Learn about Feral Cat Colonies

Series Summary

Feral cats are wild, undomesticated cats which are the decedents of domestic cats that have been abandoned or have strayed from their homes into the wild. Without any contact or handling from humans, cats become poorly socialized and revert back to a wild state. Usually feral cats live in groups together called feral cat colonies. These colonies can be found in many parts of the world and are actually frequently credited with keeping the rodent and vermin population in check for many larger cities. There is much debate about what should be done about feral cat colonies, or if anything should be done at all, though it is generally agreed that trap, neuter/spay, and return programs are the most humane for keeping the feral cat populations in check.

If you are interested in learning more about feral cat colonies and what you can do to help, let our expert explain how you should interact and what you should do with these wild cats. In this free video series you will learn how to bait and trap feral cats for spaying and neutering, how to handle feral kittens, and even how to protect your car from feral cat urine. If you've ever wanted to help those stray but wild cats you see on the street, this video is an excellent resource for people interested in becoming volunteers.

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Liz from FIX Station and I'm here today on behalf of Expert Village to talk to you about ferel cats. Some people wonder about the term cat colony. Is it an alien colony? What does colony mean? Is it, sounds like bees or something. A colony, all that means is, when cats are abandoned and form little families or groups together or if they are already out there in ferel and they start reproducing, male to female, that female has a litter. Maybe her sister is out there and she has a litter. Again, think little prides of lions. So the females stay together, they pump out the kittens. The males wander off, do their thing, kind of patrol the perimeter, protect their females, protect their kittens, protect their food. So they have really formed these families otherwise, you know, called colonies, a cat colony. It can consist of as many as one male to one female and all the kittens that are going to come along or as many as thirty to forty cats just from all areas of the city that will breed with each other, produce kittens and hang out together. So that's what a colony is."