Need Advice From the Feral Colony Experts

[orange&white]

I haven't updated Misfit's thread here in over a month, so here goes.

About a week after the last update, I was able to start letting my Corgi off leash in the backyard again. He's completely ignoring and actively trying to avoid Misfit. She, on the other hand, tried to attack him a couple times once she realized that he was trying to keep a distance between them. Misfit stalked and ran up to Charlie one day and swatted him on the butt. He growled at her and she decided that probably wasn't a good idea. They're now doing a pretty good job respecting each other's space.

I've been picking Misfit up more and putting her on my lap. Usually she jumps down immediately, but the last two days she has sat on my lap and let me pet her for a minute or two...with purrs. On the other hand, yesterday when she decided she'd had enough petting, she turned her head and bit me pretty hard (didn't break the skin). She hasn't been swatting at me nearly as much as she used to take swipes, so that's good.

The temperature is supposed to drop tonight to the mid- to high-thirties, so yesterday I completed her "winter cottage". It's just two cardboard boxes (a small box inside a large box) separated with bags of Styrofoam peanuts between the walls and floor. She has straw and a fleece blanket in the interior box. I taped a plastic trash bag around the exterior to protect it from moisture, plus it's under the patio cover on a shelf. It should be pretty weatherproof and warm for our mild winters. I don't know if she'll use it, but she has been sleeping in an open box with a fleece blanket lately. Not sure she'll feel comfortable in the more enclosed shelter. We'll see. It's there if she wants.

She's got a really good appetite and looks healthy.

 

[maggiedemi]

That's great Orange, you are really making progress with her. Yeah, both my cats do that when they don't want to be petted anymore, but instead of biting, they scratch. I hope I can teach them not to do it. I'm not great at correcting them because as a kid I hated being disciplined. What did you do when she bit you? Did you correct her?

 

[di and bob]

I don't correct my cats, I learn when their patience reaches it's limits! I learned long time ago, they all have a limit, a swishing tail, or dilated eyes tells me it's time to stop.
Orange&white, have you considered a heated mat to put under the fleece blanket? They are pretty cheap on Amazon, under twenty dollars, and my outside cats use them constantly every time it gets really cold. Even the neighbor cat comes over to use a hut!t helps me to not worry so much about them being out in the cold.

 

[orange&white]

What did you do when she bit you? Did you correct her?

She bit me, then jumped down immediately. I just told her in a normal tone of voice, "Owww...that hurts me girlfriend." My mom was a screamer when I was a kid...so I also don't care for that type of discipline. I'm pretty quiet in general.

I think she knows the difference in my "disappointed" voice and my "happy" voice. I'm always talking "soft and happy" and inventing rhyming songs with her name to sing to her, so the extent of correction is just changing to "soft and sad" voice. It seems to have helped a lot with the swatting...unless she's decided to switch to biting.

When I put her on my lap this morning, she just jumped down like a "normal" cat when she'd had enough and didn't bite me first.

 

[orange&white]

I don't correct my cats, I learn when their patience reaches it's limits! I learned long time ago, they all have a limit, a swishing tail, or dilated eyes tells me it's time to stop.
Orange&white, have you considered a heated mat to put under the fleece blanket? They are pretty cheap on Amazon, under twenty dollars, and my outside cats use them constantly every time it gets really cold. Even the neighbor cat comes over to use a hut!t helps me to not worry so much about them being out in the cold.

Misfit is not a domestic cat by any means. She doesn't swish her tail, put her ears back, change her eyes or hiss. She has simply gone from happy to "swat" (and now "bite"). That was the only bite though and it was harder than the "love bites" from my domestic cat, but not hard enough to break skin. She's gotten a lot better about giving me some warning with the swatting by raising her paw in the air, but not following through lashing out. She's made a lot of progress as she gets more comfortable.

I was going to buy a Snuggle Safe microwave heating pad but the seller kind of ticked me off. I put one in my Amazon cart on sale at $15.00 and took a couple days to decide what else I wanted to order for free shipping. When I went back to order 2 days later the cart price had changed to $25.00 and now they're $29.00. I was going to order 2 of them, but decided on "none" after the price in my cart didn't save.

We have mild winters and a "bad winter" will have around a dozen nights of temps in the 20's. I'm going to try to bring her inside if it gets that cold. Last year, we didn't get a single freeze, but that's highly unusual. I expect the Snuggle Safe's won't go back on sale at an incredible price until spring.

I'm wondering how many hours "rice socks" or "bean socks" stay warm? The interior box of her shelter is pretty small to trap body heat. I think she should be good into the mid-20's without an additional heat source...if she actually uses the shelter.

 

[orange&white]

I just fed Misfit's bedtime meal and got her inside her new "winter chateau" by sprinkling some SmartyCat catnip inside. She went in and stayed a couple minutes (she eats catnip instead of rolling in it). I'm happy to see the door isn't too small for her. I tried to make it as small as possible to retain heat inside the box.

 

[di and bob]

The electric pads are a lot better, they only use about 15 watts of electricity and are always ready. They don't warm to 102 degrees until the cat is on them. I stick them under a fleece blanket. If you keep watching the K&H cat heating pads you can get them pretty cheap at times. I got the small cat one as an add on earlier this year for 7.99! I ordered 5 and gave some to the shelter.
You are lucky with your mild winters, cats should be fine. Right now this morning here in Nebraska it is 14 degrees. We can be below zero many nights with 50 MPH winds and snow, it can be brutal!
Several of my cats were born in the neighboring field and took a lot of work to domesticate. Only one of them has the 'overstimulation' syndrome, but he always warns you when he is going to bite by meowing loudly when he has had enough. My Chrissy on the other hand allowed three strokes and that was it. When she had enough she always drew blood. Many people didn't believe me and still have a scar.

 

[shadowsrescue]

I love reading your updates on MisFit. She has come so far.

Amazon pricing can be really screwy. I too have scored some of the electric heat pads for very cheap. I keep them on hand, donate them or my inside boys are loving them too.

 

[orange&white]

Ugh! 14 degrees, yikes! It was 44 on my patio thermometer here a little after 6am, and Misfit was inside her shelter when I walked outside the first time. We're thin-skinned down here. We have lots of 70 degree days in the winter, sometimes warmer so when we get below 32 degrees for a day or two we all think we're freezing to death.

I expect Misfit feels the same. She just turned one year old and since we didn't have any freezes last winter, this year will be her first experience. Plus she's very lean, very short-coated and has hardly any body fat to keep her warm.

Not sure how I'm going to clean her shelter. Her blanket I can wash and I can replace the straw, but a cardboard box...hmmm. When she came out of her shelter a little while ago, she smelled like cat spray. She sprays everything to mark territory, apparently including her bedding. I picked her up and sniffed the sleeve of my bathrobe after setting her down and sure enough, "cat spray". If she's going to spray her things the first 24-hours, I'm not sure how much I would gain by cleaning anyway. Maybe I'll just open it up on warmer afternoons to air out, but I think I'll start looking for a plastic tub the same size as the interior box. I'm definitely going to need more straw and blankets.

 

[orange&white]

If I could get a heating pad for $7 or the Snuggle Safe for $15, I would pick up at least one. I have a feeling they may not go on sale again until the end of winter now though. I was thinking that even a light bulb on the shelf below her shelter would put out a lot of heat (maybe too much). Her enclosed box is on the second shelf from the bottom and her more open box and blanket is one shelf up. It's a galvanized metal storage shelf tucked in the corner of the patio by an outlet, so a light on the bottom shelf would warm the metal shelf just above it.

 

[foxxycat]

orange&white I read this entire thread and loved every minute of it.

I would NOT use the light bulb-it would attract people/animals to her hidey hole. I would use either a heated bed or those disk things-I have seen one lady use these heated beds inside the cubby holes-run an extension cord. They are a bit pricy but her cats LOVE them. I want to get my Pumpkin Face one for her arthritis. She loves being where it's warm-when our furnace goes on-she has a bed up in front of one of the vents that she goes to.

You can make a new cardboard box...also if you know anyone in building houses-get some tyvek material that they use on the outside of the homes=wrap the cardboard in that-it is very good insulator. Or buy a tyvek paper suit 3X or larger and cut it up and tape it around the box...it is worth the $10 for the heat it retains. plus it's a bit water resistant too.

keep up the good work!! love reading these stories!!

 

[maggiedemi]

I should get a heating pad or disc for Demi. He always steals my computer chair when I get up, I think he likes the heat after I've been sitting in it a while.

 

[orange&white]

I was thinking that if I used a light bulb, I would enclose the bottom open area with cardboard to hold heat and drive it upward to the shelf where Misfit's shelter sits. The floor of her shelter has at least 1 inch of Styrofoam between the outer and inner box floors and walls, encased in plastic. Not sure if much heat would even penetrate all that, but it would warm the metal shelf under the box.

Yeah, I wanted two of those heating discs at $15...one for Misfit and the other either for my senior cat or to use as a foot warmer in my own bed. But I'm just being stubborn over the price increase. If anyone sees those go back on sale, or the electric ones at $7, please let me know if you think about it.

The only other thing I'm thinking of adding at this point is a lining of self-warming reflective material (which is sold as a "space blanket", or "emergency blanket" or "survival blanket"). Last year Dollar Tree had them for a buck. Plenty of material to cut and apply to all the interior walls/floor/ceiling of the interior box. Of course...this year they're aren't in stock (yet). Amazon has a set of 4 of them for under $4 with free shipping.

Her interior box is a 10-ream copy paper box I took from the office when we used up the paper. I think banker's boxes are probably the same size...if she keeps spraying inside and it gets too stinky. I need a box the same size after spending quite a bit of time "custom-fitting" the Styrofoam sheets and peanuts in between the walls and floor.

 

[foxxycat]

I would be more afraid of it catching on fire....i wonder if they have some kind of heat blankets but I guess u could do a rice sock in microwave. It's supposed to last a few hours...

 

[ashade1]

orange&white The snuggle safe disks are on sale for $18.99!

 

[vyger]

I was reading your recent discussion on heating pads and I wasn't sure some of the things you were referring to so I looked up cat heating pads on ebay. I was actually thinking of getting something like this for an outside building that has power but no heat. Anyway, after seeing some expensive items I ran across a model that is really reasonable.
Electric Pet Warm Heat Heated Pad Blanket Mat Bed For Dog Cat Winter 40cmX40cm | eBay
A lot of the ones I looked at didn't have a power rating. Without knowing that you have no idea hot much heat it actually produces and also how much its going to cost to run. So these have a rating of 20 watts which is a little higher than the others. But they are not 12 volt which might make them a little more dangerous. I could not find any info on them. I went ahead and ordered one to try out. For just $4 (free shipping) its affordable enough that if it's junk I am not hurting to throw it out. Anyway, with something like this there is always a possibility of getting chewed on or clawed up. What I was thinking of doing to protect it is to cover it with what is called hardware cloth. It's a metal mesh that is bigger than a screen with 1/8 inch grid. So my thinking is to make a "sandwich" with a piece of thin plywood of old paneling, then the heating pad and the hardware cloth and then covering that with an old blanket of rug even. It might work for an outdoor shelter or even an indoor setup. Anyway, I will try it out. If you want you can get one but keep in mind that it's shipping from China which usually takes a few weeks to get here.

I tried the thing with a lightbulb once and it didn't really work. First, incandescent lights are getting hard to find and the new CF ones will not produce any real heat. Second, some cats are afraid of the lights. The heat pads use a lot less power and are safer than bulbs.

I just noticed that that runs on 220 volts so It might be a European plug. Will try to find something with a US 120 volt plug.

 

[orange&white]

orange&white The snuggle safe disks are on sale for $18.99!

I see the SnuggleSafe brand is still at $28.99. I saw another brand (ExPawLorer) which looks identical for $18.99, but about 20% of reviews say that brand is exploding in their microwaves. Only a small percent of the SnuggleSafe reviews talk about exploding pads.

Did you see a SnuggleSafe somewhere at that price?

 

[orange&white]

I just noticed that that runs on 220 volts so It might be a European plug. Will try to find something with a US 120 volt plug.

That's a bummer. I see the K&H plug in is just $12.50, so that's very affordable. I think at some point I got my heart set on a SnuggleSafe, but only at a good sale price. I'm just being hard to please, I guess.

 

[orange&white]

A periodic update on Misfit...

She's still coming along and getting friendlier bit by bit. She hasn't swatted me with her claws out in a few weeks now, so she seems to have finally understood that cat claws hurt human skin.

Since the last update, she has shoved her lips and whiskers up against my nose and cheek in some cute little head butting action while purring and letting me pet her. Actually, she might have done that earlier, except that I was trying to keep my face away from hers as I wasn't sure whether she wanted to rub faces or bite my nose off.

She's been coming in the house some for several weeks. On nice-weather days, I open the back patio door. She usually goes back outside after a minute or two. Today she stayed and wandered around a bit longer. I picked her up and gave her a "walking tour" of the house, carrying her. She seemed quite curious and didn't get squirmy at all.

She's still spray-marking everything on the patio as her territory. Patio stinks.

Other notes on the general feral colony in the neighborhood: Several of the apartment ferals were playing in my backyard this weekend. There is one orange tabby who is the exact "clone" of my senior cat when he was young. Every time I see that cat, I check to make sure my senior is in the house (especially with leaving the door open). I approached the orange cat. Yesterday I couldn't tell if his/her ear had been mangled in a fight, or if it was tipped. Today I got close enough to believe that the cat's ear has been tipped. So perhaps someone other than me is interested in TNR. The cat looked very healthy and well-fed. None of the others let me get close enough to see their ears.

That's all I can think of to report.

 

[maggiedemi]

Wow, Orange. You've come so far with her. Retracting her claws, rubbing faces with you, and carrying her around the house, that's amazing. I hope I can teach mine to retract their claws. My problem is I'm not very consistent with it. I seem to enjoy teaching them fun stuff like "Get in your cage", but I don't like having to tell them not to do something. Probably because of the way I grew up with too much discipline. They are so smart, I know they can learn. You've inspired me to keep trying.