RE: I need ideas on best brand of carrier for feral

[MacKenzie, Kerry N.]

Title: Message

Thanks for the great step-by-step Jenn! Yes, I can see adding weight to door would be a wise precaution. Those furballs are so darn smart & fast. (I think someone needs to invent a remote-controlled door.) Last night, I put their fave dry food in a small bowl again (as opposed to their usual large metal tray), and then also at the same time put some in the palm of my hand, which i then held out over the bowl and about an inch above, They all kind of loitered around the bowl, but weren't brave enough to either eat from my hand or the bowl under my hand. Eventually Flavia (of course!) got bolder, and nudged her head under my hand and grabbed some food from the bowl. She had no choice but to let the fur on her back touch my hand each time. Of course, I couldn't move my hand--she would have run away. She grabbed food a few times. Nobody else was brave enough to copy her, and eventually I took my hand away, and then gave them their usual tray so they could all have some. Maybe a little progress is being made. Once I get the carriers I'll be able to make a two-pronged effort then--use some other treats as well. Kerry       -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2005 10:42 AM To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Subject: Re: I need ideas on best brand of carrier for feral Oh yeah, well, that one would require a human to operate. The way I would do it, would be to run a string from the hole punched in the top of the main front sliding door (it slides down in a track), over something overhead (like a smooth tree branch, or rig up an eye screw over the area if it's on a porch), then you'd have to watch until the cat you wanted was inside, and manually drop the string to close the door. You can run any amount of string, to get farther away if you need to, and you don't have to be anywhere near the door to shut it this way. The side door would be closed, of course. I've done this before, not with this particular cage (I made one similar home made out of wood), but with a similar rigging. On this pre-made version, you may need to add a bit of weight to the string just over the door or glue something heavy to the front of the door to make it "slam" quickly, my door was heavy, not sure about this one's weight. The cats seem to be "wise" about the traditional metal wire traps, and avoid them after a while, but if you have the time, and patience, sometimes something like this works better, plus it is more weather proof, and has a solid top, so it would make a better feeding station than a normal trap or wire-top carrier, because it would protect the food from the weather.   The tomahawk company means this to be more of a cage or carrier than a trap, but it could be rigged as a trap as well, especially if you used it as a feeding station for a while first, to get them accustomed to going into it and not being trapped for a while first. Jenn   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thanks for that Jenn---I'd never heard of Tomahawk I've a question about the "trap" part of the first cage on the list--the "innovative trap/carrier/recovery cage."  I'm assuming the white circle is a door--the door the cat is supposed to use so it can be trapped? To actually trap the cat once it's inside requires the trapper to get near enough to the carrier to close the round door, right? Going by past experience my cats would be able to jump into reverse gear and scoot outa there way before I was able to close the door. Obviously that can't be the case since these traps must be successful, so I'm wondering what I'm missing?! Kerry   This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail.