At my wits end! (Cat experts please help)

Have you thought about an automatic pet feeder.

We have one for when we go on short holidays and dont want to put our cat in the cattery. It can be set to go off at 3 different times.

Our cat has learnt when the feeder goes off when we are away and she sits and waits for it. Very cute.

Sounds like will be very difficult to get rid of the stray because hes been getting a yummy easy meal at your place for what sounds like a long time.

We feed our cat inside, we have a cat door and now keep it shut at night as we had a wild cat come in and eat our cats food. We keep our cat in at night too.

Electronic cat feeder sounds good (but you will still be feeing the stray) or maybe cat door with electronic tag your cat wears a collar so only he can get in (not the stray) but $$ I think.

We had a stray hanging around for 6-7 weeks, basically sitting at french doors meowling to be let in. I did start feeding her but in the end I made some wee flyers and put them in neighbours mailbox for quite a distance saying if no-one claims I will send to SPCA I rang radio and newspaper too. No one claimed her so FIL took the cat to the SPCA. It actually was a sweet wee cat but the twins were really wee only about 8 weeks I was sleep deprived and just coping with them and worried that our cat would get in basinet with them etc so was really hard hearted...

Edited by jules1980

I know how you feel, every night our cat taps at the flap at the bottom of the door and one of us has to get up and let him in. We have a cat door, but I guess he's trained us well and the front door is more convenient for him. DH is usually the one to get up as I've got DS cuddled up next to me and he feeds him. This last week I've told him to stop feeding him and hopefully he'll stop doing that as I'm sure we had the same problem once before and when we stopped feeding him he left us alone (or at least came in the cat door).

So yeah, my advice is to stop offering food in the middle of the night. If s/he keeps pestering you just get up and put him out. I take a bit more of a hardline attitude with the cats than babies, who I'd just feed

I suggested to DH the automatic feeder thing too but like you all the strays/neighbours cats come in and eat our cats food anyway so it would probably be a waste of time (for us) and encourage more of them to come in. Once we even had a possum come in the cat door!!!



Edited by tiptoes

Yeah i'd suggest trying to suss out whether or not the cat definitely is a stray or not and if it is see if the SPCA or another rescue group will take it.

Can you lock yor cat in at night and shut him in another part of the house so he can't disturb you? I lock ours in every night and put food down for them. There are strays that hang around so i put food outside for them. Mine eat outside during the day.

Unfortunately, can't shut him in anywhere that's far enough away from our bedroom. At our old place I would stick him in the bathroom, but everywhere at our new place is within earshot (he scratches the carpet or the door until you let him in/out). Including if we chuck him outside, he'll make a racket trying to pry his way in through the window. I have tried to just ignore it, but he will keep going till he gets his way.

I'm not sure about the magnetic pet feeders, but have seen the doors with a similar device. Sadly, I think my cat is smart enough that he will purposely sit by the feeder so the food comes out for the stray to eat.

Thankfully it is only the one stray - it used to be 3, but then we got a dog, and now only 1 is brave enough to make the dash for the window. I am fairly convinced it is a stray and not a neighbours cat.

I second a magnetic catdoor. I also got mine off trademe & well worth it. I was sick of coming home to "cat party's" in my house (once my cat was sitting in the loughe with 3 other cats just hanging out)

Now theres only 1 other cat who has learned to get in but he's super smart (siamese or something). Anyway, I reckon we've saved $$ on cat food & also extra washing from naughty random cats peeing on our clothes

Haha Gekka, that has most definitely been tried - often with expletives thrown in. I have also thrown my pillow at him a few times (which shuts him up for all of 2 minutes).

My votes for the magnetic cat door too. Means your cat can get in and out (only needs a special collar) during the night and eat when it likes, but the stray wont be able to get in at all.

Unless of course your cat is tricking you and eating them all itself