Wild Cat vs Feral Cat

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FL-NC said:
In afg we had major issues at one of the FOBS with rats. Lots and lots of huge rats. Which caused a bigger problem- they were a ready food source for cobras. The solution was to trap some stray male cats, knock them out, neuter them (which prevented them from roaming, breeding with stray females and fighting amongst themselves) and just leave them alone. The afg guards would feed them from time to time, which was sufficient to supplement their rat menu and keep the cats hanging around.
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My ferals are recruited to eat the squirrels which ate the fuel line out of a new truck.....neighbors started buying food after they found that.
 
Collared cats are tolerated....to a point. I want to know they’re not just dumped. Non collared cats are pests in the country and will be eliminated. Coyotes gotta eat, too. I simply arrange for the pursuit to be shortened for them....at least until I see the coyote...
On either species, while I take no joy in the killing, I will say the .17 HMR is a game changer.
 
OrangeCat said:
My ferals are recruited to eat the squirrels which ate the fuel line out of a new truck.....neighbors started buying food after they found that.
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Yeah we actually imported them to our farm. Not much for people you could spot them from time to time or hear them exit as you entered a barn and the tractor seat would be warm.

Rodents are not a lot of risk to old equipment but the more wires they have the worse the problem.
 
The domestic cat -tame or feral- is a straight-up murderer. My neighbor's cat kills everything it can catch; multiply that by the millions of cats out there.
I am a few miles north of Dinwiddie County; your choices are escaped exotic cat, bobcat, or feral domestic cat. If it was one of the first two, I don't think you would need to ask the question.
 
SgtScrounge said:
The domestic cat -tame or feral- is a straight-up murderer. My neighbor's cat kills everything it can catch; multiply that by the millions of cats out there.
I am a few miles north of Dinwiddie County; your choices are escaped exotic cat, bobcat, or feral domestic cat. If it was one of the first two, I don't think you would need to ask the question.
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That has been my observations, cats are the only other things than humans, I have seen that kill things, just for “fun”.
 
Good Ol' Boy said:
We live rural and we have a fence around our back property. Recently my pit bull cornered a cat type animal in our back property. Now we have known feral cats nearby but this looked bigger than your normal house cat. It also scaled a tree quicker than a coon. I've never seen a feral cat do that but I dont know.

I was tempted at first to grab my .22 revolver loaded with rat shot just to scare it off but I ended up just going out with my light and grabbing my dog.

But for the future I'd like to know the differences between a small wild cat verses ferals. If we do indeed have small wild cats around I will dispatch them accordingly as to not possibly incur any damage to my dog.

I know there are folks more experienced in identifying wild cats than I here so I wait for your input.
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If you like small game, cat's of any sort are a threat to their existence. I recently dealt with this and now have a good quail population.
My neighbor has 2 cat's that follow him like dogs. Learn your neighbor's pets, the rest are invasive species.
 
jmorris said:
That has been my observations, cats are the only other things than humans, I have seen that kill things, just for “fun”.
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I will agree with you that many cats will hunt even if they are not hungry. However, I usually do not criticize them for killing for fun, and instead admire their strong work ethic. Ok, I am half joking, but only half.

Years ago I had an outdoor cat. This was before coyotes had moved east and made outdoor cats mostly a thing of the past in my area. This cat hunted pretty much all day every day. I often wondered why, and I concluded that she was born with physical attributes that made her very good at one thing, so that is what she did. There does not seem to be much more explanation to it. She could have slept all the time, but she chose to use her one skill instead.

I can certainly see how if you value song birds, a cat's skills and persistence might not be appreciated. But if an excess of rodents is damaging crops, a good predator can be a great benefit. I respect that each person needs assess their own situation, and make the decision that works for them.
 
I knew when I had a roadrunner or feral cat in my yard, the lizard (both) and bird (cat) population dropped to near zero. Feral cats are the worst!

I caught one feral cat when trying to catch a trash-can toppling raccoon in a Havahart trap a few years ago. Man that thing was spitting fire when I walked up to it!

The local shelter is no-kill. I was not happy when they refused to take it because it’s considered unadoptable. I didn’t want to be accused of animal cruelty (PETA nazis are all over here) so I let it go.

I then started tossing my pointers poop in the bushes that the cat seemed to favor and I guess the smell of dog drove it off. I haven’t had one in the yard ever since.

Stay safe!
 
Riomouse911 said:
I knew when I had a roadrunner or feral cat in my yard, the lizard (both) and bird (cat) population dropped to near zero.
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I photographed a roadrunner at Palo Duro Canyon, Texas. It wasn't until I took a closer look that I saw it had caught lunch. Cropped the pic down to this.

(By the way, where did roadrunners run before there were roads?)

roadrunner3.jpg
 
I've trapped many feral cats as part of my current job as Maintenance Supervisor for a large condo complex. Most are medium sized but I have caught some large ones.

TR
 
We've got our outside kitties that just sorta showed up and my wife feeds 'em. They have kittens and I make sure they disappear, put it that way. .22 rounds are only $.04 a piece. :D That's part of the responsibility for living out here, don't want too many cats and they do multiply. We have 5 barn cats and I really should thin 'em out, but you get attached to 'em. They do keep the mice down, at least. There's only a couple I'm really attached to, the other 3 won't let me near 'em, but will sit there and beg when you're putting out food. LOL
 
Nathanael_Greene said:
I photographed a roadrunner at Palo Duro Canyon, Texas. It wasn't until I took a closer look that I saw it had caught lunch. Cropped the pic down to this.

(By the way, where did roadrunners run before there were roads?)

View attachment 837766
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Funny, I have a friend that comes down to our place at least once a month, often more. He told me he never sees chaparral except at our farm. Most are seen around long straight roads that have fields on one side and trees on the other.

They run fast enough that they open there wings and drift from field to woods with no “flapping”.

I’d bet they ran from cover to cover. They are obvious in the open but are quite good at being unnoticed as they nest really low to the ground.
 
Audubon Society claims feral cats are the biggest danger to endangered bird species.
I hate them in my yard smelling the place up. Had a neighbor feeding them, but my live trap has kept them down. No disease vaccinations, fleas and ticks are reason enough for me to get rid of them. I have wad a couple in the trap I was half scared to release in the woods. I also gave one obvious pet a pardon on Christmas day last year.
 
double bogey said:
Audubon Society claims feral cats are the biggest danger to endangered bird species.year.
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Any cat. Domestics are probably worse because the hand-wringers are all like "Aw my cute little moggy would never, I feed it every day blah blah blah"

Search up Domestic cat effect on wildlife in your area.
 
SgtScrounge said:
The domestic cat -tame or feral- is a straight-up murderer. My neighbor's cat kills everything it can catch; multiply that by the millions of cats out there.
I am a few miles north of Dinwiddie County; your choices are escaped exotic cat, bobcat, or feral domestic cat. If it was one of the first two, I don't think you would need to ask the question.
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My brother's cat is a killing machine. They put a GPS tracker on him and it was unbelievable how far he wanders killing stuff all along the way.
 
jmorris said:
I am not a “cat person” but I am also not a snake and rodent person either, I don’t kill cats (pets or feral) or bobcats because they help me kill other stuff I don’t like.
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I'm a quail and pheasant and songbird person, and domestic and feral cats wreak havoc on the populations, particularly song birds and quail. I have no use for them at all, but since the coyotes take care of em here I don't have to intervene.
 
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