Should I feed a quasi-feral who sometimes spends nights in our yard? How will this affect his/her mousing desire?

[purrfect mom]

Hesitate to say she/he is a feral as I think she goes back and forth between house across the street (winters under their deck) and spends some evenings @ our house in spring/summer and maybe next-door neighbor's as well. She is a survivor! Been around @ least 3-4 years. Today was first day I noticed her back in our yard after winter. Cleaning herself on picnic table right outside door. Point is, unfortunately I noticed either a ground squirrel or worse come down our slope in midday, then something seemed to hop into a grate behind some lawn furniture when I approached. Ugh. Had heard some scratching near chimney; got ultrasonic plug-ins in last 5 days; seems to have stopped. Need feral! (we have 3 indoor cats). Seemingly ferals are the literally the only thing that work. This kitty and I are used to each other. I love the cat! I am careful when out in the yard in evening not to approach her - or if I have to go near (to take garbage to curb, for instance) I try to move slowly. Do I feed her a little? It's O.k. w/me if she expects to be fed from then on. The neighbor may be feeding her as well; (as, unforunately, she feeds raccoons, then got into a tiff when I told her I didn't want family of raccoons living under our greenhouse). If I feed feral a little she'll probably come around more, but then maybe she won't mouse as much, assuming she's mousing at all? (but even if she isn't actually catching mice, just being around the yard should be scaring them, right?) Pls note that we haven't seen anything in house. we'd like to keep it that way. Thanks!

 

[Norachan]

Yes, you can feed her without affecting her desire to hunt. Cats have the instinct to stalk and kill prey even if they aren't hungry.

As she's been around for a while I guess she's already been spayed? If not it's really important that you get her trapped and fixed as soon as you can. Once you start feeding her she'll consider your home her territory and she'll teach her kittens to come there to eat too. And her grand kittens and great grand kittens. So if you're going to feed her regularly you need to make sure she's fixed.

If you want to feed her but not the raccoons you need a table or something that's too high for them to jump up onto. Raccoons are great climbers, but they can't jump as high as cats. Make sure you remove any left over food as soon as she's finished eating so as you don't attract other wildlife.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

As a matter of fact, she'll hunt MORE if you feed her daily. Cats who hunt to survive are strictly subsistence hunters. They will hunt only enough to survive. However, if fed daily, they become much more active, simply because they have much more energy. This is the reason that savy farmers feed their barn cats...more mice get caught!