55-pounds of dog food per week. What's you bill?

[chtampa]

But it's human's fault, not the cat's.

TNR is the humane way to start to resolve the situation.

Development into the natural habitat is also to blame for many "aggressive" species migrating into human inhabited areas.

TNR is against the Florida State Law, but they don't enforce it. The upside is since they are not wearing tags they can be euthanized when trapped. Feline Leukemia, Toxoplasmosis, Feline Coronavirus and they are also a rabies vector between animals and humans. As an Officer I worked many cases like this and we filed charges whenever possible. It is easy to throw some food out and feel better about yourself and then let someone else endure the fallout. Humane way to solve the problem? Not hardly, take them home and give them proper care rather than let someone who is pregnant deal with birth defects of their children by coming in contact with feces. Trap Neuter Release should not be a treatment option for codependency.

Development dislocation is a misnomer. Coyotes are attracted to people not the wild. I have a group that lives in the woods next to my house. I get to hear the pups every spring and as people dump cats out here we only see them once or twice before they are gone. Coyotes are not aggressive, they are attracted to the "Buffet".

 

[YY1]

100s to 1000s more cats than willing humans.

What to do with the rest?


Would you kill them all?

 

[chtampa]

So you would kill them all?

When making a choice between people and animals, of course. We have wild birds and small mammals on the threatened list because of feral cats. They are no different than the other exotic pets that are involved in the roundups being made in South Florida. In California, coyotes are going in peoples house after pets, how soon will that start happening here? Muscovy Ducks are another pet that people want to feed and take care of without bearing any responsibility. There are lots of rabies exposure cases because of wild cats. Put them down or have a child get rabies shots because the cat is running lose in a feral colony? Easy choice! Dumping bags of cat food that attract Raccoons? How good does someone need to feel about ones self to have others suffer.

 

[lemondana]

My little 3 lb. Teacup Poodle goes thru a 4 lb. bag of dogfood every 3 months. Ha! Ha!, I have you all beat.

 

[lemondana]

It's kinda like driving a Prius

My little 3 lb. Teacup Poodle goes thru a 4 lb. bag of dogfood every 3 months. Ha! Ha!, I have you all beat.

 

[YY1]

The missing letter in the TNR abbreviation is "V" for rabies vaccine, making it TNVR.

All programs that I'm familiar with include a 3 year vaccine along with the spay/neuter.

Their ears are also tipped, which allows Animal control to recognize that they have been vaccinated and are being cared for, usually stopping them from being collected and put down.

I wondered if you were a bird person.
You certainly have done your anti-feral cat homework, although I'm not sure why you felt the need to come into this thread and crap all over me for trying to help solve the overpopulation problem.

To be clear, we do not simply "dump bags of food".
We work with the neighbors and anyone who is currently caring for the cats.
If there are friendly kittens, we try to re-home them.
We just fostered 11 from this colony and six have found homes.
We have TNVR'd 14 adults.
We also treat eye problems and for parasites.
Us working with these cats and stopping the flow of kittens, and the resulting dog attacks, and cats being run over has actually brought this trailer park community closer together.

The time before last, as we were trapping some of the more wild adults, there was a group of residents socializing on a porch.
Every time a trap would spring, they would cheer and give thumbs up, then tell us the history of the cat that was trapped.
They said one particular female had birthed over 22 litters. That stopped with us! A 2 week new resident helped us get a cat into a trap and started conversing with the group of longtime residents, as they shared concern. Even a somewhat mentally challenged individual who at first threatened to "feed them kittens to the gators" has picked a beautiful Siamese mix to feed and occasionally allow into his home and is actively conversing with his neighbor about the neighborhood cats.

Those are all "wins" in my book, and the result will be fewer and fewer litters and eventually the colony will die out, while allowing the existing cats to live out their potentially brutally short lives with less suffering and misery.

"Killing them faster" is not a realistic solution.

TNVR is.

 

[dodgedifferent2]

Roughly 10 tons of silage and grain mix a week for holstein herd.
Plus roughly 3 tons dry hay a week
No clue how to calculate how much grass they consume in the summer months.

55lbs a month of dry cat food for barn cats (my father feeds)
Plus the fresh milk he feeds them too.
Roughly 55 lbs dry dog food a month for border collie.
Not entirely sure how much dry and wet cat food for the 2 house cats that the wife buys
Plus my parents live across driveway of family farm and also have 2 cats in their house.
My mother also feeds brids with mixed seed and oriels and humming birds with lbs of sugar.

 

[chtampa]

The missing letter in the TNR abbreviation is "V" for rabies vaccine, making it TNVR.

All programs that I'm familiar with include a 3 year vaccine along with the spay/neuter.

Their ears are also tipped, which allows Animal control to recognize that they have been vaccinated and are being cared for, usually stopping them from being collected and put down.

I wondered if you were a bird person.
You certainly have done your anti-feral cat homework, although I'm not sure why you felt the need to come into this thread and crap all over me for trying to help solve the overpopulation problem.

To be clear, we do not simply "dump bags of food".
We work with the neighbors and anyone who is currently caring for the cats.
If there are friendly kittens, we try to re-home them.
We just fostered 11 from this colony and six have found homes.
We have TNVR'd 14 adults.
We also treat eye problems and for parasites.
Us working with these cats and stopping the flow of kittens, and the resulting dog attacks, and cats being run over has actually brought this trailer park community closer together.

The time before last, as we were trapping some of the more wild adults, there was a group of residents socializing on a porch.
Every time a trap would spring, they would cheer and give thumbs up, then tell us the history of the cat that was trapped.
They said one particular female had birthed over 22 litters. That stopped with us! A 2 week new resident helped us get a cat into a trap and started conversing with the group of longtime residents, as they shared concern. Even a somewhat mentally challenged individual who at first threatened to "feed them kittens to the gators" has picked a beautiful Siamese mix to feed and occasionally allow into his home and is actively conversing with his neighbor about the neighborhood cats.

Those are all "wins" in my book, and the result will be fewer and fewer litters and eventually the colony will die out, while allowing the existing cats to live out their potentially brutally short lives with less suffering and misery.

"Killing them faster" is not a realistic solution.

TNVR is.

Good that your "Mentally challenged " person took a Siamese mix. I don't really understand the relevance, but you are entitled to your opinion. As for colonies "dying out", it doesn't happen. I've been involved with this for 30 years and have yet to see a 30 year old cat. You do it because it makes you feel good and there is nothing wrong with that, just don't spout off facts that are actually wishes to rationalize. I don't make an excuse when I speed, it is because I just like to go fast. The company that you keep that brag about "Saving" animals is self motivated. For instance, the Humane Society got caught dumping euthanized cats into someones dumpster and then they changed into a "No kill" facility to offset the media. The reality is that they no longer take in strays and only accept adoptable pets. No shot record, they don't want it. Someone else handles the problem and they continue to bank the donations. The stray problem could be solved in 10 years, but then there would be no more donations. Place a bounty on strays and give money to people for bringing them in. Spay and neuter all and then give them out to anyone that wants one. If someone can get a sterile pet for free they will. Problem is solved after 10 years because everything is now unable to reproduce. All breeding has now been replaced by sterile.

I am not a bird person, I am a native animal person. I am good at what I do and have a problem with hype from anyone. I work with the truth and have a problem with excuses that this "is for the animals". Someone has to make the hard choices and that is what I do. I feel the same about any outside "pet", animals are family members and anyone that keeps their pet outside in a yard at arms length is a poor owner. It is GOOD you find homes for some of them, but it is RIGHT to deal with the rest responsibly instead of believing a story about letting them roam free being a correct solution. Truth be told, I like animals a lot better than people.

 

[ckessel]

This is what we've been using for our brood for several years. They have it species specific with several meats available. Cats get one pack a day between them, dogs get 2 for Zeke [big dog] and 1 for Toga [small dog] per day with high quality dry in between. We found out about the company years ago after watching "Pet Fooled" on Netflix. Its a documentary about the pet food industry. One of our prior dogs, Neko, had severe digestive issues and could not handle any normally available foods or even home made rice and chicken. Would get explosive colitis and he would scream in pain when letting it rip. The vet we were seeing at the time told us we were imagining things until he shot out a fresh squeezed sample in her exam room. This stuff is raw frozen. Looks like a pack of juicy burger. The company can be a pain to deal with, you buy direct, but for their health its worth it. With the low quality processed junk that being sold, even the supposed high quality stuff, your kids can have various issues like diabetes, allergies, bad bo, massive piles [caused by over eating because of low nutrition level junk food]. One of our prior kids, Lilly, had seizure issues that food quality contributed to. I found out about various food ins and outs after discussing the problem with the lady that used to own Solid Gold. She raised and showed Great Danes and started her own company after having problems with commercial stuff. Her company was one of the only ones who didn't get hit with the Chinese junk 10+ years ago. She ended up selling the company to one of the other brands due to her age. After she sold, the quality of the food dropped in the shitter. The dogs wouldn't touch the stuff. They would sniff it and just back away. We were also using Merrick canned which was good for awhile then their stuff turned to junk too. Thats when we found out about the Darwins. I know we spend quite a bit on this stuff, each pack is $5 or so but the kids thrive on it and cut down on vet bills.

 

[patrick66]

I guess my original reply got blown out by the server problem...

I go through about 50# of Purina Dog Chow biweekly, and a 10# bag of Cat Chow in the same period. Both my 88# Boxer-Mastiff mix and my 8# shorthaired Tabby cat get fed 2x/daily. My cat is an outside cat that takes care of our rodent problem - she kills gophers, mice, rats and squirrels easily; at least one per day. So that helps with her diet, too. My dog catches the occasional rodent and dispatches it, easily. She is an indoor/outdoor dog. The dog is two, the cat is ten. Both get grilled ground beef and skinless/boneless chicken once a week as a nice treat. Normal feeding is twice per day.

The dog gets treats 4x/day; the cat, just one. After all, the dog will do tricks for treats. The cat just looks at me and says "gimme the damned treat, Dad!"