10/15/2025
Did you know that there are ways you can help if you aren’t able to trap? We understand that not everyone is able to trap yet they still care about the cats and want to help. Heres a few of the ways that caregivers can help us help the cats:
* Feed the cats on a schedule
- This is one huge way that you can help a trapper working on your colony. Oftentimes, we run into colonies where the caregiver puts food out at sporadic times, often putting an overabundance of food out. One of the first things that we ask a caregiver whose colony we are working on is that they start feeding on the schedule. Typically that will consist of putting food out at specific times of day (i.e. 9 am and 5 pm) and not leaving the food out more than 30 minutes to an hour. This helps establish a routine with the colony cats where they will be used to showing up to eat at those times. As a trapper, if I know that the colony I am trapping at feeds the cats at 9 am, I know that if I come at that time the cats will be around and they will be hungry. Alternatively, if the cats are fed sporadically, I wont have as much success coming at a random time to trap cats who may not be around.
* Withhold food
- This is another huge way you can help. Understandably so, many caregivers hate the idea of withholding food from their colony cats, but it is a critical component of a successful trapping. For the majority of cats, they are not just going to enter a trap. We want them to be more hungry than they are scared of the trap so that they are willing to enter the trap for food. We typically ask that caregivers withhold food for around 12 hours prior to us coming to trap, but this can vary depending on the colony. Withholding food goes hand in hand with feeding on a schedule, because I know if I come to trap a colony at 9 am that normally eats at 9 am and those cats haven’t eaten since some time the day prior, those cats are likely to be hanging around and hungry enough to go in a trap.
* Monitor the traps
- We love when caregivers are able to monitor the traps for us. We never want to leave a trap unattended, but there are a lot of times where a cat just will not come out if we are around (even in our cars). Cats are very smart and they typically know when somethings up, and sometimes they are just playing the long game. When caregivers are able to monitor the traps, we can leave them set for longer and catch those harder to trap cats. We always leave the caregiver with a trap cover so they can cover the trapped cat right away.
* Trap Train
- We will do a more in detail post on trap training later, but it is the process of getting the colony cats used to eating inside a trap that is not set but ziptied open. We like to utilize this trick for those real trap savvy cats who just absolutely will not go inside of a trap, but its not usually possible for us to come to a colony everyday to feed the cats in the trap. When caregivers are able to assist in trap training (we always provide the traps), it can help speed up the process of trapping those savvy cats next time we come out.
* Keep us updated on the colony
- Communication is HUGE. See a pregnant cat? Let us know before she gives birth outside. See an injured cat? Let us know so we can prioritize catching him. See a new cat? Let us know before that new cat turns into 10 new cats. While we typically drive through our colonies often, what we may see in those few minutes doesn’t compare to what someone living there and feeding the colony cats may see. We rely heavily on the communication of caregivers so we can prioritize things appropriately, especially since we are always working on more than one project at any given time.
Of course there are other ways caregivers can help, but these are some of the bigger things that our caregivers do that make a world of a difference. Matter of fact just this past weekend we were able to trap a grand total of 27 cats and kittens and that simply would not have been possible without the help of our caregivers.
