tame. When I went with him before I could hear the attending talking to resident on other side of door saying, “he’s feral, what does she expect us to do,” I get that, but to a point. Is it unrealistic for me to want Pinky treated? He’s getting sweeter and sweeter and enjoys being petted.
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A year and a half ago we rescued a 4 week old kitten who presented unresponsive with a body temp so low it did not register. She was revived. As the caretaker was going to put her back out that evening I stepped in and offered to take her with the plan to rehome her. I have rehomed dozens of kittens over the years, all who came from feral colonies. From the get go Annabelle was incredibly sick and had behaviors that weren’t what we were used to. When held she would attack faces, when stimulated she would attack, we continued to work with her and a year and a half later she lays with us at night and as long as we don’t touch her does not attack people. Instead she attacks items. This occurs whenever there is any stimulation in our home, folding laundry, cleaning out a closet, dogs playing, children laughing, the list goes on and on. She has destroyed a sofa, armchair, curtains, tablecloths, comforters, sheets, duvet covers, etc, etc. We can not trim her nails….because we can’t handle her and truly even with her nails trimmed I am sure she would rip things apart with her teeth. We are no stranger to ferals, I am happy to allow them to hide until they feel comfortable, there is no hiding with Annabelle instead she literally runs into the chaos. When we let our dogs out and at feeding time out she runs into the chaos, when I vacuum she runs around the room, when we have company she runs around as I warn our guests not to touch her. We are no stranger to keeping cats happy, we have cat towers, scratching posts, scratching boards, elevated areas, areas to hide. Our other 4 cats are incredibly happy members of our family. I am at my whits end, I honestly feel like we attempted to tame a raccoon and are living with it in our house. I do wonder if Annabelle would be happier outside, but with no sense of danger and a habit of running into the chaos I can’t help but worry she would get killed….and I didn’t save her to have that happen.
I am open to suggestions and curious if anyone has ever had a similar experience.
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He’s a 3 month old male who lives alone is happy and tame but I left him with family for a week and came back to this. It keeps getting larger as well.
Elliott, the senior adjusted very quickly to getting a new home a year ago. Seems possessive of his cage, at least with the dog. Pinapple, the baby seems very people friendly and hand tamed. He is sharing a cage with another green cheek of the same age at the pet store
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Kelly Furgason Hi Ashley,
I just love green cheeks!! I used to have several and they are just wonderful. Nandays tend to be a little bit larger as well as more “possessive” and more boisterous birds than the green cheeks. But you can certainly try them together. I would NOT recommend just sticking them together in a cage and hoping for the best. First, you’d want to keep them isolated for at least 2 weeks until or until you can take your new bird to a vet for a general exam/check up and to rule out any disease.Next, once your vet clears him as healthy I would be sure to closely montior them when they are near each other. You will want to be sure they each have their OWN cage to be in. Putting them in the same area, but not directly near each other is a good first step., then moving the cages closer if you’d like. Until they are next to each other. I’d never put the cages so close that they can grab one another through the bars, so be sure there is still a good gap.
Once you’ve had them near one another and they seem interested but not screaming or trying to attack, then you could try introducing them together on neutral territory,,,like a playgym. Always ALWAYS stay near so you can step in and remove one if they start to hurt each other.
I always keep birds in their own space when I’m not around –unless you have an aviary type situation with lots of room for them..they really need their own areas unless they are a very bonded pair. So until that happens make sure you have two cages.
In general I’ve found birds either love each other or hate each other. Usually no in betweens. You def are taking a risk with bringing a new friend home, either it will work ,or it will fail. But there is no way of telling how they will react based on how the green cheek is behaving in the store with a bird it already knows.
Good luck!!!!
~kelly
I have a feral cat that has given birth to 5 kittens in a old shed out back. This was 5 or 6 weeks ago.
There was another cat that is much more tame that also gave birth to 4 kittens in our yard leaves. These kittens and the mother were brought inside about 1 – 2 weeks old. They were exposed to people and are pretty tame. The mother comes in and out by the cat window. We did this so that we could possibly find homes for them.
We would also like to do the same with the other 5 kittens but the mother is very feral. The 2 mother cats I believe were from the same litter and live in the woods out back.
The cats in the back began to escape and wonder. 2 were abandoned and we thought we would try to incorporate them with the other litter. It was easy and we have made sure the other mother is not overwhelmed. They immediately began to eat solid moistened kitten food. They are a little older then the others. They are all now very friendly with humans and again hoping to find them homes. They are all in a childs play pen, modified, doing well and all beginning to try solid food. Mother is still coming in to check them and feed them. Sometimes we have to remove the 2 "outside" cats so that the mother is not overwhelmed and the cats not really eating solid food have milk, the "outside" cats are at least a week older and stronger.
So.. We happened to come across the other 3 kittens under a palate of landscaping stone. The mother was still around and had not abandoned them like we had thought.
We moved them back into the sheltered shed. They hissed a lot but once we were handling them they were ok. We have been going out there and holding them whenever the mother is not around cause she gets bent out of shape and attacks us.
FINALLY THE QUESTION.
We would like to remove the kittens in the shed and put them in a crate to acclimate them to humans in hope of finding them homes. They are all very beautiful and unique kittens. So we have a separate crate for these cats and I am pretty sure they have learned to eat solid food cause the other 2 from this took to it and had learned. We did not want to put all 9 kittens in the same pen now cause we did not want to overwhelm the one mother, what are your thoughts? Should we put them in a crate where the mother cant get to them and feed them food an water, making sure they do eat?
Any thoughts?
Also, we would like to trap and get this feral mother fixed so there are no more kittens from her, any thoughts about how we should do this or a place that could do this inexpensively? When can we do this? Did not want to do it while she was nursing.
Same goes with the other mother cat. When can we get her fixed, how old should her kittens be and when can we give them away?
I live in Delta PA area.
Thank you
Hello,
No it is absolutely not unrealistic. When we get feral cats at our shelter we try to treat them as best as we can, too. Obviously there are things that you can’t do with feral cats like you can with tame ones. But still we were still able do give daily fluids and feed them with a syringe, when they wouldn’t eat on their own for most of them.
However for this it helped a lot that they are usually in large crates, as this makes daily handling a lot easier. We place them in pillow cases to feed them or give them fluids. Most stay calm when they can’t see.
Also, a lot of needed exams can be done under anesthesia. Ultrasound (except heart), xray, bloodwork, urin analysis…
Not all treatments can be done with ferals, but there sitll is a lot of possible. That also depends on how far you are willing to go, and how stressfull daily handling for him would be. Most, while obviously hating to be forced daily, were still able to build trust after treatment or even with ongoing treatment. However it is helpful to have a second person do to the “bad” things.
Thank you for your response. He is currently hospitalized and being ruled out for a brain tumor. He is getting excellent care and the medical team is treating him well.
That sounds very good! I wish you two all the best!
Hello!
I applaud your dedication to this cat. It’s a hard case based on the cats temperament but it sounds like you are doing all you can. I wish you the very best of luck!