# How to catch the 3 remaining unneutered ones?



## Straysmommy (Dec 23, 2010)

I manage a colony of 11 cats. Another 13 come very often to eat too. Of the 11 cats, 3 are unneutered and I'm calling the municipality to come do TNR (it's free of charge). Of the other 13, I don't know which are neutered if any because they don't let me near enough to see if the ear is tipped. Besides, 3 of them lack their left ear, so I don't know if they're neutered.

My question is: how can I increase the possibilities of catching these 3 cats in the cages? I plan to use tuna and mackarel, and I imagine that it'll be a mess of (already neutered) cats trying to get to the food in the cages...


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## Vivid Dawn (May 31, 2010)

I have the same problem. I didn't catch Cynthia at all last year (which is why she had kittens!)
Luckily I got her kittens done. But THEY are the ones that keep going in the trap this year! AURGH! I've caught Zinny 3 times and Disco twice.
I also have to catch Zazzle, who never goes near the cage. BLEH!

The ironic thing is that when I was planning to get Zinny and Disco spayed, they wouldn't go in the cage either.
I caught Zinny by doing a "drop trap" from her favorite hiding place...under my fishing wagon. One day I got the brilliant idea to just take the wheels off and turn it upside down. The vet thought it was funny I brought her in that, with a box lid on the underside to keep her in.
Disco actually just walked in the house...she hung out around the patio, so I opened the door and put some tuna just inside my hall...and shut the door behind her.

Maybe I'll have to get creative with Cynthia, but she's awfully smart!


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## Ritzpg (Dec 7, 2010)

*Hard to trap cats*

Yes, I'm running into that problem right now. "Quill" is very trap savvy; she looks but does not touch the trap. And she is relatively slender, so doesn't have enough weight to spring the trap. Will have to investigate/invest in a better quality trap.
If the mackerel/tuna don't work, try feeding the cats what you normally feed them. The second time I trapped, I used the good stuff as bait (mackerel) and the cats knew something was up because the food was different. Went back to Friskies, and trapped two cats. And released a third one because I'd trap him already.
The third/last time I trapped, I put mushed up mackerel in a 3-oz empty can of cat food, and put that 3-oz can into a 5-oz can to lessen the chances of a cat snatch-and-grabbing the food. Also weighted down the newspaper with branches (numerous where I live and, thus, part of the cats' environment).
Frustrating but, as you have learned no doubt, rewarding.


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