Best Litter for Stray Feral Cats / Feline Pine

Stray cats that have been living outdoors will shy away from fragrant clay litters but when I filled litter boxes with feline pine that the stray cats that I was socializing had no problem using the litter box.

Even feral cats that have been born outdoors will try to use a litter box that has been filled with pine litter.

Honestly, I think its due to the scent of the natural pine.   The cats attribute the scent to being outdoors, and going to bathroom in pine needles.   Maybe they like the texture as when this litter is wet it will breakdown to sawdust.

All I know is stray cats that have lived outdoors for an extended period of time prefer a natural pine litter and will go outside the litterbox that is filled with clumping clay that is fragrant.

Feline Pine is the brand name and it does come in clumping or non-clumping  pine pellets.  The pine scent will add a woodsy fragrance to yo9ur entire house.  It does a good job at eliminating litter lox odors.

Unlike other litters feline pine is chemical free, with no added fragrance.  Its naturally pine scented.  If you buy a seven-pound bag this bag should last a month for one or two cats. 

Note even though this litter is natural please do not dump it outdoors or in your garden or other location.  Instead place the used litter in a bag, tie the top of the bag and put in your trashcan.  By doing this you will prevent the spread of Toxoplasma.   

 Shop for Feline Pine at  Chewy, Amazon or Pet Smart or other online stores. 

Successful Trapping for Stray Cat

 Last fall one of our neighbors released her 5 little kittens and then  refused to let them return to their home for food, water or shelter.  The neighbors tried to catch them but kittens are fast.  Out of the five only three survived. 

One of the kittens had reached mating age and kept getting beat up daily. So my husband and I decided we would trap and pay for him to be neutered. From the looks of this skinny, dirty and beat up kitty we thought that he may have Feline Leukemia or Feline Immunodeficiency Disease. The sooner we trapped him the better. 

It took me ten days to get him dependent on us feeding him.   And once he felt safe with us we were successful in trapping him. 

He was negative in cat disease, he was neutered, given shots and a dose of revolution for mites in his ears, and infestation of fleas and ticks.   They also gave him a bath and he is recuperating at the veterinarian over the weekend.    

We will pick him up on Monday and after a few more days of rest we will pursue responsible cat adopters. 

I am not sure why people release their kittens like this but do think that there should be a law to prevent this type of abandonment.   

       

White Tomcat Gets Rescued and Forever Home

A month ago a stray aggressive white cat showed up in my yard. This tomcat was chasing my cats from their yard and fighting with other cats. At first I thought the cat might be sick, abandoned or a feral tomcat. I learned rather quickly that the cat was nuisance because there was a feral queen cat that was hanging out close to my home and this is what was instigating the cat brawls and the mating calls at all hours day and night.

Abandoned white tomcat looking sad after the neuter

I inquired to find out if any neighbors knew the cat owner. It was unanimous all said that the cat just showed up one day and was a fighter. Another neighbor said that “he has to be neutered as I saw him trying to stand up to a raccoon over a food bowl” My guess was that the cat was abandoned and was acting out due to that and because he was not neutered and that he was hungry and didn’t understand that a raccoon was danger.

Stray tomcat eating at the feeding station

When tomcats are abandoned, they are really lost, they don’t know how to find a safe shelter to sleep, food to eat, or clean water...all they know is that they need to fight off anything that gets in their way to find a queen cat to mate with.

Know that I watched this cat one day crying because it was raining, he did not have the good sense to go into one of my insulated and waterproof cat houses. This of course confirmed that he was an abandoned housecat. Of course, I tried to help the cat but it ran from me, but the poor thing never got out of the rain.

White cat trapped and going to the veterinarians for medical care

I let everyone know that I would trap the cat and take it in for neutering and vaccines and that I would try to find it a forever home. Trapping was not successful as the cat didn’t go into the trap. So my husband grabbed the cat carrier and set it on our patio with an open door and cat food in the back. The tomcat walked into the carrier and sat down.

The tomcat was tested for Feline Leukemia and Feline Immunodeficiency and both were negative. I was told that he was five years old, that he had ear mites, and that he needed to be wormed. The cat was neutered, received all of his vaccines, and treatment for mites and worms, and needed to stay 2 extra days at the animal hospital. Upon release, his paperwork said that he was vomiting dead worms and that he should be kept calm for the next 7 days.

The garage shelter has everything cats need even indoor/outdoor carpet

We released the white cat to our heated garage. The garage is carpeted, has cat beds, houses toys, and fresh food and water. Once the cat was in a home setting he calmed down and became a sweetheart.

The white cat is no longer aggressive and gets along with another cat in the shelter

The garage is cozy and warm for the stray cats this winter thanks to the many customers who bought from my Zazzle store.  I used the royalties from the product sales
to buy this window heater. 

(Pure white cats are fairly rare in the general cat population, as they require a gene that hides every other possible coat color and pattern in a cat's genetic makeup.)

The cat loves blankets, rolling around on the carpet, playing with toys and he accepted the other cats in the garage without any aggression. He has been recuperating for the last five days and in that time I have made contact with two pet adopters. 

This once abandoned tomcat will be adopted and will get another chance at being a housecat at his forever home.

Stray Cats Choose Their People

In the past, I have overheard my cat helpers say that all stray cats choose their people and I thought how odd seeing that we were trapping so many cats weekly for TNR. None of the cats had chosen us they were terrified of us. After they were sterilized and vaccinated, we would release them and they would runoff. My cat helpers would then say, the cat did not choose you.

I never thought much of the cats choosing their people until the other day. You see two years ago a black kitten ventured into my yard and into my flower window box. That kitten wanted into my house, he wanted to live with me. Regretfully my husband said I could not take in any more cats so I instead fed the kitten and gave it fresh water. Set up an outdoor house for it and took care of it while it lived outdoors.

A neighbor asked if he could have the cat and I thought that would be wonderful. However, on the day I went looking for the cat it was gone. We later learned that a family who walked past home picked up the kitten and took it home. 

Two years later, my neighbor tells me that the people who had taken the black kitten had moved and abandoned the cat. In no time that cat found its way to my house and once again sat in my flower box.

When I went out to see the black cat, it did not run from me. Instead, it meowed and came to me. He walked through my legs and rubbed all over me. I suppose this black cat that crossed my path when it was a kitten had chosen me and now two years later it came back to me.

Here are some photographs

Black cat returns to the chosen person after 2 years

Black kitten choose the person it wanted to be with from watching the person

Stray cats choose their people

How To Care for Stray Kittens

Where I reside it is common for people to abandon their cats and kittens. Every spring we seem to find boxes of kittens left in the woods by my home. Some kittens are weaned others are not.

Photographs of stray kittens

Catching and caring for them are very important because baby kittens rarely survive. They do not know where to go for shelter, how to protect themselves from predators and do not know where to go for food or water.

When we find kittens in our woods we will bring them back home and feed them, hydrate them then check for fleas or injury, We keep all kittens in a room that is safe. This room is their sanctuary where they have all that they need. It is an area in our home that is away from people and other pets. A quiet room that has cat beds, litter boxes, a cat tree and food and water bowls.

This is where the stray kittens will stay until we take them to the veterinarian for a wellness check, dewormer, and vaccines (if they are old enough)

Stray kittens may or may not be people friendly. So it is important to interact with them daily, I like to go into the safe room to read my book or look at a magazine. I never approach the kittens first, instead, I will sit and wait for them to come to me.

Once the kitten makes the first move to be friendly, then I will hold them, pet them and love them. I always talk to the kittens with a calm and caring voice. This helps to not fear humans.

I work with the kittens so that they learn to use their litter box and to scratch on a tree. Spending time with the stray kittens is a way to get them ready for their next step. Being adopted and going to live with their forever family.

Cozy Beds for Stray Cats

Tonight is the first cold night and we have three stray cats in our garden shed. This shed is not insulated, but it is dry and protects the cats from wind, rain, and snow.

All cats prefer to be warm, they are heat seekers and that is why you will view them lying on the hood of a newly parked car or lying in the sun on a cool day. I have also viewed cats tunneling under a pile of leaves because the leaves block the cold air. So when it comes to stray cats that are in a cold garden shed we made sure that they all had cozy beds that would keep them warm when temperatures dipped into the low 30’s.

We have dog houses that are filled with straw and self-warming beds that are up off the cement floor. Then one of my neighbors gave us a high-quality space heater that has a thermostat, timer, and automatic shutoff when it overheats or is knocked over. Then another neighbor gave us insulated drapes for the windows and my husband picked up a few Berber area rugs to cover the cold cement floor and heat lamps for the ceiling lights.

Presently the temperatures outdoors is 41 degrees and in the garden, shed thermostat indicates that it is 61 degrees. I am thankful to my neighbors for giving us the products to keep the cats cozy and warm on this cold night in autumn.

Here is a photo card that I created from one of the neighborhood cats that goes to my garden shed for shelter. We call this cat Bob and he is sleeping in a bed of straw.

Feral Cat Sleeping in Winter Shelter Post Card

by Susang6

View video to learn how to make an insulated winter shelter for stray or your outdoor cats.

Cat Foods That Trigger Allergies

An abandoned cat that I rescued was showing signs of a cat cold constantly even though he was current with all of his vaccines. When I asked how he could be sick the veterinarian informed me that the vaccines were like the human flu vaccines being that it did not protect you from all strains of the virus.

We were told that our cat may be sick from household stress and was advised to buy the Feliway products for our home and the veterinarian suggestions to give our cat Viralys L-lysine supplement to boost his immune system. After doing everything that we were asked our cat still had cold symptoms which included the feline herpes virus, coughing, sneezing and eye drainage.

Here is a video that is helpful in learning more about foods your cat may be allergic to

Our veterinarian was certain that these symptoms were coming on due to the stress of being abandoned, rescued and living indoors. They noted that it was common to have sick cats in multiple cat homes where there were also dogs and any changes to a cat's life could cause the cat to get colds due to the stress.

I can understand that BUT my cats and dogs all got along and normally when one cat is sick they all are and none of my other cats had symptoms of cold or another feline virus.

When none of the other cats got cold like symptoms I thought that what my cat may have is food allergies. So I changed the cat's food to Natural Balance limited ingredients duck flavor because if a cat is allergic to food then you should stay away from chicken, beef, grain, gluten, egg and seafood including salmon as these foods will trigger allergies symptoms.

After feeding the limited ingredients duck cat food for a week I noticed that the cats cold like symptoms went away. I am certain that the food I was feeding my cat was causing him to have an allergic reaction.

From Chewy.com website a quote: “If your furry feline has a sensitivity to fillers and additives found in most canned cat food, natural balance L.I.D. Green pea & duck formula is a perfect choice! duck meat, duck broth, duck liver, and real peas provide the vitamins and minerals needed, with no grains or fillers tiger wouldn’t eat in the wild. Limited ingredient diets are great for cats of any age with food sensitivities, or for owners that want a simple, wholesome, natural meal for their pet. They are rich in antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals needed for a long, healthy life”

Here are some shopping links for limited ingredient duck food formulated for cats. Know that you should always seek veterinarian care before making changes to cats lifestyle because your cat may have another health condition.

Chewy.comNatural Balance Limited Ingredients Cat Food

What to Do When Stray Cat Looks Sick

Two days ago when I went out into the woods to feed the feral cats I noticed a stray cat off to the side, sitting alone on a rock. Since I did not recognize the cat as being one of the colony cats I took the cat's photograph. The photo indicated that the cat is sick or something is wrong.  Whenever a cat looks sick we then will put out the traps.  The cat may need veterinarian care. The photograph indicates that there is something wrong with the stray cat, it looks sick so the cat becomes a priority.

Know that this cat could be from the neighborhood, and it may have crossed the line with a tomcat or other cat. Since the cat looks ill we decided to not wait to find out if the cat went home, back to the neighborhood. My husband and I decided that it was best to trap the cat and bring to our shed shelter where there are cat cages, heat an air conditioner.  Once trapped we will be able to put out flyers in the neighborhood to find its people. 


When handling new cats that show up in our woods we do the following;  

1. Make up a chart with the cat's photograph and start a feeding schedule. 
2. Watch the cat for a few days to determine if it is going back to the neighborhood which would indicate that it belongs to someone. 
3. Determine if the cat is domesticated, comes to us, rubs on us and is friendly then we will take the cat indoors and start the search for its family. Because it could be lost and the woods is not a safe place for a domesticated cat.

Feral and Stray Cat Health Comparison

I have trapped many cats since 1999 and in that time all of the feral cats were healthy, none of them tested positive for any feline disease.  In addition to being healthy they were all well groomed.

 

Rescued Stray Cat

When first started trapping feral cats for sterilization I expect them to be sickly, to have a poor coat with infestation of parasites.  The veterinarian reports that the cat has ear mites, needs to be wormed and needs a dosage of revolution to get rid of the ear mites.  Not a flea or tick is found on them and none of the feral cats tested positive for feline disease.  

In comparison the stray cat did not do so well. Out of the 128 cats that I trapped this year 10% of the stray (abandoned house cats) tested positive for cat disease including diabetes.   All of the stray cats had poor coats and many were matted.  Long haired cats needed to be shaved.

Cats that once lived with people are stray cats. These stray cats have a difficult time adapting to living outdoors. They do not know how to forage or where to go for shelter and they do not live in colonies with other cats because the feral cats do not welcome them.  Stray cats are on their own and it must be very frightening.

I pick up strays all the time that are starving, have hair missing, they may have bite wounds from fights or their hair is matted.   

So when it comes to living outdoors the feral cat will live a longer and healthier life than the stray cat.  

Photograph of Calico Cat:  This is Gracie she was a stray that my husband found on a bitter cold night.  She was skin and bones, had missing fur, was missing one tooth and her tongue was cut off at the tip.  It is doubtful she would have survived the night as she did not know where to go for shelter.