Interested in getting started with TNR in your neighborhood? Here is a guide to help.
Supplies you’ll need
- Humane traps. We recommend TruCatch and Tomahawk brand traps.
- Trap covers. Feral or community cats get scared once trapped and try to escape, but covering them usually calms them down. Beach towels and small blankets work great, but you can also make or purchase custom trap covers for your traps.
- Zip ties or carabiners to keep traps securely closed. This is essential with the TruCatch brand traps, as they have a safety feature that allows for the trap doors to come open if a trap is turned on its side. To avoid having a feral cat loose in your car, basement or house—always zip tie both sides of a TruCatch trap any time a cat is inside. Bring extra zip ties when you go to pick your cats up from surgery, as your clinic will have cut them to get them out of the traps.
- Stinky cat food or other food bait. Mackerel or tuna works great, as does cheap wet cat food like 9 Lives. You’ll want to put just a little bit in a disposable container inside the trap, and leave a small trail leading up to it from just outside the trap.
- Gloves. Leather gloves are good for when you need to move a trap with an especially angry cat inside, as they will protect your hands from being scratched better than rubber or cotton gloves. Rubber gloves are helpful to keep the stinky bait off your hands.
- A place to store the cats you trap. This absolutely must be indoors, in a quiet, preferably dark space where the cats will be protected from any potential predators. Basements and garages are great for this, and if not temperature-controlled they’re OK as long as the air temperature doesn’t reach below 50 degrees or above 80 degrees. You’ll want to hold them here the night before their surgery, so you can monitor their food/water intake and ensure they don’t eat anything after midnight. If your clinic does not hold the cats for a day after surgery, you’ll also need to bring them back to this space for at least 24 hours to ensure they’re fully out of anesthesia and can be safely returned to their colony.
- Other nice-to-have supplies
- Paper towels/microfiber cloths for cleaning food and other messes off your hands
- A multi-tool with scissors and a flashlight
- Garbage bags
- Headlamp
- Tarp (to protect your car and cat storage space from any bodily fluids the cats decided to leave behind)
- Puppy pee pads (to go under traps in your vehicle or cat storage room for extra protection and easy, disposable cleanup)
Before trapping
When you’ve got your supplies, you’ll need to do a little bit of prep work to increase your chances of a successful trapping day.
- Talk to the people at the residence or business where you’ll be trapping to ensure you have permission. Make sure they understand the cats will be returned after they’re recovered from surgery—the R in TNR stands for “return,” and you never want to relocate feral cats unless you’re working with an experienced trapper/relocator and have a plan in place.
- Get an idea of how many cats are at the site where you’ll be trapping. Speak with the colony caretaker to understand how long the cats have been there, how old they might be, and if any have had kittens recently. You don’t want to separate a mama cat from her babies unless they are weaned and can eat on their own. If you do trap a mama cat you can often use her as bait to also trap her kittens, unless they are too young to walk on their own. Getting the whole picture from the colony caretaker will allow you to help the cats in the best, most humane way.
- If someone is feeding the cats you’ll be trapping, have them get the cats on a schedule that coincides with the time of day you’ll be coming to set the traps. Then ask that the caretaker does not set any food out on the day you’ll be coming to trap (or the night before if you’ll be coming earlier in the day). If the cats are hungry, all they’ll have to do is go into a trap for a tasty, stinky meal!
- Make sure you are trapping on a day when you’ll be able to bring any cats trapped in for surgery the next day. Do not trap if you do not have a surgery appointment available for the next day. In Chattanooga our preferred TNR clinic is McKamey Animal Center, which does not require appointments but only accepts community cats for surgery on Wednesday mornings (at a limit of two cats per person). This means you can only set your traps on Tuesday if you plan to bring your ferals into McKamey.
How to TNR
Once you’ve got permission to set traps at a location and have decided on a day and time to trap—a Tuesday if you’re in Chattanooga and using McKamey’s community cat surgery day on Wednesday—and the caretaker has not fed the cats that day, you are ready to trap!
Set your traps. After speaking with the colony caretaker (or the person who requested TNR services from you), set your traps up in a location where the cats are known to spend time—preferably where they eat. Put the stinky bait food at the back of the trap beyond the trip plate so the cat will be fully inside of the trap when it trips. It’s a good idea to leave a small trail of food leading out of the trap so the cat gets a little taste, but don’t put too much out there. We want the cat to know he’s got to go all the way into the trap to get his meal.
Watch your traps. Step away from the traps once they’re set; a lot of cats will be reluctant to investigate a new food source if your presence makes them nervous. Sit in your car, or camp out on the grass a safe distance away. If you or the homeowner need to step away for a moment that’s OK, but be sure someone can check on the traps frequently—at least every 10 or 15 minutes. Never, ever leave your traps unattended—and never leave traps open overnight. Once an animal is in the trap they are vulnerable to predators—human and animal—and weather conditions, and they’re unable to defend themselves once trapped. When a cat goes into your trap he becomes your responsibility, and you want to make sure he’s as safe and as comfortable as possible throughout the TNR process.
Cover your traps. When you hear that familiar “snap!” sound, you’ve caught a cat! (Hopefully… possums and raccoons like cat food too and have been known to investigate traps late at night or early morning—another good reason to never leave your traps unattended.) Immediately cover the trap to help the cat calm down and avoid injuring himself trying to escape. Let him sit for a few minutes to calm down if needed before moving the trap (and be sure to zip tie each end of the trap closed if you’re using one of the brown TruCatch traps). If you caught the only cat you were trying to catch, congrats! You can head home with him. If you are still waiting on cats to go in other traps, set the one you’ve just caught somewhere safe away from the other traps—inside your car if it’s not too hot; otherwise, in the shade near your vehicle where it’s out of the way.
Store your trapped cats somewhere safe for the night. Once you’ve got all your cats secured in traps and covered, bring them to the location where you plan to store them overnight before their surgeries. We recommend placing a tarp with some pee pads underneath the traps, especially if the cats have been trapped earlier in the day, because it’s likely they will go to the bathroom in them.
Again, the area where you store your cats the night before surgery must be indoors—a garage or basement works great, as long as the cats will be protected from the outdoors. Screened-in patios can be OK as long as they have doors that can be closed and locked, and as long as the weather isn’t too hot or cold. We do not recommend keeping cats in traps in a location where the temperature is colder than 50º F or hotter than about 80º F. While feral cats are used to living outdoors, the cooling and warming techniques they use to keep comfortable aren’t possible when they’re in traps.
If you trap your cats earlier in the day and want to give them a small meal and some water the evening before surgery, be sure to only provide a small amount of either so it’s gone before midnight. Just like with pet cats, you want these cats’ stomachs to be empty before surgery to reduce the risk of vomiting—and then aspirating—while under anesthesia. And be sure not to open the traps to give them food or water without the use of a trap fork. Even then, only open the back of the trap just a hair to be able to slide food or water in. If you don’t have a trap fork that fits your traps, wet food and/or water can be dropped in from the side or top of the trap. Never risk fully opening a trap with a cat in it from the time you trap the cat until it’s time to return him back to his original trapped location.
Surgery day! In the morning, it’s go time! Load up your cats—keeping them covered still—and bring them to your preferred clinic. Check-in procedures vary by clinic, so be sure to review the clinic’s website or contact them prior to bringing your community cats in if you are unsure about their process. Make sure you understand when you need to pick them up, too. In Chattanooga McKamey requires cats to be picked up the same day (Wednesday), and you will need to allow the cats to recover in their traps for an additional night at your own house (the same space you kept them the night prior to surgery). When you pick them up you’ll receive some paperwork; review it to make sure there were no issues noticed with the cats, and give them a quick check to make sure they are alert and not bleeding. They might seem alert but still need to be kept for one more night to ensure all of the anesthesia is out of their system before they’re released outside. Do not ever release a cat on the same day it’s had surgery.
Return your cats to the location they were originally trapped. The R in TNR stands for Return (sometimes Release), and it’s imperative that cats are released from their traps at the exact location they were trapped. If you trapped a cat on someone’s porch, that’s where you return it. Not a side yard, not a neighbor’s porch. Again, do not release a cat unless they’ve been held for one additional night after surgery, and make sure the cat is fully alert and is not bleeding or otherwise impaired. Female cats sometimes can benefit from a second night indoors to recover, but many will be stressed from being in the trap for too long and will be ready to get back to their home. If you are unsure if a cat is ready to be released, please check with your TNR clinic or veterinarian before releasing them.
Be sure to let the colony caretaker know that the cats are back, and that it’s OK for them to resume their normal feeding/watering schedule. Let them know it’s normal for the cats to sometimes lay low for a day or two after TNR, but to keep an eye out for any issues.
Clean your traps and holding location. Once the cats are released, hose off your tarps and traps—be sure to clean off all feces and urine—and allow them to dry in the sun to prevent rust forming. If possible, disinfect the traps as well. We use Rescue diluted to a 1:16 concentration, and they also make a ready-to-use solution and wipes. Wash any trap covers or car seat covers used in hot water, and disinfect gloves and any other items used. You want to be sure your traps and other tools are clean for the next time you start the TNR process again.
Celebrate! You just helped some cats live healthier, happier lives. And you’ve likely made the neighbors living near the cats happier, too.