Feral cats are a bit hard to feed

masteryouda99

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Hi, I'm not allowed to have cats at home so I became very obsessed with ever single cat on the street. However, there are almost no stray cats in my neighborhood that I can pet, feed and spend some quality time, they are all feral. Which is ok, I still feel happy when I put some food for the feral and watch them from far away. They are about 5 or 6 cats, one of them is a real loud badass and all cats are afraid of him/her (he sniffed my hand once.. uwu). I'm not really a feral expert, they all look chubby and healthy. But hey, I wear glasses and I only see them at night so I might be wrong.

It's been my 5th day in row and today putting food for them and I felt scared for a second. When I was putting the food on the ground for them they all came close to me and start to growl, hiss and fight with each other, It was kinda a cat WWE. Two of these cats performed the best growling cat symphony I've ever heard that went for a while although I divided the food to different places for each cat, they just choose to fight for a single food area.
During these seconds they ran fast around me, shout at each other loudly, nearly bouncing on the bag I place the food from. their alpha during these chaotic moments hit his/her head hard to my hand and I froze for a second thought it will attack me, I quickly emptied what's left on the bag and stepped away. I've never been afraid from cats up until this moment, I don't expect them to be cuddly and be pals with me but didn't expect either to be afraid of them. my dream goal was that they recognize I'm the creepy food guy that loves watching us.
Also, while I watch them from far away I see a 2 months kitten keeping its distance from the adult cats to get some food. I never knew yet if it ever gets to eat or not. I thought this experience might fill (a bit) my need for cat companionship but up until now it's kinda stressful for me.

A side thing to worry about, I have a little brother that is afraid of cats and he comes and goes a lot. I told him to just walk and they won't approach you but after tonight I'm a bit worried that might be aggressive, especially when he is afraid he runs quickly and screams which might make them more aggressive towards him.

If you have any comments or similar experiences that might help please share it with me.
TNR is unfortunately is not a thing where I live, people consider it cruelty. I don't agree with that and shelters doesn't have the financial power to do a sweeping TNR across the country.
I have nothing in my power to do. I'm still in college and can't just do TNR to shelters, both financially and mentally. The good news is cats look healthy as mentioned.
 

jeanw

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Very few feral cats are truly aggressive. I would just keep feeding them as you have been and just step a distance away after putting the food down. They will get used to you - cats always knows who feeds them. The kitten is probably waiting till the bigger cats leave to eat. Sometimes putting a second smaller bowl of food near the kitten but away from the others may help.

Good luck. You are doing a good thing.
 

fionasmom

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I agree that you are safe doing what you are doing, which is very kind of you. Since these cats are ferals and unpredictable, it is best if you don't try to touch them directly. Over time, you may be surprised that one or two might become friendlier but let them do this on their terms. Don't stare in the eyes when you are feeding and leave a safe distance. Cats, by nature, don't run up and attack people unprovoked.
 

Whenallhellbreakslose

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I agree that you are safe doing what you are doing, which is very kind of you. Since these cats are ferals and unpredictable, it is best if you don't try to touch them directly. Over time, you may be surprised that one or two might become friendlier but let them do this on their terms. Don't stare in the eyes when you are feeding and leave a safe distance. Cats, by nature, don't run up and attack people unprovoked.
I have been through all types of situations and broken up or prevented a load of cat fights. The worse was when the cats on my block were not tnred and I had a bunch of Tom cats after the females I fed in my yard. I would wake up 4:30a.m. in the dead of winter and try to feed in an orderly fashion and prevent these Tom cats from killing each other. I have never seen aggression directed at me thankfully. Feral cats just want to get their food and not be bothered for the most part. Right now I feed a bunch of Semi-ferals whom 5 out of the bunch I can pet (one is a lap cat). These were kittens born on the street that had some positive interaction with people and grew to be more on the friendly side. The cats you feed probably never had this, so naturally they are not to trusting of people.

So you say that their is no tnr programs where you live. Could you get some like-minded people together and address this issue? Maybe start a petition for tnr in your area and draw attention to how bad the problem is. You need to keep pushing forward until minds are opened to this. Be the change you wish to see. This is what others had to do to get tnr programs in the places they live. It is still an uphill battle in other areas, but people are still fighting for this change. All I can say is that having the kitties in my area tnred was one if the best things. It improves the quality of lives for the residents of a community and the kitties. It us a win- win. I wish more people could understand this. Thanks for having a good heart and in taking care of the kitties. Bless you.
🙂
 
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masteryouda99

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Thank you all for caring and replying :) So I think one of them has identified me as the food guy, runs at me and knows its feeding time. Gets too close but no touches. They all know food time now.
The strange and the new thing is one of them hissed at me directly at sight for some time today, before I even try to put the food down. Again, my scare has repeated since - as you know- what comes after a hiss is an attack. I hope this is not a beginning for something bad.
They still growl and hiss at each other, maybe because the food is not enough. I put 170-200 grams of dry food, I don't think it's enough for the 5 of them but if I have to feed them daily I have to be economically realistic about quantities.

Thanks again for caring. Thought I should share a pic of the gang :).
 

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masteryouda99

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So you say that their is no tnr programs where you live. Could you get some like-minded people together and address this issue? Maybe start a petition for tnr in your area and draw attention to how bad the problem is. You need to keep pushing forward until minds are opened to this. Be the change you wish to see. This is what others had to do to get tnr programs in the places they live. It is still an uphill battle in other areas, but people are still fighting for this change. All I can say is that having the kitties in my area tnred was one if the best things. It improves the quality of lives for the residents of a community and the kitties. It us a win- win. I wish more people could understand this. Thanks for having a good heart and in taking care of the kitties. Bless you.
🙂
Thanks for your care for the kitties :)
The following can be hard to read but it's sadly facts;
All cats, feral and strays across the country are -generally speaking- in a terrible shape (and to be fair people themselves are not in a better case). Cats do their thing, reproduce in quantities and many of them die by starving or sickness. When cats in an area become really a lot, some real sh** people do a disgraceful thing, They poison them. Others will pay a sh** association to come and do a sweeping poisoning across the neighborhood, almost all dogs and cats die for that.
Thanks to the social media, this act is being heavily attacked and denounced a lot and hopefully it will be criminalized anytime soon. But as there are still sh** people living among us, it will take sometime to be criminalized.
for now, the world is cruel to kitties and doggies here and the best thing you can really do for them is just preventing them from being dead.

Gathering support for TNR is sadly just something I can't do. First, most people consider fixing a (home) cat is cruelty and doing that for the ferals and strays won't get any approval even from big chunk of the cat lovers community. Secondly, cats in my area luckily are in a good shape (at least what I witness). If TNR is going to be operated in this country, our neighborhood is going to be the last one to be TNRed. Thirdly, I honestly don't know anyone in this neighborhood. Convincing people to do something strange to them by someone who they don't know is sadly not going to happen.
I hope in the feature shelters and media start to educate people about why TNR is crucial.
 

Whenallhellbreakslose

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Thanks for your care for the kitties :)
The following can be hard to read but it's sadly facts;
All cats, feral and strays across the country are -generally speaking- in a terrible shape (and to be fair people themselves are not in a better case). Cats do their thing, reproduce in quantities and many of them die by starving or sickness. When cats in an area become really a lot, some real sh** people do a disgraceful thing, They poison them. Others will pay a sh** association to come and do a sweeping poisoning across the neighborhood, almost all dogs and cats die for that.
Thanks to the social media, this act is being heavily attacked and denounced a lot and hopefully it will be criminalized anytime soon. But as there are still sh** people living among us, it will take sometime to be criminalized.
for now, the world is cruel to kitties and doggies here and the best thing you can really do for them is just preventing them from being dead.

Gathering support for TNR is sadly just something I can't do. First, most people consider fixing a (home) cat is cruelty and doing that for the ferals and strays won't get any approval even from big chunk of the cat lovers community. Secondly, cats in my area luckily are in a good shape (at least what I witness). If TNR is going to be operated in this country, our neighborhood is going to be the last one to be TNRed. Thirdly, I honestly don't know anyone in this neighborhood. Convincing people to do something strange to them by someone who they don't know is sadly not going to happen.
I hope in the feature shelters and media start to educate people about why TNR is crucial.
I know it is really tough when you live with people who just look at spaying or neutering as cruelty. It takes time for people to come around if they ever do. Keep connecting with people here and in other cat forums. This is an international website and you may run into people who were in the same situation as you, but they somehow got over that major hurdle. I hope you find much encouragement and support on these forums. Thank you for being kind enough to help the kitties. As you said their are a lot of disgusting people in the world who would hurt the kitties. Thank you for being one of the good ones.

In regards to the aggression you think some of the kitties may be directing at you, take measures to keep yourself safe( keep a safe distance, wear thick gloves, have a water bottle or spray as a deterrant if it looks like a kitty is about to attack.) This aggression may be out if fear, misdirected anger, or the cat may have something physically wrong with it and it trying to protect itself. The cat may be very distrusting and needs more time to come around.

Thank you for helping these kitties when many turn a blind eye. Wishing you all the best 🙂
 
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