All About Cat Care

Tips For Taking In And Caring For A Stray Cat

February 4th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed

When taking in a stray cat or a cat from the wild, your first consideration must be for your family and any existing household pets. Here are some tips for specific things that you should do before you allow the cat to come into your home.

Approach a wild cat carefully. Many cats that are in the wild are not trusting of humans or other animals. If you try to touch it, it may scratch or even bite you. Put your hand down and allow the cat to come to you. Don’t make sudden movements and be very patient so that it sees that you are not a risk.
Avoid bringing the cat directly into the home at first. Instead, keep him or her in the garage until you are sure that he is healthy. As well as introducing any type of health risk or disease you also don’t want to bring fleas or ticks into your home. Instead, take the wild cat to your vet within the first few days to find out any potential health problems. Then you know what you are dealing with.
If you already have a pet cat, introducing it to a wild cat will be difficult. You need to keep them separate until you are happy that any health problems have been cleared up and that they won’t fight if left alone together. Again, you will need a lot of patience.

Although they seem to be a little rougher around the edges, stray cats are often friendly, beautiful and make great house pets, if they are given the chance and above all, love and patience from the new owner.