Feral Advice

[angela15]

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Hi Angela.

First off, it's very early in the morning for most of the folks who have been offering advice. I don't see that any of them are 'on' at the moment.

Will either of you be at home today, or is everyone at work?

I'm concerned that, because it takes at least two weeks for a female to fully recover from spay surgery, she may well injure herself(or may have injured herself) in her frantic attempts to escape.

I don't know, but the question needs to be asked if, perhaps, she defecated on the bed in panic or because of injury.

Now, I hear you say:

"I don’t think Cat wants to be an inside cat....Maybe she just isn’t meant to be a house cat..."​

Whatever you do, do not release her back outside this morning.

So, would she be alone all day, or, will someone be home?
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Unfortunately both of us work outside of the home today.

When she moves around in our presence, she doesn’t appear to be in any pain.

I am not comfortable leaving her home alone with free access to the room. Right now she is back in her carrier.

From day one she has always used the litter box. Last night she defecated on the bed, and pulled part of the drop cloth over it to cover it.

 

[shadowsrescue]

From my experience this is a totally normal behavior for a cat just brought inside. It takes time and patience.

Many things are trial and error. You have to find the balance. If the blinds are up, put them down so you can't see outside for now.

How many litter boxes are there? I would add another litter box for her. One in the room and one in the crate. I assume you meant she is in the cage and not in a small carrier left alone all day?

Are you using any Feliway? You also can try a product called Composure. It comes in treat and liquid form. I prefer the liquid form mixed into wet food. Some cats don't like the treats as they are hard. They do work fairly well to help calm down a cat. One of the feral boys I brought inside, yowled all night for 5-7 nights. I had covered some of my furniture in the room with sheets and he ripped them down and managed to get himself stuck behind some furniture. He too was trying to find a way out. I started him on Composure. The directions state the product can be doubled during times of great stress. I gave him 2 in the morning and 2-3 at night. After 2 days, he started to calm and the yowling stopped. You can find the product on Amazon.

Remember this is a process. She has only been in her new room for less than 48 hours. It may take her a week or 2 to calm herself. Patience.

Please do not let her back outside in haste. The outside world is dangerous. I know this is very hard and you want the best for her, but I think if you give it more time, she will settle.

 

[dustydiamond1]

Please don't give up yet.

 

[angela15]

From my experience this is a totally normal behavior for a cat just brought inside. It takes time and patience.

Many things are trial and error. You have to find the balance. If the blinds are up, put them down so you can't see outside for now.

How many litter boxes are there? I would add another litter box for her. One in the room and one in the crate. I assume you meant she is in the cage and not in a small carrier left alone all day?

Are you using any Feliway? You also can try a product called Composure. It comes in treat and liquid form. I prefer the liquid form mixed into wet food. Some cats don't like the treats as they are hard. They do work fairly well to help calm down a cat. One of the feral boys I brought inside, yowled all night for 5-7 nights. I had covered some of my furniture in the room with sheets and he ripped them down and managed to get himself stuck behind some furniture. He too was trying to find a way out. I started him on Composure. The directions state the product can be doubled during times of great stress. I gave him 2 in the morning and 2-3 at night. After 2 days, he started to calm and the yowling stopped. You can find the product on Amazon.

Remember this is a process. She has only been in her new room for less than 48 hours. It may take her a week or 2 to calm herself. Patience.

Please do not let her back outside in haste. The outside world is dangerous. I know this is very hard and you want the best for her, but I think if you give it more time, she will settle.

Good Morning,

The last thing I want to do is put her back outside. With that being said, I also don't want her hurting herself. As I've said from the beginning, I only have good intentions and want to do her no harm.

I will add a second litter box and see if this solves that issue. I was really shocked because she has used the litter box from day 1 without us doing anything special at all.

She isn't locked in the carrier, but we did close the door to the cage because I was worried what she might do by herself home alone all day. My plan is to open the cage door this afternoon when I come home from work, but I am not sure if it is a good idea to let her roam at night again.

I am concerned that if I put the blinds down, she will end up pulling the blinds off of the wall completely. I am afraid this might cause more harm. I did have an idea to cover the windows from the outside of the house. I am going to tape up a plastic table cloth or something from the outside of the house. This way she can not see outside, but also not tear anything down.

I will order the composure and continue to use calming music.

Any thoughts on what happened to her ear? Could it be that she itched it as it healed?

Thanks everyone for keeping me going. We aren't going to give up yet! (But pray she doesn't set the alarm off again, boy was that an adventure)

 

[shadowsrescue]

If she pees or poops again outside of the box, just sop up the urine in a paper towel and bury it in the new box. Same for the poop. Cats are attracted to their own scent.

The cage is fine for now. You need to keep her safe.

With the blinds that is a good idea to block the window from the outside.

With her ear, she could have rubbed it because it itched or did something while trying to escape. I have had my feral boys do the same. It's just a bit scabby. Keep an eye on it.

Remember, her world has been turned upside down. She was spayed and the hormones in her body are shifting. This can be an odd feeling for a cat. She was captured, taken to a vet, brought inside and caged and now is in a new room. That is a lot for a cat. Remember change doesn't happen overnight. Just keep trying things.

Do allow her time out of the crate when you are home. She will learn to enjoy her environment.

You are doing great. Just breathe and have patience.

 

[angela15]

Ordered the Composure and the Feliway. It should be here within a few days.

Should I be concerned that she might rip the diffuser out of the wall?

I think my plan is going to be to have her be able to roam the room while we are home and awake at night. She'll have to go back into her cage at night for now.

I will be able to give her more time out of the cage over the weekend when we are home for longer spans of time.

Each time I do in to check on her, I do try to bring a treat of some sort (usually deli turkey because that seems to be her favorite). I will continue this.

I also ordered a cat condo, but I'm not sure if she is at a point where she is ready for this.

It is amazing what a loud noise a little kitty can make!

 

[shadowsrescue]

I would doubt she would rip it off the wall. The phermones are usually soothing to cats.

She will learn to love the cat condo when she is more settled and ready to look out the window.

You are doing so much for this sweet girl!

 

[angela15]

I would doubt she would rip it off the wall. The phermones are usually soothing to cats.

She will learn to love the cat condo when she is more settled and ready to look out the window.

You are doing so much for this sweet girl!

Thank you for talking me off the edge. I think lack of sleep is not helping my judgement!

Here is to hoping these changes/additions help her

 

[shadowsrescue]

You are welcome. We are all here to help. Lack of sleep definitely contributes.

Change takes time, but it will happen!

 

[Avery]

Hi Angela15! I have been following your story and want to thank you for hanging in there with this little kitty! About four weeks ago, I brought inside a semi-feral cat who I had been feeding outside for three years (Ruby), along with her buddy of a year (Lucky), a sweet boy who acted like a feral cat, but turned out to be a stray and has become pretty friendly. Although my two cats have been pretty calm the whole time, it is STILL a very stressful situation with lots of new stuff to learn. The experts on this forum have been invaluable.

One thing I did was to buy a camera so I could watch what these cats are doing when I am at work. (Don't tell my supervisor!) This gizmo also tapes very short segments so you can see what happened overnight or when you aren't watching live. I looked around for something that seemed easy to set up, didn't have a contract or anything, and wasn't horribly expensive. I bought Canary View at my local Target store and proudly set it up myself... with a little advice from a techie guy at work! I love being able to keep an eye on them, see who is now bravely jumping up on the tall cat tree, who finished the treats that I left, etc., etc. Of course, they mostly sleep all day, but it really makes me feel better to peek in on them even when I'm just downstairs watching TV and hear a noise in their room!

I also am trying Jackson Galaxy's Feral Flower which is a flower essence. I am not using it to its full advantage, so I can't say if it is helping yet, but I figured I'd give it a try. Ruby doesn't like it in her food, but I just got some ideas of other ways to use it so this weekend I'm going to experiment with it.

Lack of sleep definitely can make things worse. And not eating right. Keep up the good work and don't give up. Honestly, one of the reasons I finally brought Ruby and Lucky into my house was a selfish one: I was so darned worried about them outside. I worried every single day that something bad would happen to them and, with winter approaching, I decided to take action. So now there are other worries, but I am glad they are safe inside and I really, truly think you will be glad you have this little girl safe with you!

 

[angela15]

Lack of sleep definitely can make things worse. And not eating right. Keep up the good work and don't give up. Honestly, one of the reasons I finally brought Ruby and Lucky into my house was a selfish one: I was so darned worried about them outside. I worried every single day that something bad would happen to them and, with winter approaching, I decided to take action. So now there are other worries, but I am glad they are safe inside and I really, truly think you will be glad you have this little girl safe with you![/QUOTE]

Thanks for the positive post! I don't think you're selfish at all! I feel the same exact way. One major reason for trying to bring Cat is was the cold weather coming and I want to know that she is safe!

I will see what I can do about a camera! That is a great idea

 

[angela15]

Good Morning everyone,

Last night was a MUCH better night. For her safety (and my sanity) Cat remained in her crate yesterday while my husband and I were at work.

I also happened to speak with a Cat behaviorist yesterday who had some excellent ideas in addition to all of the helpful advice here. It is still so interesting to me that Cat remains so calm all day long (even when we are not home for a very long time) but seems to get a little spicy at night! The behaviorist explains that Cat was most likely active at night, hunting. She recommended we try and mimic these behaviors inside before we go to sleep.

We got Cat to come out of her crate using turkey and played with her for awhile with a feather on a string toy. We also gave her some time to sniff around the space. After we played we fed her a good meal. (So she was able to "hunt" and then eat..)She spent a good amount of time out of the cage sniffing and grooming herself after she ate while we were in the room. (I also got the chance to look at her belly and all looks well there!). When she was done, she headed back into her crate and we did close the door for the night.

After Tuesday night's adventure, we are feeling like we should give Cat more time to adjust to the room before giving her free roam for the night. We plan to increase the amount of time that she is free in the room when we are home. I think it was all just too big of an adjustment.

This morning when we woke up, Cat was nestled in her carrier and the crate was exactly the way we left it. Usually, we find in the morning that she has terrorized the crate a bit, but that wasn't the case this morning.

When I fed her breakfast, she knew to come out of the cage for her food bowl. She ate and spent a few minute walking around sniffing. She looked sooo relaxed this morning right before I left for work.

We are continuing to use the classical music with her. I've added the second litter box to her room. The compusure treats and feliway diffuser is on its way and should arrive tomorrow. Over the weekend we will have more time at home to continue to get her used to the space.

 

[shadowsrescue]

Yea!!! Progress!!! She will be a delightful kitty. She does look very relaxed eating her breakfast!

You might want to get a litter tracking mat to put under and in front of the litter box. Before you know it small pieces of litter will be all over the floor.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Sounds like you are back on track. DO NOT get discouraged by occasional setbacks...these are pretty normal in this sort of situation. And it sounds like the behaviorist you spoke with was a person of knowledge and good common sense!

 

[angela15]

Thank you everyone.. Any ideas about what I can use to encourage her to come out of the cage while we are with her so she explores the space some more? Sometimes she likes the feather on a stick.. Other times it isn't as interesting to her. Food makes her come out, but obviously I can't feed her 24/7. Even when we leave her alone for bits of time, she still says curled up in the carrier.

 

[Avery]

One of my newly-inside cats loves catnip toys. He goes crazy throwing them around, grabbing them and kicking them, and stalking them. In the morning when I check the camera to see what happened overnight, I see him playing with them! So cute! The other cat couldn't care less! Maybe just leave a toy with catnip in it nearby and see if your kitty is interested.

I have also lured a cat with a shoelace or other wiggly string. Sometimes I tie a mousie on the end. Of course, you have to "supervise" with something like string so it doesn't get swallowed. I just hide it in a drawer that the cat can't get into.

Let us know if you find anything that works!

 

[dustydiamond1]

If she pees or poops again outside of the box, just sop up the urine in a paper towel and bury it in the new box. Same for the poop. Cats are attracted to their own scent.

The cage is fine for now. You need to keep her safe.

With the blinds that is a good idea to block the window from the outside.

With her ear, she could have rubbed it because it itched or did something while trying to escape. I have had my feral boys do the same. It's just a bit scabby. Keep an eye on it.

Remember, her world has been turned upside down. She was spayed and the hormones in her body are shifting. This can be an odd feeling for a cat. She was captured, taken to a vet, brought inside and caged and now is in a new room. That is a lot for a cat. Remember change doesn't happen overnight. Just keep trying things.

Do allow her time out of the crate when you are home. She will learn to enjoy her environment.

You are doing great. Just breathe and have patience.

 

[shadowsrescue]

Thank you everyone.. Any ideas about what I can use to encourage her to come out of the cage while we are with her so she explores the space some more? Sometimes she likes the feather on a stick.. Other times it isn't as interesting to her. Food makes her come out, but obviously I can't feed her 24/7. Even when we leave her alone for bits of time, she still says curled up in the carrier.

I often scatter small cat treats around the room while the cat is watching. It encourages the cat to explore the room. Sometimes the cat will prefer to do it at a later time when you are not present.

Remember that some nights she will want to play and other she may not. Respect her wishes. Try other toys as well. Also do give her some alone time in the room when she can explore on her own without you there and without being crated.

Patience is your friend.

 

[dustydiamond1]

Ordered the Composure and the Feliway. It should be here within a few days.

Should I be concerned that she might rip the diffuser out of the wall?

I think my plan is going to be to have her be able to roam the room while we are home and awake at night. She'll have to go back into her cage at night for now.

I will be able to give her more time out of the cage over the weekend when we are home for longer spans of time.

Each time I do in to check on her, I do try to bring a treat of some sort (usually deli turkey because that seems to be her favorite). I will continue this.

I also ordered a cat condo, but I'm not sure if she is at a point where she is ready for this.

It is amazing what a loud noise a little kitty can make!

 

[dustydiamond1]

I suggest moving her food dish further away from her litter box and putting several fleece or soft small rugs, towels or blankets on the floor, on the bed and in her crate for her to snuggle in and on. You are doing a great job sticking by this dear girl?