Warm Weather Care & Trapping Tips

Warmer weather means special considerations for free roaming community cat care.

Please review the following to keep your feline friends cool and eating right.

Food Tips

When feeding feral cats in the summer, bugs can certainly pose a problem. Make sure you continue to follow the 30-minute “rule” for removing uneaten food. (Some cats may be slow to arrive at their meal so you may want to wait 45 or 60 minutes.) Also, maintain clean and neat feeding locations, and keep the food dishes in one place to facilitate cleanup by using a feeding station.

In addition to raising the food off the ground, other ways to deter insects from the cats’ food include:

• Surrounding the food bowl with a ring of baking soda or food-grade diatomaceous earth
• Placing a tray or flowerpot tray with about half an inch to an inch of water in it on the feeding station platform and then placing the food bowl on the tray.
• Cutting back, or completely cutting out, the amount of wet food that you feed, because dry food tends to attract fewer bugs. Be sure to add more dry food to compensate.
• Elevating feeding stations slightly off the ground and surrounding them with a line of food-grade diatomaceous earth without chemical additives (available from the ECFCC or some natural food stores and environmentally conscious pet-care supply companies).The diatom dust should be reapplied after rainstorms. Note that diatomaceous earth sold for swimming pool filters is not safe to use for this purpose.
• ECFCC has Food grade diatomacieous earth available, contact if interested.