Attracting cats!

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We seem to have a ridiculous number of cats in my neighbourhood but its damned hard to get them to come over lol. Im aware that you should crouch down low blink slowly avoid eye contact and cluck your tongue while rubbing thumb against fingers. This doesn't work though. I wear alot of deodorant so I wonder if that's problematic...

Anyway how do you guys accomplish it short of leaving food out. I dont want to be leaving milk out for the cats or tuna because both of these foods are actually potentially harmful to cats.

I think it's impossible to attract feral cats. They won't even let you come within meters around them. If it's a timid domesticated cat, it's not impossible. When I was playing with some friendly cats, one that had never come near me actually let me pat it because it was used to playing with those other cats.

You can buy traps already made up for cats and cat-sized critters.

Trap + tin of cat food = attracted cat

(You can't attract a feral cat other than traps/bait. Nor can you keep them around as traditional pets, nor will they let you pet them without a fight. You can with stray cats that were pets for a decent amount of time though.)

Though if they're the neighbors', you probably shouldn't attract them to you.

Attract mice, provide convenient shelter and maybe plant catnip? You may and up with other forms of wildlife though.

"Attracting cats". lol

I think it depends so much on the cat, some cats just don?t do human contact and will stay well away from you. But most cats that I?ve come across are very friendly (or then cats just really like me?), so if I?m on my way somewhere, see a cat and want to pet it all I have to do is crouch down and put my hand out a little bit and they run up to me and start pushing their head against my leg. So if there are friendly cats in your neighbourhood this plan of action should suffice.

Sometimes I also come across incredibly friendly cats that will keep following me and meowing when I try to continue on my way. It?s very tricky trying to indicate to them that they should go home and that I?m just a stranger that they shouldn?t be following. But darn they?re cute! Usually this leads to at least three repetitions of the ?walk-a-metre-listen-to-the-following-meowing-give-in-and-pet-the-cat-one-more-time? protocol, which results in me being late for wherever I was going. It's not always easy attracting them, nor is it always easy getting rid of them.

haha managed to sucessfully calla domestic cat over Guessing he was hungry because he kept licking my hand XD

I like to ignore them on purpose.

I attracted and partially tamed a feral cat near my house. First I trapped her in a humane trap and got her spayed. Then I started to leave food out at the same time every day. She soon learned where to get food. So after she ate, I took the food away so as not to attract other cats. I've been feeding her at the same time for 3 years and now she lets me pet her, apply medicine to her infected eye, and apply topical flea treatments. She still doesn't want to come inside. I tried it once and she crouched in the corner for two days before I got her out with much trouble.

Before she was spayed, I lured one of her kittens inside with food and he became my pet until he got hit by a car after 2 years.

What the hell I thought the posters referring to traps were joking O.o what the hell?

I had a chance to tame a few feral cats when I was kid. It took me a few weeks.

There was a feral female cat in my neighborhood, she was escaping from humans but got kittens under my balcony so I could watch her from away. At first I was just watching her or rather her kittens. They were already wild as well. They were tiny but already escaping when I got too close - but it was fun to watch them play. The female cat was hissing at me whenever I come too close as well but that was OK, I knew she is protecting her children.

I was spending hours watching their hiding place from a few meters. After a few days the kittens started to come out and play outside, they were sometimes coming as close as 1 meter from me. Female cat was watching them closely and meowing whenever they come too close to me but since I was not moving she finally realized it is OK for them to play when I am around.

Then I started to bring some cat food and throw it to the kittens. They were coming closer and closer. Female cat called them but I thrown some food to her (closer and closer) as well and she come too. She let me touch her. She did escape right away but she didn't attack me or anything, she just jumped out of my reach, not far away.

After a few weeks all the cats were coming close enough for me to touch them when I was giving the food. Then my father came with me. I called the cats. The kittens came to us (female cat was out somewhere). My dad catched two of them, put them into a box and took somewhere by car. A few days later he somehow catched the third one and did the same. The female cat lost her trust and stopped to come to my hand. She also never brought kittens under my balcony again although she still walks around my garden at times and eats any food we leave her. She isn't picky so we treat her our leftovers. She eats anything we leave outside, including bread or potatoes.

Stealing kittens trapping cats in "Humane" traps (how can a trap be humane?) what the hell is this? Cats arent objects or toys they should be treated as you would a human. I didnt ask how to trap a cat, I asked how to attract a cat. The primary thing here is that I want the cat to come to me because it wants to not because ive trapped it and mutliated it. f*****g hell.

You have to do something with them. I only relocate male feral cats that have become a problem (stressing out my cats, fighting, eating their food). Our local shelter stopped taking cats, but before they did, I took them at least two generations of kittens. The best thing if you can is to trap the females, spay, and return them. They cut off the tip of one ear, so they aren't trapped twice.

I've invested in my own trap, it doesn't hurt them at all.

Kiriae,

The method you describe is exactly how I tamed one kitten. Food is a cat's major motivation!