Feral Cats - Blog about Pet Animals
When an unneutered female pet cat gets lost or is abandoned she will wander the streets and usually she will become pregnant and give birth to a litter of kittens. Usually she would find a place that she would feel safe such as in a garden shed, thick bushes or an empty building.
Unless the kittens are discovered very young, you will not see them until they are around 6 weeks old and have been brought out by their mother to look for solid food. The kitten at this age will be wary of humans because they have not been handled or socialised. The kittens can be tamed but it takes time, patience and gentle handling.
There are several organisations who are trying to help with the increasing amount of feral cats that are born. The Celia Hammond Animal Trust, which is known as C.H.A.T. rehomes hundreds of feral kittens each year. They also humanely trap the feral cats and have them neutered which helps prevents the cat colonies from growing any larger.
The feral adults are returned to their colonies after the procedure. To help identify the ones who have already been neutered their left ear is clipped which is known as ear-tipping. Ear-tipping does not cause the animal any distress and is standard practice used by animal rescue organization working with feral cats.
The Drifters Reach Feral Cat Programme also helps to control the size of colonies and helping to find new locations or homes for feral kittens and colonies that are in danger. They try to relocate colonies to more suitable land such as farm land or stables whenever possible.
It is estimated that there are over a million feral cats in the UK and within London over a thousand. The Mayhew Animal Home helps to trap and neutered the feral cats and also try to rehomes stray cats and kittens. It is not possible to rehome adult feral cats due to their lack of socialization with people and the cats have no desire to be domesticated.
If you are interested in helping out any of these wonderful organisations all you need to do is contact them. They can use all of the support they can get to continue helping these needy animals.
If you are looking for pet insurance you might want to consider Animal Friends Insurance. It is a not for profit organisation which gives all of its net profits from Pet Insurance and Life Insurance policies to charities all over the world who help animals in need. So this means if you were to buy pet insurance from them you would not only be providing for your pet; you would also be helping animal charities all over the world.
