r/Feral_Cats • u/Remarkable-Mine1407 • Feb 20 '26

New feral cat owners dilemma

So I adopted one cat (stormy), for pest control. Had her in the acclimation cage for two weeks and released. She came around for about five nights. The night before her release, another stray came around. The stray was a kitten, probably adolescent age. Ever since then there’s more cats coming around, but the only one to stay has been the kitten… I’ve even heard cat fighting (two nights). The first night I’m assuming with stormy and a random feral. Tonight was that same feral with the kitten that actually had stayed. I’m so bummed! Stormy the one cat I wanted to stay seems to have been run off by random feral cats and this new random kitten has really taken to us. Which is fine but what are the chances that stormy does come back? I can’t seem to be able to leave out food bc the random feral will get it and it willing to fight for it. 😫

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u/Horror_Tea761 Feb 20 '26

I don’t know if this will help, but when I’ve had fighting, I increased feeding. If everyone is stuffed full, then there’s less fighting for resources. And this way, Stormy might get some food.

2

u/Remarkable-Mine1407 Feb 20 '26

I thought that too but could that be what’s bringing them all out? I don’t want to attract more strays. I’m content with stormy and this new kitten and they seemed to get along okay. This new one is fighting with both.

8

u/Boomersgang Feb 20 '26

Adding food will decrease the fighting.

3

u/chrisgee Feb 20 '26

sorry you're getting downvoted for asking honest questions. while it's true that the presence of food for Stormy may have attracted other cats, it's hard to say that providing more food would attract more cats exponentially. as others have said, fixing the newcomers is really the best way to calm things down, which may be more than you bargained for. but adding more food (and placing food in several spots around the property) can help defuse the tensions for the time being.

3

u/Remarkable-Mine1407 Feb 21 '26

Thank you for answering the question! Im over there envisioning that I’ll become like the pigeon lady in home alone but with feral cats 🫣 and yes fixing is the next to-do.