Yes I have two of those feeders the hens have to step on to get at the food. Last weekend one of the feeders would not open, I realised something was blocking the food shield. Managed to get it open and found a dead rat inside the container. It had obviously managed to push its way in but then was trapped inside.
Sounds very annoying if the rats are getting into the feeders. Perhaps it might be possible to attach extra weight to the shield to stop the rats from pushing it open. The one we have looks like this: https://www.solwayfeeders.com/news/article/treadle-feeder-rat-proof/ (it's the smaller 10 kg version though not the 20 kg as illustrated).
You may find that if you 'build it, they will come'. In most rural areas, there are cats about, and if you provide a warm safe spot to sleep, one will quite possibly turn up, at which point you can start to feed it to keep it around. But you may find you get a stray cat rather than a feral one.
There's a vast difference between stray cats and feral ones. Ferals are rarely seen, charleyfarley's cats were very likely feral. We had a stray cat this time last year that we managed to catch with her kittens. We'd been told she was feral but when we actually got to handle her, she was just a very timid cat, not at all wild. Ferals don't generally want to be pets, strays do and will move in to your house if you let them.
To rehome a feral and care for it properly would be a great thing to do - I wish I could offer to here, but with 3 lurchers, I doubt the cats would stay around very long.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Feral is one of those terms that cover a multitude of sins. Truly feral cats are born wild and have no contact with humans, although they may hang about where rubbish is put out such as hospitals and even schools as well as farms and so on. They are often joined by strays which have been lost, abandoned or chased from their own territory. A feral kitten, taken very young, will be a normal domestic pet and a stray can be rehabilitated but truly feral adult cats rarely become fully tame.
A year or two back I came across a feral cat in our sheep field. He was black and white and living in an old badger sett, so of course got called Badger.
I took him the occasional offering of food, more often in autumn, but as winter threatened I thought he would be hard pressed to survive. We often get heavy snow, usually with drifting and I could not guarantee being able to feed him every day as his lair was was well over a quarter mile away. By this time he was quite friendly with me and enjoyed a stroke, so I thought it was worth trying to bring him in.
I caught him easily enough in the cat box, and he settled into life in the spare room, but it was very soon apparent that he was not prepared to share a home with other cats.His murderous intent was obvious and with one very old and one very small cat as well as three others, I could not risk having him about close to home. Regrettfully, I took him to a local cat refuge and I hope that they were able to rehome him somewhere where he could be king.
I suspect that in the past we have taken in some of their 'clients' as we have given a home to several other wanderers during our time here.
Rufus was a ginger tom, he never came into the house and left us after we had him castrated!, but four others stayed.
Felix disappeared and we never found out what had become of him, though he had been with us for months.
Shadow was a black cat with a white undercoat, timid and very hard to see when he appeared at dusk in search of food, but he very slowly became tame and moved in after tasting some roast lamb
Tippy-toes Fred had white tips to his black toes and was lovely, he danced on his hind legs when he wanted milk. I found him dead under the kitchen table one day, suspect poisoned, possibly found a rat at the farm next door, though I know Tom was careful with his bait.
Bonus turned up in the front porch one day, in a sorry state, very thin, full of cat flu and with his claws worn down from walking. We got him to the vet and he recovered and had a few more years with us, becoming known as Bonus the boiler cat from his favourite sleeping place. He never quite got over the flu though, and was always a sneezy cat with damaged lungs, but he was happy and warm and well fed at last.
All of these co-existed with our other cats at the time with no problems, but as there are only widely scattered farmhouses round about, any strays will have had a very long walk, or more likely just been dumped by their previous owners.
I only have two houses near by and slightly further a stud farm. The road is 1/4 mile away. All in all assuming I get agreement from the OH a couple of feral cats will have a decent life. I have only seen one other cat and I am guessing it is from the stud farm as I don't gee it very often.
I will discuss it this weekend when I am next home so hopefully early next year we will have a couple of rat catchers
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How lovely to hear from people praising the feral cats, usually there are people complaining about them.
Sounds very annoying if the rats are getting into the feeders. Perhaps it might be possible to attach extra weight to the shield to stop the rats from pushing it open. The one we have looks like this: https://www.solwayfeeders.com/news/article/treadle-feeder-rat-proof/ (it's the smaller 10 kg version though not the 20 kg as illustrated).
Thank you all for your comments. I now need to convince SWMBO as she will be feeding them during the week (I still work in London unfortunately).
SWMBO? Assuming a partner who doesn't like cats.
She does not like indoor cats that I do know
You may very well make yourself very unpopular with your neighbours re cat poo in other peoples gardens!
That is a suburban problem, not a rural one.
You may find that if you 'build it, they will come'. In most rural areas, there are cats about, and if you provide a warm safe spot to sleep, one will quite possibly turn up, at which point you can start to feed it to keep it around. But you may find you get a stray cat rather than a feral one.
There's a vast difference between stray cats and feral ones. Ferals are rarely seen, charleyfarley's cats were very likely feral. We had a stray cat this time last year that we managed to catch with her kittens. We'd been told she was feral but when we actually got to handle her, she was just a very timid cat, not at all wild. Ferals don't generally want to be pets, strays do and will move in to your house if you let them.
To rehome a feral and care for it properly would be a great thing to do - I wish I could offer to here, but with 3 lurchers, I doubt the cats would stay around very long.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Feral is one of those terms that cover a multitude of sins. Truly feral cats are born wild and have no contact with humans, although they may hang about where rubbish is put out such as hospitals and even schools as well as farms and so on. They are often joined by strays which have been lost, abandoned or chased from their own territory. A feral kitten, taken very young, will be a normal domestic pet and a stray can be rehabilitated but truly feral adult cats rarely become fully tame.
A year or two back I came across a feral cat in our sheep field. He was black and white and living in an old badger sett, so of course got called Badger.
I took him the occasional offering of food, more often in autumn, but as winter threatened I thought he would be hard pressed to survive. We often get heavy snow, usually with drifting and I could not guarantee being able to feed him every day as his lair was was well over a quarter mile away. By this time he was quite friendly with me and enjoyed a stroke, so I thought it was worth trying to bring him in.
I caught him easily enough in the cat box, and he settled into life in the spare room, but it was very soon apparent that he was not prepared to share a home with other cats.His murderous intent was obvious and with one very old and one very small cat as well as three others, I could not risk having him about close to home. Regrettfully, I took him to a local cat refuge and I hope that they were able to rehome him somewhere where he could be king.
I suspect that in the past we have taken in some of their 'clients' as we have given a home to several other wanderers during our time here.
Rufus was a ginger tom, he never came into the house and left us after we had him castrated!, but four others stayed.
Felix disappeared and we never found out what had become of him, though he had been with us for months.
Shadow was a black cat with a white undercoat, timid and very hard to see when he appeared at dusk in search of food, but he very slowly became tame and moved in after tasting some roast lamb
Tippy-toes Fred had white tips to his black toes and was lovely, he danced on his hind legs when he wanted milk. I found him dead under the kitchen table one day, suspect poisoned, possibly found a rat at the farm next door, though I know Tom was careful with his bait.
Bonus turned up in the front porch one day, in a sorry state, very thin, full of cat flu and with his claws worn down from walking. We got him to the vet and he recovered and had a few more years with us, becoming known as Bonus the boiler cat from his favourite sleeping place. He never quite got over the flu though, and was always a sneezy cat with damaged lungs, but he was happy and warm and well fed at last.
All of these co-existed with our other cats at the time with no problems, but as there are only widely scattered farmhouses round about, any strays will have had a very long walk, or more likely just been dumped by their previous owners.
I only have two houses near by and slightly further a stud farm. The road is 1/4 mile away. All in all assuming I get agreement from the OH a couple of feral cats will have a decent life. I have only seen one other cat and I am guessing it is from the stud farm as I don't gee it very often.
I will discuss it this weekend when I am next home so hopefully early next year we will have a couple of rat catchers