Deutschmaster

Easy, get another husband

Deutschmaster

I had a 6 toed feral cat move in with me in London. It didn't need to be tamed, although it was annoying how it kept crapping in the bath tub. I sent it to my parents who had another cat at the time. Feral cat learned the ways of being 'domesticated' off the other one.

emelems

I wouldnt bother doing that... husband take much longer to train !

Em x

bigAPE

By that reasoning half of the Collingwood supporters would be put down.

Sadly, while I am a huge cat lover and have two of my own, I do understand why the council would terminate them. The resources required to look after every feral cat brought it would be immense burden.

This page covers the trapping and management of Feral Cats for Brisbane and would contain legislation which would likely be active throughout QLD.

Brisbane - Feral Cat Management

For the record most urban feral cats are cross-domestic and a lot of the scaremongering by the government is aimed at the non-urban feral. The impact of man on the local environment in urban areas VASTLY outweighs anything that a cat (feral or otherwise) could do.

The governments view of urban feral cats...



the reality...

Deutschmaster

Even if your husband is allergic to cat hair would it be possible to just keep the cats in the kitchen? if the floor is smooth then it's easy to mop up any hair.

And perhaps if you regularly brushed them it would stop their hair from going all over the place.

Failing that I suppose the Australian climate is warm enough to house them in a shed in the garden until you can find somebody to take them as pets.

Deutschmaster

I'm not surprised that the cat looks pissed off. I'm sure if some giant put a cord around your neck you'd be unhappy.

Feral cat back in the UK has a criminal record for taking a swipe at the vet. Otherwise she's good!

Le Loup

You should not feed ferral cats. Call the RSPCA/trap them/shoot them, but don't feed them. Those kittens will grow bigger, and have families themselves, and kill anything that does not get out of the way fast enough. Ferral cats are a real menace in Australia, their only other enemies are wild dogs, foxes and dingoes.
Le Loup.

Cheetah7

Cruel though it sounds, I would trap them and let the RSPCA deal with them.

Cute they may be but if those kittens are weaned, chances are the Mum is already pregnant again and has decided you are a reliable food source for her offspring and any future babes she will have. The word spreads so to speak and pretty soon, her female kittens will be pregnant and so the cycle continues.

Cruel to be kind in the long run Im afraid, feeding them doesnt help them. They will have noone to love them enough to desex them to stop the continuation of mating/reproduction, they have noone to love them enough to vaccinate them/de-flea them and do the little things that make a difference in a cats life.

They will be semi dependent on you as a food source but wont have your full protection for when they really need it - when they are sick.

Feral cats in your garden are one thing, but having lots of them is another.

Call the RSPCA, take their advice - there are thousands of domesticated house cats begging for loving homes.

Ferals spread of FeLV and FIV plus other feline diseases - trapping and euthanasia is a sad yet essential part in trying to control them.

RenShen

Keeping cats in the kitchen?? You wouldn't have many friends round for nibbles

bigAPE

Syedney

I think you should keep feeding them but keep a healthy distance...It seems a beautiflul relationships is developing between you and the cats.

Since this is not harming anyone, and is bringing so much joy (I am assuming this) and the mum cat is actually ok with the whole setup, why stop?

I think you're an angel...Well done

Le Loup

I don't think you are thinking this through. It is bad enough to keep them alive so they can hunt and kill other small animals and birds, but what about when they breed, you will end up with more ferral cats than you can shake a stick at! And what pray tell will the neighbours think about this new ferral cat hostel/halfway house???!!! Ferral cats will attack humans, this is a known fact. Are there any children in the area?! Do neighbours feed the local birds?! I think these people are heading for trouble, and it is quite wrong to harbour ferral animals of any kind.

Kooky.

I think the truth is somewhere between the two above opinions.

All of my 3 cats were born wild; 2 were taken off a building site and hand-raised by somebody else from a few days old and the other decided at about 12 weeks that he'd like to come and live with us and ambushed us outside our house every night until we let him. I still don't know how he came to like people.

It doesn't sound like this family is truly wild although I think will always have some wild/independent tendencies, but then that's cats for you.

OP - I know I wrote all the following when you first posted but my PC hung and I lost it, didn't bother to retype. I'll do it now as a suggestion, in case you haven't already dealt with the issue another way.

If you are happy to do this, and your circumstances/location are suitable, you could do what one organisation in my last location (Singapore) advocated - Trap, Neuter, Return, Manage. You could see if local animal welfare organisations do something similar - lend you the traps, do the neutering at no cost to you, and then you feed the cats in situ, e.g., in your garden where they have made their home. Otherwise do it on your own initiative, and ask a kind vet for a discount; I know some will do this. (In Singapore they would clip one ear to show the collecting/culling agency that a cat was neutered; not sure how much different it made but still...)

Start with the mother as soon as the kittens can manage without her, then when the kittens are old enough (6 months) you do the same with them.

I'm a fan of this method; in Singapore I saw too many kittens taken off the street by well-meaning people who then struggled to re-home them. That's how I unexpectedly ended up with the first two.

It's a small drop in a huge ocean, but it does mean you won't end up with even more cats living in your garden but can keep an eye on them and enjoy them without upsetting your husband.

BTW these are my feral cats. Don't look if you're easily scared.

Burbage

Bleedin' Soda brought a mouse in last night and lost it in the house somewhere. Now I've got a feral mouse in the house.

dejags

Taming a feral cat is possible.

We have a semi-feral cat. He came to us wild and spitting. Literally flying at us if we even tried to feed him. I rang the QLD RSPCA who put me on their Animal Behaviour Centre.

These are the steps they gave me to tame him:

1. Keep confined to a small space (bathroom) for two weeks
2. For the first two weeks not much contact just sitting quietly in the room with the animal. Offering the odd meal by hand.
3. During the second week progress to handling the animal.
4. Week three allow into the rest of the house
5. Week four or when the cat comes to you out of it's own free will, allow the cat outside.

Our boy is now at the stage where he purrs when we handle him. He no longer hisses and spits at us and roams the house at night. He is still in the bathroom in the day as he finds the children overwhelming and he can still be difficult to catch but he is a pet now, not a wild animal.

So it is possible to tame a feral cat, it just takes LOTS of time and patience. I am not sure how you would manage two kittens and allergic husband.

Just a thought - our boy is 9 months old, so a lot older than your kittens. They may be a bit easier to tame - if you have an outdoor shed or similar you could tame them and then rehome them instead of having them euthanased?