Adopting feral barn cats

[Lilburner]

This is something I'd never heard of before. Anyone familiar?

I saw this post on the community bulletin board at Tractor Supply.



I'm not altogether sure how it works. I have mice, but I'm really only worried about the ones inside. I assume, though, that they don't live in the hose, and that if they're being hunetd outside, they won't come inside. Also it would be nice to be able to help out a cat, and bonus if it's friendly, even if it won't come inside.

I'm not sure what the process is, though, for putting a feral cat somewhere and getting it to understand "you live here now" when they point is for it to be a free range cat.

If you're interested and can't make out the contact information on the sheet, it's BarnCatsGeorgia@gmail.com or 706-343-8173

When I googled it, I saw Gwinnett county also has a program. https://www.ajc.com/news/local/gwinnett-offers-free-barn-cat-adoptions/Qldlhn2pfSWKy0LKWzcphL/

I guess one potential downfall in SHTF is if they kept rabbits and squirrels away. Other than that, I'm intrigued.

[Starlady]

All the homesteading group pages I've read on FB, or bloggers, say that you lock the cat in a barn/shed with food and water (and a litter box) for 3-5 days and then it knows where home is and you reduce the food amount to give it incentive to hunt.   Otherwise it will run off.  Sometimes they run off anyway but this usually works.

Occasionally they do such a good job you need to supplement food or..........they will run off.

I need a cat, but I don't have a barn........and I doubt Lessa would allow it since it wasn't here when she took over, cough, cough, I mean, moved in.

[John Galt 1]

Agreeing with StarLady,      Lock the animal inside with plenty of food for a few days and let it out.     The cat will stay fairly close (within 300 yds) of the food bowl.         The biggest problem I have is dealing with the fire ants that find the outdoor food bowl.       Some days the cats eat, others they don't but I move the bowl 30' occasionally to minimize the fire ants.