“Unadoptable” shelter cats get second chance at life by chasing mice
1–10 of 49 posts
Re: “Unadoptable” shelter cats get second chance at life by chasing mice
#2Nothing new here. Less desirable kitties have become important rodent hunting 'barn cats' as long as I can remember. The problem is they tend not to discriminate prey, and decimate already hurting bird populations.
The real unspoken issue here is overpopulation, please spay and nuter your pets! /rip bob
Re: “Unadoptable” shelter cats get second chance at life by chasing mice
#3Metro Vancouver's cat sanctuary RAPS has a "barn cat" program that's similar to this. http://www.rapsbc.com/cat-sanctuary/
RAPS located in the suburb of Richmond, which is an odd urban, farming, industrial fusion of a municipality, and a perfect mix sort of environment for feral cat colonies to go unnoticed. They trap lots of feral cats, and over time some times some of these feral cats chill out enough that they're only semi-feral and can be a good fit for living on farms and killing rats.
They also have all sorts of other unadoptable cats that would be killed at any normal shelter. Some times this is due to high aggression, problem urination, special needs or some disease such as FIV (HIV but for cats).
Re: “Unadoptable” shelter cats get second chance at life by chasing mice
#4Sorry, but can dog and cat - emotional connection substitute porn please be treated like politics?
Re: “Unadoptable” shelter cats get second chance at life by chasing mice
#5Well, yes. They're predators. That's what cats are for.
When I kept a horse at the Stanford barn, we always had a few barn cats. The cat people tended to overfeed them, so they wouldn't hunt much. Arrangements were made with the people who catch feral cats at Stanford to exchange the fat cats for some lean, aggressive ones they couldn't place in homes. Worked out fine. Soon, they'd cleared the barn, and started hunting further out until they'd cleared the whole area.
Working cats should be fed about half the food they need, so they have to hunt, says an old British G.P.O. manual.
Re: “Unadoptable” shelter cats get second chance at life by chasing mice
#6Well, yes. They're predators. That's what cats are for. When I kept a horse at the Stanford barn, we always had a few barn cats. The cat people tended to overfeed them, so they wouldn't hunt much. Arrangements were made with the people who catch feral cats at Stanford to exchange the fat cats for some lean, aggressive ones they couldn't place in homes. Worked out fine. Soon, they'd cleared the barn, and started hunti…
I'd recommend keeping an eye on the cats' body condition.
Domesticated cats are surprisingly efficient hunters, but if mice are too scared/scarce or the cats depress their population, there's only so much the cats can catch.
On the other hands most cats should get about half as much food as they currently do, but that's another story.
Re: “Unadoptable” shelter cats get second chance at life by chasing mice
#7Metro Vancouver's cat sanctuary RAPS has a "barn cat" program that's similar to this. http://www.rapsbc.com/cat-sanctuary/ RAPS located in the suburb of Richmond, which is an odd urban, farming, industrial fusion of a municipality, and a perfect mix sort of environment for feral cat colonies to go unnoticed. They trap lots of feral cats, and over time some times some of these feral cats chill out enough that they're…
I don't think FIV positive cats should be let outside or into possible contact with other cats.
Re: “Unadoptable” shelter cats get second chance at life by chasing mice
#8Nothing new here. Less desirable kitties have become important rodent hunting 'barn cats' as long as I can remember. The problem is they tend not to discriminate prey, and decimate already hurting bird populations. The real unspoken issue here is overpopulation, please spay and nuter your pets! /rip bob
The news is that there are programs to lend out rescued felines to businesses. I didn't know that.
A good idea is to put a little bell on free roaming cats. The mice are still probably going to make themselves scarce.
Re: “Unadoptable” shelter cats get second chance at life by chasing mice
#9Metro Vancouver's cat sanctuary RAPS has a "barn cat" program that's similar to this. http://www.rapsbc.com/cat-sanctuary/ RAPS located in the suburb of Richmond, which is an odd urban, farming, industrial fusion of a municipality, and a perfect mix sort of environment for feral cat colonies to go unnoticed. They trap lots of feral cats, and over time some times some of these feral cats chill out enough that they're…
I don't think FIV positive cats should be let outside or into possible contact with other cats.
Yeah at RAPs the FIV+ cats have their own little closed off zone. RAPS will potentially let people adopt them if they promise that they'll be inside cats.
FIV+ cats can live ok with other cats so long as they don't fight. The disease is spread from cats exchanging blood through fights, so from my understanding it's mostly a feral male cat disease.
(I adopted a FIV+ cat from RAPS so that's why I'm a bit familiar with the RAPS setup)
Re: “Unadoptable” shelter cats get second chance at life by chasing mice
#10Behavior problems in dogs are all about training. Behavior problems in cats are mostly about environment, and virtually never about training.
A cat really is a mirror of its environment. Most problems arise from pent up energy, group dynamics, clueless Humans, bad toilet placement (yes cat toilet makes the cat happy, as a German saying goes).
Lots of space, hunting activity, ability to choose contact at will and a well structured habitat makes such cats a lot more well regulated.