If you have outdoor cats, how to feed them so as not to attract more?

[ksr5377]

Or is the idea of this being a possibility just laughable?  About 4 months ago we moved to a new home, rural, with quite a bit of land.  My girls have been desperate for a pet cat and soon after moving, a litter of kittens were dropped off at my parents farm.  DH and I agreed to take two of them as long as they would remain outside.  He's crazy allergic as is our son.  I'm sure you see where this is going.  This morning, when I came outside to feed them, there were FOUR other cats!  They scattered instantly back behind the barn. I knew something else was eating their food, but never thought there would be so many.  So is it possible to have outdoor cats and not attract a lot of others?  

[ksr5377]

Yes, we had them spayed and neutered. I never thought of washing the bowl, I'll give that a try.

[KrissiK]

We just feed the entire neighborhood of cats. It's a ministry! ;)

[Tanaqui]

I like cats, and if you're feeding dry food* it's not that pricey to feed the ferals as well.

 

* Which is not ideal, of course, but for ferals it's better than nothing.

[Ottakee]

You might want to check around to see if any local places offer free spay/neuter for stray (barn) cats. In our area they give you a live trap for them and you bring them in, they fix them and you take them home and release them again. Most will never become pets but it does greatly cut down on the population if you get asany as you can fixed.

[Joules]

I don't have any experience with them, but if you have an enclosed space (like a screen porch or barn area) could you put a cat door activated with a collar sensor?  The little door is unlocked when the collar is close.  I've known one person that used one for her indoor/outdoor cat.

[RegGuheert]

We live in the country and have indoor/outdoor cats (we are not allergic).  We have had cats here for nearly 20 years and only recently started having problems with other cats (and other animals) eating our cats' food.  Why the change?  Apparently, our neutered male cat was fighting off all comers.  He passed away a couple of years ago and neither his sister nor the young male replacement cat we acquired are up to the task.  Now the food all gets eaten if we leave it in the garage with the door open.

 

What's the solution?  We now either only let them eat indoors or we put the food in the garage with the doors closed and the only access being from the "Cat Windoor".  I understand the former will not work for you.  The latter only eliminates MOST stray cats, as some will follow our cats through the cat door in the window.

 

While we do love our two current cats, we would love to have our big Russian grey cat back who loved people but fought off all the strays.  Unfortunately, he really was one of a kind.  :crying:

[Lanny]

Welcome to the club... We have   "indoor/outdoor" cats.  Their food is on the floor in dishes  in the Laundry Room.  We had seen, on rare occasions, two (2) Black Cats. One of our cats, I named him "Neptune", in honor of Winter Storm Neptune, is Black.  He is our only Black cat.  Then, very recently, a cat that we believe lives next door or has been hanging out there, began coming into our house to eat.  We will hopefully capture her in a week or so, when the vet is available, and take her in to be spayed.  1 or 2 days ago, DD tells me not to go into the Laundry Room, because there was a tiny kitten there.  I think there are actually 2 kittens. Probably the cat we need to have spayed is their mother. My wife returned from her trip yesterday, in the afternoon. Originally, we had one (1) cat that arrived when my Stepson and his wife moved in with us 5 years ago.  Then, we adopted "Neptune" and another cat ("Jupiter") who arrived with him (those are my favorites). I'm not sure how many cats we have eating here, at this time.