2009/06/23

feral behavior different in colony than in a cage?

My friend who team feeds a colony was out of town this past weekend and asked me to feed her colony for her. This is the same colony where we got the cat who bit me, and we recently returned after she was spayed and quarantined for 10 days.


One of the cats there, a pretty tuxedo cat, is tame to the feeders, but when I helped TNR him and held him at my house in a cage, he growled and wanted to kill me. We had to hang on to him for about a week after his neuter since he had a nasty head wound and we wanted it to heal up some before returning him. When my friend came to visit Tuxedo at my house he was tame, purred for her, wanted scratches, etc., but if I got near the cage he growled and spit and tried his best to act dangerous (which I seriously respected). This was a couple months ago.

When I went out to the colony to feed this past weekend, Tuxedo and another cat were there waiting for me. The other cat has been friendly to me the 3 other times I have been at the colony. Tuxedo ran up to me and wanted not just food, but serious petting! He would purr and rub all over me, even to the point of ignoring the food to get pets. None of this hang back and see that the other cat thought it was OK, he was right in there for attention!

Is this common behavior? I know that some ferals get friendly to their regular feeders and won't trust other people, but this cat hadn't seen me since I had him at my place and there he wanted to do serious harm to me. This is also a bit discouraging, if they remain ferocious in a cage, but back in their home turf they are sweet.




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