# Cat Got Out of Drop Trap



## DavidR (1 mo ago)

I've been feeding a little orange kitten that was born outside last summer. There were originally 5 kittens. My neighbors said they would taken them in and take them to a shelter if I caught them so I caught the mother and kittens in a tomahawk live spring trap and gave them to the neighbors. The neighbors left their window open and the mother cat tore through the screen and left with all of the kittens.

So, the mother cat and one of the kittens was caught again, but my neighbors decided to let them go because the other kittens weren't with them.

So, I decided that I would just take in the mother cat and the kitten myself and get them both spayed and them just keep them indoors. I have 2 other cats already, but I will get the 2 strays to the vet right away to get them spayed, their shots, and testing for FIV and feline leukemia, and for the vet to treat them for parasites.

Neither the kitten or her mother are technically feral despite the kitten being born outside. The kitten was friendly with me until I tried trapping her tonight. Now there is no sign of her.

Because they were trapped twice already in a regular spring trap neither of the stray cats will go back into a regular spring cat trap. So I decided to order a drop trap and the transfer cage. They came today.

The kitten is actually somewhat friendly with me, I guess because I've been feeding her all this time. She runs down the driveway to see my when I come home and will even drop down and roll around by my feet. The mother cat used to somewhat friendly with me until I trapped her twice before for the neighbors.

So, tonight I set up the drop trap and within just a few minutes the kitten was in it, but I could NOT get her to go into the transfer cage. I tried just about everything and unfortunately, probably scared her quite a bit in the process. I tried tapping on one end of the drop trap and prodding her with a small stick in the hopes that she would go into the transfer cage, but she would not.

After about an hour, I saw my next door neighbor come outside and I asked them to come out back and see if they could help me get her to move into the transfer cage. They could not.

So, finally I decided to just put on a pair of gloves and try to stick my hand under there and push the cat into the transfer cage, but we must have raised the cage up too high because the cat bolted out of the drop trap.

I hope the cat will be back, but I don't know afer all this. It is getting awfully cold here and tomorrow it is supposed to snow and I really wanted her indoors before the snow.

I don't know if she'll ever come back and if she does come back if she will ever go under the drop trap again.

If she DOES come back and if I am able to catch her with the drop trap again does anyone have any suggestions for how to get her to move into the transfer cage. I watched several YouTube videos on it and it worked in the videos but this cat absolutely wasn't going in.I really like this cat and want to bring her in and take care of her, but I can't catch her. Any advice would be appreciated.


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## DavidR (1 mo ago)

Update - I put the drop away for now so she wouldn't be afraid to come back and the kitten did come back to eat last night and this morning so maybe I can eventually still catch her but I still won't know how to get her from the drop trap to the transfer cage which was the problem in the first place.


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## lolajy (19 d ago)

DavidR said:


> Update - I put the drop away for now so she wouldn't be afraid to come back and the kitten did come back to eat last night and this morning so maybe I can eventually still catch her but I still won't know how to get her from the drop trap to the transfer cage which was the problem in the first place.


 Some suggestions online, especially if you’re working alone are to uncover the drop trap, while drawing the cover towards and over the transfer cage. A trapped animal doesn’t like being exposed. Other ideas involved the use of a spray bottle of water, or a stick—don’t prod the animal—just try to get it moving towards the transfer cage. Last idea is just to wait the cat out and it will eventually enter the transfer cage. There are also divider “forks” you can buy from Tomahawk that you can keep gradually moving the cat towards the transfer cage. I am going to be trying some of these techniques very soon on my own escaped cat.


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