Any Ideas?

Anyone have any ideas on how to build a good feeding station where the cats can get to the food, but other animals can’t? Our problem is we feed in a park that has animals such as chickens, peacocks, rabbits, and of course your problem pigeons. Since all these other animals will eat the cat food, we have to feed daily at sunset when they’re going into roost/sleep and the cats are coming to life. We would love to have a feeding station where we could leave a supply of food that would last the cats several days, give us a bit of a schedule break, and ensure the cats are getting the food and not everything else. We basically don’t have a life feeding this way. We have to schedule everything around the feeding times, and rarely are able to go away for even a weekend. If we could figure someway to feed a few times a week, this would free us up quite a bit. Any ideas?

Since I have no ideas on what cats could get into that other animals could not get into I am going to throw in a different type of suggestion;

Recruit some trust-worthy volunteers. This is how our shelter gets its cats cared for. A network of volunteers who take a shift (am and pm shifts in our case) to go to the shelter and do the feeding and the cleaning.


All you would need is one or more people willing to take a day to do the feeding chore at the appropriate time.

That is a great idea, but one MORE problem. The park has intrusted us with keys to all the areas in the park, so if they lock the gates before we have fed, we can get in. We couldn't give these keys to anyone else, so I'm thinking a feeding station of some sort is our only option!

I don't know how to describe this very well so bare with me.

What I'm thinking is a platform off the ground, enclosed with chicken wire over and around the station, this way the birds would not be able to pick at the food. Make it like a have a heart trap but the cats would be able to get up on top of the table (by jumping up on it) and be able to get back out of the station by going the way they came in.

I don't know how well that was with describing it so I will try to find some examples and send them to you. --- Meg

[QUOTE]Originally posted by catlover4ever
[B]I don't know how to describe this very well so bare with me.

What I'm thinking is a platform off the ground, enclosed with chicken wire over and around the station, this way the birds would not be able to pick at the food. Make it like a have a heart trap but the cats would be able to get up on top of the table (by jumping up on it) and be able to get back out of the station by going the way they came in.

My, my LOL two great minds think alike. That is the first thing that came to my mind, was to make an enclosure, with chicken wire and have a cat flap or two for the cats to come and go.

Maybe you could support them with food in a kind of a shelter box, which can only be entered through a cat door...I've learned that cats are soooo smart they soon realize how to get to the food inside the box and as soon one cat will start with it the others will follow...that keeps it away from the birds...
In the beginning you can place the food so that it can be seen through the screen of the cat door and after that you can remove it to a corner away from the eyes of other hungry animals...

This works of course only when the cats are used to a covered shelter...

Whatever you try: Good luck!!!

Thanks for all your input. There are SO many cats (around 35) that we need to figure out something that will feed several at a time. Mind you, we don't mind going daily to feed (or we wouldn't be doing it):D but it sure would be nice to have an option to leave food for a few days at a time in case we go on vacation.

Do you know it kinda makes me sad when I read some of your posts and similar posts about all the stray cats. In my area we don't seem to have strays at all, a lot of people seem to keep their cats indoors or if allowed outside they all have collars and looked well cared for. I get sad when I think about all these kitties out in the cold with no-one to snuggle with !!!

You're doing a wonderful thing by caring for these animals if only there were lots more people like you, you all deserve medals !!

Quote:

---

Originally posted by sqwelch

You're doing a wonderful thing by caring for these animals if only there were lots more people like you, you all deserve medals !!

---

How true!!!

Quote:

---

Originally posted by sqwelch
Do you know it kinda makes me sad when I read some of your posts and similar posts about all the stray cats. In my area we don't seem to have strays at all, a lot of people seem to keep their cats indoors or if allowed outside they all have collars and looked well cared for. I get sad when I think about all these kitties out in the cold with no-one to snuggle with !!!

You're doing a wonderful thing by caring for these animals if only there were lots more people like you, you all deserve medals !!

---

Thank you so much. You know we were totally unaware of the stray cat problem ourselves until I started walking in the park for exercise. Even then I only saw one or two cats and never dreamed there were over 90 there! Ferals come out at sunset and later, so if you're not in the area at that time you may not even notice. Luckily we ran across a local group here, AzCATs, that educated us on this overwhelming problem and how to deal with it.

I got mad the other day right enough, I was walking home from the shops when I saw the cutiest kitten (no collar) drinking out a dirty puddle. I'm no expert but it looked kinda small to be out, my first thought was it was probably a Xmas pressie and I considered taking it home but it was so timid it wouldn't come anywhere near me, also worried about any viruses as I would never forgive myself if I took something home and I ended up infecting Bonnie but I'm keeping an eye open for it and if I see it again I'm gonnae be right out with a wee treat for it !!!

Quote:

---

Originally posted by sqwelch
I got mad the other day right enough, I was walking home from the shops when I saw the cutiest kitten (no collar) drinking out a dirty puddle. I'm no expert but it looked kinda small to be out, my first thought was it was probably a Xmas pressie and I considered taking it home but it was so timid it wouldn't come anywhere near me, also worried about any viruses as I would never forgive myself if I took something home and I ended up infecting Bonnie but I'm keeping an eye open for it and if I see it again I'm gonnae be right out with a wee treat for it !!!

---

Bring food with you. You may be able to entice it that way. Also, keep it secluded in a bathroom or other area until you have it checked by a vet for diseases. It sure would be nice to be able to rescue the baby.

Parf of the problem:

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...a/fb0d1713.jpg