Feral Cats Keepcrying

[dana17]

Happy New Year. 3 days ago we took in 2 of our feral cats, they are over a year old and have been taking care of them since they were 5 weeks. They always came imside, slept inside amd we can touch them. We recently, 3 days sgo, closed the flap to our pet door amd trying to get them to be indoor only cats. They are getgetting neutered ext Thursday.
They seem a little depressed. They are eating, sleeping alot, they are eating and grooming. The problem, one cat does freak out a bit and climbs on the sink to look outside our window and the other cat yowls at night , constant crying amd tries to open the flap to our pet door to get out, he stares at the back door and looking
to get out
How can I lesson the crying and scratching of the door
I have not slept in days bc I hear him and feel bad and go downstairs to pet him and calm.him. They dont like to play much with toys. They are brothers, so happy they have one another
Will this behavior stop or lesson, if so when.
Any advice. Ty!
I am sleeping downstairs on the couch ro help clam them down.
My boyfriend says I need to stop because it teaches them that if they cry I will come to them. He said they need to get through this by themsleves, is he correct on this.

 

[jcat]

I think your boyfriend is right. The more attention you give them when they cry, the more the behavior is reinforced.

It's normal for a cat used to being outdoors to cry when confined inside, but they should get used to it in time. A Feliway diffuser might calm them down some.

 

[maggiedemi]

Yes, he's right, you have to ignore them when they cry. It took Demi 2 weeks to stop crying when I made him stay indoors for good. After that, he was fine. When you get them neutered, that should help too, since they no longer will want to get outside and find a girlfriend.

 

[dana17]

Ty for such good advice.

 

[LifeWithOliver]

Happy New Year. 3 days ago we took in 2 of our feral cats, they are over a year old and have been taking care of them since they were 5 weeks. They always came imside, slept inside amd we can touch them. We recently, 3 days sgo, closed the flap to our pet door amd trying to get them to be indoor only cats. They are getgetting neutered ext Thursday.
They seem a little depressed. They are eating, sleeping alot, they are eating and grooming. The problem, one cat does freak out a bit and climbs on the sink to look outside our window and the other cat yowls at night , constant crying amd tries to open the flap to our pet door to get out, he stares at the back door and looking
to get out
How can I lesson the crying and scratching of the door
I have not slept in days bc I hear him and feel bad and go downstairs to pet him and calm.him. They dont like to play much with toys. They are brothers, so happy they have one another
Will this behavior stop or lesson, if so when.
Any advice. Ty!
I am sleeping downstairs on the couch ro help clam them down.
My boyfriend says I need to stop because it teaches them that if they cry I will come to them. He said they need to get through this by themsleves, is he correct on this.

 

[LifeWithOliver]

They will get used to being indoors. After they are neutered they should calm down and become more quiet too.

 

[maggiedemi]

They look happy! The first one even looks like he's smiling. So cute.

 

[dana17]

Ty. He is sepcial to us
The crying
getting worse, dont know what to do. Its non stop and take them Thursday for neutering.

 

[Sarthur2]

Get a Feliway plugin diffuser. It should help.

I'm of the opinion that sleeping with them for awhile is okay until after they are neutered.

You can try wearing them out before bedtime with a wand toy to chase. A meal before bed may help as well.

They will stop crying in time!

 

[shadowsrescue]

They will stop crying. Just do not cave and let them back outside. I found that Composure treats or Composure liquid max mixed in food really helped the crying. My first feral I brought inside cried for 5 days non stop. I played harp music for him at night and then added a sound machine in his room. I also added a sound machine to my room so that it would help drown out the crying. It really does get better.

 

[dana17]

Ty. Its funny u said about the sound machine bc we have one too!

 

[linda_of_pgff]

Hello and Happy New Year all! I haven't been on the site in a very long time (no cat issues, yay!), but now we have a CRF cat so I may be casting around a lot for advice.

Anyway, I think it's worth a mention, that there are sometimes also medical reasons why cats might yowl/cry. Since you're taking the cats to be neutered, it might be worth mentioning to the clinic that they are crying. The clinic could perhaps do a very basic once-over check for things like bad teeth or mouth issues that would cause pain. Pain is one of the reasons cats can be more rather than less vocal, and also it can account for some degree of what we view as aggression. (We have a "secondhand" kitty who is vocalizing quite a bit, lately, too, so it's on my mind!)