Trapping

Trapping is a skill all in itself. Although cats are for the most part nocturnal, they do feed in the daytime.
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Early morning and late evening are prime times to trap an adult cat, but kittens oftentimes can be caught more easily during the day. It has been observed more than once that kittens, finding food in a mysterious open box that looks "fishy" but no doubt nourishing, will frequently enter the trap simultaneously and so are often trapped in pairs and sometimes trios.

Cats, being the intelligent creatures that they are, will seldom allow themselves to be trapped more than once and so re-trapping is therefore very challenging. Sometimes, a very distrustful but none the less hungry cat is able to stick a paw in to drag the food plate out and "safely" consume its contents outside the trap. If a trap is left in one place too long, already distrustful cats, some of whom may be the targeted ones, can get accustomed to the object and ignore it altogether, food or no food.

As the program developed, we moved from using very large, crudely built wire traps with sharp corners and edges and doors that made a horrendous slam to more compact traps manufactured by ACES Animal Care Equipment and Supplies.Ê

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While the previously used traps often injured trapped animals that panicked at the noise and cut themselves while bouncing off the walls, ACES traps have powder coated wire, providing a more "fur friendly" environment, with doors that close instead of slam. They are very effective in that a cat need only to walk into an open trap, step onto the metal plate lying in the middle of the cage right before the food plate which in turn closes the door behind it. These traps are completely safe and do not harm the cats in any way and so the program has switched exclusively to this brand.

We have found great success when we cover the cages after setting them up and when transporting a cat for it helps further calm them down and feel more secure.

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