If you live in King William, Lavaca, or surrounding neighborhoods, please contact The Cannoli Fund or call 380-5745 to arrange to borrow an easy-to-use humane trap. Juvenile cats weighing at least two pounds can be spayed or neutered. Cats can reproduce when they are as young as five months old! We can get appointments often within a few days to have the cats T-N-Red (Trap, Neuter, Return). Cats are vaccinated, their left ear is “tipped” to mark them as sterilized, receive flea meds or wound treatment as needed, and they are returned to their outdoor homes, unable to reproduce.
Catch small kittens when they’re at least five weeks old and can eat dry food. Tossing a towel over them and gently scooping them up should work with any you can’t pick up easily. A mother will bring her kittens to her food source when they’re about four or five weeks old, which allows a few weeks to socialize them.
Set traps in the evening (5 pm or later) to keep the cat’s time in the trap as short as possible.
1. Don’t feed the cats within 8-10 hours of when you plan to trap. Tuna, preferably in oil, makes an especially tempting bait. Many cats can also be trapped using wet cat food, the cheaper and the more smelly, the better. Other options include sardines and strong catnip to lure cats to the trap area.
2. Line the inside bottom of the humane trap with newspaper or a single ply piece of corrugated cardboard.
3. Use a short-sided Tupperware-type container and a quarter can of tuna or cheap wet cat food. It is important to use a container with sides, because the cat will have to move forward and trip the trap to get to the food. Smart cats will just reach through the sides to reach the food and trigger the trap if the food is in something without edges.
4. Cover the trap with a towel (fully covering the back of the trap) that is big enough to stay on top of the trap even if there’s wind or if the cat inside tries to pull it off. This also makes the cat much more comfortable both going in the trap and after it is caught.
5. Set the trap.
6. Leave the area once you set the trap and come back in an hour or so and check to see if you’ve caught a cat or if the trap’s tripped. You may return to find a possum or raccoon in the trap! If that happens, use a broom stick to gently turn the trap over which will open the trap so the animal can flee without you getting close.
7. It’s best not to leave the trap out all night. If you don’t catch a cat by 12 am, try again the next evening.
8. Once you catch a cat, move it to a protected area on a porch or similar site. Open up one end of the trap just a little bit, and slide in a short-sided container containing a small amount of water (unless the cat is very agitated; then it’s best to just leave it alone). Keep the trap covered with a towel until the next morning. Some cats (particularly “tough” males) will thrash around in the cage; just keep the trap covered to minimize the cat’s anxiety. You can also use a caribiner or large paperclip to secure the trap’s doors. If you have trapped cats from the same colony, place the cages next to each other to make them more comfortable.
9. No food after 10 pm if possible, but we understand that trapping can be unpredictable! It’s okay if there is still food in with the cat after you have caught them. Most of the time they end up spilling the water.
10. We’ll help plan with you for the cats transportation to the clinic on surgery day and coordinate pickup times if you’re in our greater Southtown service area.