Cat Behavior - Feral Cats

If you're not quite sure what feral cat behavior is, here's a pretty good definition. A feral cat is one that has escaped from domestication and returned, partly or wholly, to a wild state. In other words, it's a cat that has gone "wild" or has been born and raised in the wild.

Some incredibly inhumane people assume their cats will survive when they move away and leave them behind. Contrary to popular belief, the behavior of domestic cats will not automatically return to the "natural" instinctive state. Therefore it has to be understood that under these circumstances, cats cannot automatically fend for themselves! Many end up starving, abused or becoming food for predators.

Cats that exhibit this type behavior are elusive and do not trust humans. And since these cats are primarily the "wild" offspring of domestic cats that are non-neutered or spayed, that have been abandoned, these animals when left alone will breed uncontrollably.

The behavioral habits of non-neutered cats, especially males, makes them unwelcome. A pair of cats capable of breeding can have two or more litters per year, over a seven-year period can exponentially produce 420,000 offspring.

What's more, the feral cat colonies may act as reservoirs of disease which can be transmitted to your domestic pet cat when they interact with feral cats. In some countries there is also the fear of feral cat colonies spreading rabies and affecting humans.

There are government groups and privatized coalitions that are asked to help control such colonies through trap-neuter-return programs. These groups often encounter feral kittens during trapping. Since kittens attract more attention and sympathy from people than do adult cats, these groups find themselves in possession of spitty, hissy kittens which need to be tamed and homed.

It has been estimated by highly skilled groups that specialize in taming and reintroducing the feral cat to domestics that the average life span of a feral cat is less than two years on their own.

The good news; it has been proven that any cat can be re-domesticated given the right circumstances and enough time. To expedite this process, feral cat behavior has been separated into three classes. This classification program was done in an effort to better understand how to approach these cats and determine which cats would be the easiest to re-domesticate.