Buying a trap

Buying a trap, where to start?

When you first start trapping, its probably because you have a stray cat coming to your house looking for food. Before you buy one, you may want to be aware of the entire TNR process. We have a guide for that here.. If this is a new cat to your yard, you'll likely have no issues trapping it with a standard trap from a DIY store and can start there. If you find yourself facing a devious foe who won't go into a standard trap, you might need try some things. Worse case scenario, for those cats who can't be fooled into a standard trap, is the Drop Trap.

Standard Live Traps

Pictured above is your standard trap from Home Depot, Menards, or Farm and Fleet. It is a galvanized steel cage with a spring loaded door. The door has linkages to a plate that raises when you set the trap. A cat steps on the plate, pulling the linkage, letting the door slam shut. They're noisy, they freak the cats out a little when they go off, and the cat knows it has been tricked.

This is really all you need if you want to trap cats that come to your home. They can usually be latched open so you can train a cat to take meals in them, removing their fear of the cage. They come in a few sizes. Squirrel sized are usually ok for kittens, but you want to upgrade to racoon sized for adult cats so they have room to turn around. The galvanized steel will eventually rust or break. Your cage will get poop, pee, or puke all over it eventually if you trap long enough and these cages don't clean up as easy as nicer ones.

Tricked out standard traps.

Tomahawk traps. sells a variety of nicer versions of the standard cage. They have both kitten and adult cat sized traps. They offer powder coating on the trap cage and components to make cleaning and upkeep easier. They often feature gravity close and soft-close doors that mean the cat often isn't even aware it has been trapped until its finished its meal. They also offer access doors on the back size of the trap which make is possible to provide food and water to cats while they're in your custody.

What are all these extras Tomahawk sells? Do I need them?

Tomahawk has many items for sale that can make trapping easier, and also some items that make caring for the possibly hostile cat easier too. The secret is you don't really need to buy them, you can get many of the same benefits via DIY approaches

Trap floor mats

Some cats hate walking on wire. It can feel weird and be offputting, keeping a cat from walking into your trap. Tomahawk sells plastic mats that sit on the floor of the trap from the front door back to the pressure plate. You can make roughly the same thing with cardboard cut down to the same dimensions. If it gets wet it will slowly degrade, but it doesn't take much time to cut a new piece out when you need to. Especially if your family has an Amazon habit. I'm not speaking from experience, I swear.

Trap covers

Similarly, when handling a trap with a feral cat it will freak out on your anytime you get close. Tomahawk sells hard plastic covers that slide over the tops of their traps. It essentially envelops the cat in darkness, and oddly cats stop freaking out when they can't see out.

Its not exactly a secret, but roughly 1 yard of felt fabric from a fabric store will cover any adult cat trap giving you all the same benefits, but also being very easy to wash.

Trap forks

This thing is basically a fork that fits between the holes in the side of the trap, letting you have access to a side of the trap and keeping the cat from being able to slash or bite you. Its not super expensive, so I personally bought one.

You could probably make something similar with items from a DIY store, but it'll probably cost almost as much.

Powder coating

Tomahawk sells kitten cages by default without powder coating. I would splurge on that upgrade, personally, because it makes them much easier to clean. Kittens are messy and get very poopy. VERY POOPY. Trust me on this.

Drop Traps

"A cat will walk into a trap once, and then you're burned on ever using that trap again." - Ancient Proverb

Its kind of true though. Most cats, once trapped in a standard trap, won't go willingly into another one. Things happen and they escape while you are handling the trap, or they have medical issues and can't be spayed when you take them in. So you have to retrap the cat that won't go into a standard trap.

That is where drop traps come in. If you every watched Loony Toons you've seen a coyota take a box, a stick, and some string to try to catch a road runner. The same kind of trap exists for live trapping wile animals too.

It is usually a galvanized steel wire box with one or two doors built into it. You put bait under it, wait for the cat to start eating, and pull on the string. The trap drops, the cat immediately starts trying to get out and you have to sit on it to keep the cat from flipping the edge up and squeezing out.

This is the wonderful world of the drop trap. Its as nerve wracking as it sounds, but it enables you to catch those cats who are wary of standard traps.

The drop trap doors usually allow you to urge the captures cat into a trap brought up to the portal, and the cat is ready to cart off to it's appointment.

Drop traps can also be very useful if kittens follow their mom to food. You can catch a mom and her entire litter if you're particularly lucky.

Just buying one

I feel like I'm shilling for Tomahawk traps. but they do provide a ready made drop trap made out of steel. Its ready to interface with their traps or one you bought at a local store. They're not super expensive. They are collapsible for storage and transport. Depite feeling like I'm a shill, I'm not using referral codes just passing on info about a retailer I've personally bought products from and loved the equipment.

Making one

Become one with your inner cartoon coyote.

You can build a frame out of wood and utilize chicken wire or another type of wire barrier to build a slightly heavy but funtional drop trap. You should build a transfer door into one side with a piece of wood that can slide out, allowing cats to be moved into traps without confrontation or chance of harm to either side.

These are usually a good deal heavier and less portable than a purchased one. Be very careful to only spring the trap if the cat won't get crushed by the heavy wood frame.