Colony Management Guidelines

A well-managed colony is a healthy and sterile group of cats.

Ongoing colony management combined with Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) will promote harmony between feral cat caretakers, neighbors, and property owners and allow for the colony to diminish naturally over time. It is crucial that the following guidelines be followed to ensure that the colony is being properly managed. Failure to follow these guidelines puts the cats at risk by increasing the chance the colony will become a nuisance, forcing Animal Control authorities to impound the cats to mitigate nuisance.

It is very important that all REGISTERED CARETAKERS follow these guidelines.

Definitions

Caretaker  A person who provides food, water, and shelter for a colony of free-roaming cats according to Spay and Stay's Colony Management Guidelines.

Colony  Any number of free-roaming cats that frequent an area seeking food or shelter.

Guidelines

1. All the cats in the colony, even those that visit sporadically, will be sterilized, eartipped for visual identification, microchipped, vaccinated for rabies and distemper, and returned to their familiar habitat. Ensure that you contact Spay and Stay as soon as you notice any new cats in your colony so they can be promptly sterilized.
2. Ensure that any cats that are injured or ill receive prompt veterinary treatment. Contact Spay and Stay if you need help finding a veterinarian who can help you. However, if there is a medical emergency, do not wait for Spay and Stay. It is not humane to allow any animal to suffer a slow, painful death.
3. Keep a good record of all cats in your colony and the dates they were sterilized.
4. Make every effort to socialize newly weaned kittens so they can be placed with an adoption group. (See Kramer Method for Socializing Kittens Over Three Weeks of Age)
5. Make every effort to remove tame adult cats so they can be placed in a permanent indoor home either through your efforts of through the efforts of a local adoption group. (See How to Find Homes for Homeless Pets, which was put togehter by Best Friends Animal Society for tips on this process.)
6. Provide adequate food and water for the cats on a daily basis, year-round, using techniques to minimize nuisance.
7. Provide adequate shelter for the cats in your colony so they can withstand the extreme cold and high winds we often face in our area. (See Winter Shelters for instructions on how to build several types of cozy winter shelters.)
8. Eliminate nuisance problems by working with your neighbors and offer humane techniques to discourage or eliminate cats from areas where they are not welcome. (See How to Keep Cats Out of Your Yard.)
9. If you are moving or can no longer adequately care for your colony, you have two options:
   • Contact Spay and Stay for techniques on how to move your colony with you, or,
   • Find a successor caretaker — a neighbor or friend who is willing to take over the care of your colony at its current location.

   Alley Cat Allies offers a great article on relocating cats called, Safe Relocation of Feral Cats. Remember, relocation should used as a last option only.

   Be sure to notify Spay and Stay about which option you have chosen so we can update our data on your colony and either include the colony's new address, or add the name of the new caretaker to our records.

Return to top

DID

YOU

KNOW?

No other method such as trap-and-kill has ever worked to effectively control the feral cat population.

TNR works!