Feral Cat Outdoor Feeding Station
Вставка
- Опубліковано 4 жов 2024
- My son and I built this feeding station about 2 years ago to keep the raccoons and skunks out of the cat food, so far it has been perfect, the only animals getting into the feeder are cats and birds:) Thank you for watching and please subscribe. If you have any questions please leave them in the comments section below.
NOTE: The height of the feeding station from the ground to where the cats sit is 52"
8-4-22 - A viewer used some aspects of this feeder design but took it to a whole new level, an excellent job, if you want more options please go to her video here:
• DIY Elevated Feline Fe...
It looks great, Thank you Angela Glaze also Known as: Angela Pearl's Critter Village:)
I have been asked a lot about the height of my feeding station, the video mentions all of the approx dimensions but I will list the height, it is 52" off the ground to where the cats sit and eat, there is a formula online to determine how far your cat can jump for it's size, it averages from 4 feet to 6 1/2 feet for most cats, I have seen our cats jump higher then that but that is not the norm:)
coons can jump as high as 4 feet. I put out just a little at a time, then the coon can only get so much, my landlord wouldn't approve of a feral cat feeder, some people think they're evil.
@@FourthWayRanch people who believe cats as evil are self projecting their own ignorant thoughts and ignorance and evil are 2 sides of the same coin, both always cause suffering!
That feeder for the poor kitties outside is great
I care for a feral mom and her two kittens. I was able to trap all three and get them to a vet. Got all 3 spayed/neutered and vaccinated. They are such a joy. Love your video.
Thanks for caring for the cats:)
Excellent!!
Thanks for being a great guy! Not many are willing to care for the forgotten 👏👏👏👏
We love taking care of stray cats, been doing it for years:) Thank you for watching.
Nice build and thank you for caring for the kitties.
Thank you! And thank you for watching.
Enjoyed your build. Thank you for taking care of those cats.
Thank you and we enjoy taking care of all the cats:)
Thanks for doing all of this. I have three heated and insulated houses I am finishing myself for 8 “feral” cats and the heater water bowl. Amazing how UA-cam knows these things and shows me the videos of others who have done the same. Lol. Anyway thanks for taking care of them.
Thank you for sharing:)
Hey anyway you can send me a pic of your heated house?? Also can I make an insulated house out of the bins and still put a heating pad in this winter???
My email is urcop4me@aol.com
@@mercy6305 you talking to me or simple life in the woods? If me.. good question on the insulated bins with the heating pad. The one thing to.. make sure they are raised off the ground so if it snows, they dont become trapped. K&h makes a vinyl house with a heating pad for about 60 bucks.. they are so so..I had two of them under a gazebo outside for 2 years and the neighborhood cats did fine so I guess they do get warm enough. I noticed K&h sells heating pads on their own that seem to get warmer than the ones that come in their vinyl houses.. I put those in the 32x32 houses I built. But putting those in an insulated bin, I wonder if they get to warm for that enclosed of an area. You dont want the cats getting dehydrated. It honestly is a good question. Anyway, if you are talking to me.. I can send you pictures of the houses... I will snap a few pictures tomorrow.
@@ChrisS-if7ev you Chris what do you think??
I love your feeding station. Very well done!
Thank You
Thanks for feeding the feral cats! I just happened across your channel while researching ideas for feeding stations. I've been doing cat rescue for 5+ years & it appears you have a good understanding of your cats. Is there an organization near you that could humanely trap these cats so they could be spayed/neutered? It's a successful program utilized by many animal rescue organizations, called TNR, or trap, neuter, return.
We live pretty far out in the boonies:) And as such it is a poor county and programs don't exist like that here, fortunately people around us do their best to feed and care for these cats, surprisingly there aren't too many stray cats, a lot of these cats we call feral are actually cats that other neighbors own and most of them are already "fixed" and they let them roam free, helps keep the rodents at bay:) Thank you for watching and caring:) Note: I must add that the feral cats that come to our station seem to be real friendly, you wouldn’t need to trap them, just pick them up, 9 times out of 10 they will be purring when you pick them up:) We have a couple of spooky ones but they too come by you and want to be petted.
I ordered traps from Amazon. They were quite easy to trap. Found a vet who would take feral cats. Total cost for 3 cats was $400. Not cheap but better than having dozens of cats. They are all fixed and have their vaccines.
Most areas do have TNR at least somewhere that might serve you area. And jus about all cities have free or reduced spa neuter. I really love seeing how you’re caring for these guys with the food and feral ca house and heated water bowls. I wish more people cared as much for these babies as you do. Thank you and thank you for sharing your designs. 🎃
Hello again! Wanted to let you know that I finally made my own feeding platform and DIY video and I gave you a shout-out! Thanks!
Wow! That looks great! You have a very unique set up there for your animals and birds, I like it, I will put a link in my video description so my viewers can see other options to this build, Thanks for the shout out I appreciate it:)
Thanks for posting this. Looking to build something similar for our ferals which the raccoon can’t overcome.
Thanks - give it a try, it has worked wonders for us:)
It is good to keep the house off the ground but if you put straw under it the straw serves as insulation. Don’t use hay. It attracts vermin....bugs, rodents, etc., besides it rots quickly.
Thank you, yea in the video I screwed up, I meant straw but said hay:) And its funny that you mentioned putting straw under the cat house, we do that every winter and that cat house is insulated also, its like a mini house inside.
How clever! Thank you for the idea. UA-cam got me here days after I searched cat shelter ideas. Cool eh
Just letting you know, I am going to "steal" your idea
Great job guy thankx
Thank you:)
You should make the raccoon proof feral cat feeders and sell them on etsy. I would purchase from you.
Thank you for your suggestion, we have thought about that but seeing as there are tons of videos on UA-cam showing you how to make one we figured it not to be worth it. That is exactly where we got the idea:) But you never know we may in the future:) Thanks for watching!
Simple Life In The Woods Hi again :) You mentioned in your video that you use hay inside the feral cat shelter. Hay draws and holds moisture. As a result, it can become moldy and cause allergic reactions, including nasal sores. Please only use straw.
Simple Life In The Woods When you get a chance, check out my youtube videos of my feral cats and their shelters on my back porch. I have to try and make myself a feeding station like yours. You will see why, after watching my vids 😬
@@terriandsteves - Hi thanks for pointing that out, what I meant to say is we use straw. We always use straw. Thanks for watching
I can attest this feeder works, the only issue is the cats jumping down to the ground all the time. I set out another nearby table to help, but it has to be about 3 feet away so the racoons can't grab the top edge. Great build!
Thanks for watching and for your input:) Our cats have no problem getting up or down but each case is different so do what has to be done to keep your cats happy:)
YOU'RE CLUELESS= 😳😳RACOON HERE IN FL. MUST BE SPIDERMAN THEN.
Yep, hv raccoons...live in a small town, near a river, and this year raccoons hv come around. I have a cat shelter on the back porch....now, need something like this...🤔 Thank you.;
P.S. Love the dog house conversion. I have plastic totes x 8, then covered with tarps, all a top wood pallets.
I lease, and there is no plug in on the back porch unfortunately. I would love to have a plugin water bowl for the Winter here in Colorado for my ferrals.
Thank you:) I am going to make another video here soon explaining more details on all of it, and the heated water bowl is a blessing, you won't regret buying one, they only last a few years but they are cheap to buy. I work two jobs and this channel is a hobby so video uploads are slow:) Once again thanks, and your set up sounds pretty good, you should make a video of your set up:)
Nice cat house 👍
Thank you and thanks for watching.
Your awesome
Thank You, Thanks For Watching:)
Do you have plans for your designs? I love the cat house. How high are the boards on the side of the feeder? Is that a plastic cover over the sides, and where would you get it?
We have no plans for it, we just used what we had laying around our place:) The feeder itself was a bird feeder in the beginning, we just added the roof with basically 2x2's and some aluminum siding we had from our home, and the sides are made from the same aluminum siding mounted just low enough to keep the coons from reaching around and pulling themselves up. As for the height of the boards on the sides, the aluminum I believe is like 8" high, the video explains all the dimensions while showing how I did it.
The post is nothing but a 6' pressure treated 4x4 with a plastic cover put over it so that the coons can't climb it. I really can't take credit for this because even though I made my own design we got the ideas from numerous videos on UA-cam, we just put them together:)
And so far only the cats a birds can get into it:) Thank you for watching!
Always use straw NOT hay. Hay binds moisture and doesnt insulate. Only straw insulates. Other thann that, really liking both the feeding station and the shelter.
Hi, I misquoted in the video, I meant to say straw, we always use straw:) Thank you for watching we appreciate it:)
@@thisoldmobilehomeinthewood8434
I still don't understand how the cats jump up there. How high is it? Are you sure every cat can jump that high?
Is this method also anti possum??? I live in Indiana and I got a possum issue. Or any other recommendations that are good for anti possum feeders
I don't think they could because the raccoons try to climb the pole and can't grab onto it, it's smooth plastic, we don't have possums around here but I don't see anyway they could grab on and climb up it:) Thank you for watching:)
No bears? Are all your cats spayed/neutered?
Thanks for watching, as for bears it varies, this year we haven’t seen any, we have a lot of hunters around here so I don’t know if that’s why we haven’t seen any. And our other videos explain about our cats, a lot of our cats are from our neighbors, their cats come over for free food:) So we can’t get their cats fixed and we have a lot of friends that love cats and we have given a lot of them away to good homes.
It’s very expensive to get your cats fixed where we live, there are no programs to help with the cost. We love our cats and our property would not be the same with no cats:) Thank you for watching we really appreciate it.
Love this! I'm making one similar. What did you use to seal the sharp edges of the metal walls? Thanks!
Thank You:) I made my own bending brake out of 2 two by fours and screwed them down to my saw horses, then I slipped the aluminum panel into the slot and then bent the edges over and finished it with my 3 pound mallet, the edges are not perfect but they are not sharp so as to hurt the cats or birds or us. It worked real good:)
There tons of different ways to do it I just chose that. Good luck with your project and thank you for watching:)
Genius
Thank You:)
We don’t have problems with raccoons and such raiding our cat feeding bowls, at least we don’t think we do:) But this looks like a good project nonetheless to keep our outdoor cats food high and dry, did this set up stop the coons from getting to the food? Thanks
Thank you, and yes so far no coons or any animals have gotten into the feeder except for the cats and birds, not even squirrels get up there, we made sure it was near no trees.
can you post those cat lives in your field! To see what they look like 👍🏽
Hi, I don’t get the question? We don’t have a field, I’m sorry if I don’t understand your question, thank you for watching.
Hi thanks for the video, I learned a couple new things to help me in my quest to build a great elevated station. I wanted to ask something about your ferals, are you practicing TNR and/or do you have a local organization that assists with that?
Thanks for watching, as for TNR there is no program like that where I live and these cats are really not Feral, I put that in the title for better search results, all of our cats either belong to us as house cats and outdoor cats and our neighbors cats:) So we can't legally do that to our neighbors pet cats. All of our cats can be held, and they stay in our house almost as much as they do outside:)
It would be nice if we had a program out here, but we unfortunately don't.
Hey! Just wondering if you have ever had any issues with mountain lions hunting the ferals that come to eat at this station? We have been feeding ferals and had our first mountain lion visitor prowling around our yard. Want to continue to feed the ferals but don’t want the mountain lion to figure out that they come here to eat! Thanks
Hi, we never get mountain lions around us, they do show up in other parts of the state but not near us, thank you for posting:)
Not a criticism at all, but why didn't you build another shelter close by for the father of the kittens to sleep in?
Hi, no criticism taken, I’m no wildlife expert but the males are chased off and out of the area by our two females when there are babies around, the only time they come around when our cats are in heat, once in a great while the males will eat in our feeders but our neighbors own the males not us, and we have all kinds of buildings and piles of stuff that the cats can use for shelter and the males choose not to, probably because our oldest female is really protective and chases them away:) I have seen it many a times. Thank you for your response and watching:)
i have a tall metal patio pub style table that the height would need to figure out that skirting issue to go around the table as they would get up thru the legs.. can you think of a way i can attach the metal or plastic sheeting to the metal table top? thx so MUCH i love this!
Thank you - as for your situation it would depend upon the thickness of the metal, the metal skirting I put up was aluminum so I was able to use my air brad nailer that used small staples, it worked perfectly but it depends upon what you have and I was going thru aluminum into wood, depending upon the thickness of the metal table edge you are going thru you might have to drill a hole for the screws.
You could even use small nails if the metal is not to thick, it has to be attached good because the raccoons would tear it apart otherwise. And be sure to take care of the sharp edges so as no to injure the cats, mine was easy to do because it was aluminum.
It all depends upon the tools you have, if you had a drill you could use self tapping hex head screws, all kinds of options:)
Good luck and have fun, your cats will love it:)
@@thisoldmobilehomeinthewood8434
Oh my gosh I was searching and searching to find where in the world I could see your post back! Thank you so much I did get a friend that built me one but I think it’s too high it’s 48 inches high and I have an old feral that just looks up at it and a young one that jumped up on it once and I even put an assist close by. Do you think it’s just a matter of time before they figure it out? To get up there? Or do you think I need to lower it?
@@pamdavis9077 Me too I couldn't find your post here, I don't know why it's sometimes so hard to find comments, I get notices and then I go there and it's not there:( But with a little searching and reloading the page your post here showed up:) I have been asked dozens of times about the height so awhile back I pinned how high our feeder is up, ours I believe is about 52 inches, to where the cats sit, it should be no problem for your cats to jump up that high, there could be all kinds of reasons for why they are not:)
A couple of our cats wouldn't jump up there because for the smaller cats we leave a food bowl in the woodshed for them, and those two bigger cats were too spoiled to jump up to get the food after they found the bowl we thought we hid from the big cats:) Well we pulled the bowl out of the shed and just fed the smaller cats twice a day and then pulled the bowl, about a day later we seen the two "spoiled" bigger cats had now jumped up in the feeder:)
So it could be that they are either spoiled or lazy and just don't want to jump, especially if you have been feeding them on the ground, pull the food bowls and grab your cat and show him how to get up there, pick him up and put him up there, let him eat a bit then grab him and put him on the ground, do it over and over, he/she will get the idea, they are very smart and amazing creatures:)
I hope this helps, our cats jump up all the time with no problem, they are really graceful when they get the hang of it:) Anymore questions feel free to write, sorry it took so long. Thanks for watching:)
@@thisoldmobilehomeinthewood8434 WOW happened to me again (no notifications!) so i am glad I saved/bookmarked this so I could come back and check and see your response. Thank you so much for this great information! Mine is about that high too, and I have these 2 ferals I am trying to help and one didn't want to go up, but I put up some stinky canned fish up there and the female made the jump whew. So I think you synopsys is right about them being spoiled to eating on the ground etc. I had been doing that as I waged war with the racoons eating their food all the time. I really think your video has helped so many of us and love your setup. Best wishes to you :)
@@pamdavis9077 Thank you for the kind comments:)
Do you not have a problem with squirrels? Seems like they could jump that far.
Never, we made sure to keep the feeders away from trees that they could jump from, we seen some try to jump up there from the ground but they never made it, so far we haven't had a problem, with all the cats we have around the squirrels would be crazy to go up there:) Thanks for watching:)
How did you train the cats to jump up there to eat? This is our second day trying to use an elevated feeding station like yours and the cats have not eaten the past two days. It's like they can't figure it out. I even put some wet food in their bowl because I thought it would be more aromatic.
When we first set it up we physically showed some of the cats the feeder by lifting them up to it and by putting their paws on the edge while holding them and then help them pull themselves up, we did that a few times along with pulling the other feeding stations we had on the ground.
But we only had to do that to just a few of them, most of them automatically did it on their own, cats as you know are curious and they will find it, give them time. try to keep the only food you have out in the raised feeder, we also find the cats have to be at least 6 months old to seem to have the courage to do it. Good luck, just keep putting them up there and let them jump down on their own. Thanks
Hi some cats aren't big on vertical leaps so you can put near the station a post with a small platform that's a bit shorter than the station that they would be able to spring from but it wouldn't be close enough for a raccoon to lean and grab onto the edge of the station. A lot of people do that with their design, I've seen it several times in my research. My personal cats at home I have one that has never been able to even jump up onto the kitchen counter, where the rest of them certainly prove that can. She's just not a big jumper when it comes to going up but she can jump down pretty well. So I'm thankful for knowing that about her, now I never assume that all cats whether pet or feral have the same agility levels, some have limitations just like we all do. 😺
@@Waiting4myFallingUp - Thanks for your input, I agree, but our cats don't have any issues getting up there, they will jump up there and lay in the sun:) And putting a small platform down lower so they can jump won't work, all it will do is help the raccoons get into the feeding station which is the reason we built this in the first place.
It's amazing to watch the cats jump up there, so graceful and with such precision, cats love to climb and jump and when there's a food incentive it makes it even more tempting for them. You'd be surprised at what the cats are capable of doing, I can sit outside on a lawn chair and watch them do their thing, they love laying up there a lot:)
So the cats can jump up there?
Yes the older cats can jump up there with no problem, the kittens can't so we have a food bowl for them in our woodshed, but they are about 2 1/2 months old and should be able to do it soon, I'll try to get some video of them doing just that in the future.
Some of the older cats over 10 years old can start having problems jumping up that high.
@@ccjjpp1966 - We have been doing this for years and as of yet we have never seen a problem, and as a whole it’s rare to see real old feral cats, especially out here where we are at, cats are amazing animals, their skills are amazing, jumping up to our feeder is a walk in the park for them but impossible for coons and foxes to get to the feeder.
This is what we do and it’s worked great but if your situation is different then by all means feed them like you do, but hopefully you don’t have other animals raiding the food bowl.
@@thisoldmobilehomeinthewood8434 Racoons in the warm weather but they seem to disappear in cold weather.
@@ccjjpp1966 true but what is your point?
How high off the ground is the feeder? It looks like it is pretty high?
Hi and thanks for watching, as for the height it's about 4 feet off the ground, I am planning on making an updated video on this to show how easy it is for the cats to get up there to feed.
The video is up showing the cats jumping up there:)
can you post actual dimensions please
There are no real dimensions, the video explains all the measurements but with my setup there are no standards, you can make it anyway you want, mine is 4 feet off the ground, but you can go 5 feet or whatever, the area that holds the food can be whatever size you want.
My setup is the result of many videos on UA-cam, on showing how to make a feeder like this, I just made my own by following them and the humane societies recommendations, and of course what I had on hand for materials.
Just go for it and modify it for what you need in your area. Thanks for watching.
Don't spay. You're ending lives! A life cycle will end. 😯😩