Picking up a couple 4 month old kittens this weekend who have been with their siblings and mom at a buddys place. Any tips to keep them here? They are and will remain outside cats.

Why?

You beat me to it.

They're good musky bait ... if you don't let them get too big.

I prefer cats to mice.

Likely for mice and rats. Get them neutered or you will be up to your eyeballs in cats. and that will help to keep them from wandering.

males or females?

feed at the same time every morning

a place with good shelter out of the elements like a dog house the farm has a dog house stuffed with straw near the back door where they get fed each morning and the female cats seldom wander more than a few hundred yards

other farms would feed outside the milk house in the barn and the cats hung out in the barn most of the time

feed where you would like them to stay near.

males will eventually get hormones and likely go on a wander and new males wander in well behaved cats don't get shot , don't behave, start fights tear stuff up and do

females seem a lot less wander-ish and just hang around the farm


my neighbor has a small chain link fenced back yard between his house and garage a cat door and after having a Hot wire on the top of his fence for a few weeks when he got the new cats they come and go from the house as they please but never have I seen them leave the fence

learning about hot wires once seemed to have been enough

Bet they could be ground up like a bobcat for coyote bait too! LoL!

Give them some soft cat food to start they should stick around then.

not sure they are that effective soem good repeating mouse bucket traps would probably do more for less cost

yes get them nutered / spayed or you will be up to your eyeballs in cats in no time

The trick to settling a cat at a new home is to keep them contained at the new site, before letting them go. Young cats, like the 4 month olds you are picking up, are easy to settle. You can keep them in a sealed section of barn or a large dog crate for 4 days before letting them go and they will most likely settle.

Keith

I got a couple of kittens from the dump. We figured they were about six weeks old. Put them on the back deck with some canned catfood. They were catching mice three or four months later. They catch them before they ever get to the house. Got a male and a female. Should be about old enough to get fixed. We have a big old male fixed tomcat. We have had him for ten years and he just wandered up to the house. Never saw that cat with a kill

Lots of good advice

Put them on a leash. May I suggest 1x19 1/16 with camlock.

Outside cats kill birds and small game.

Unless the birds and small game start killing the mice, the cats get a place….for now. Im not gonna be upset if they get rid of some rabbits too

unless you want a field full of inbred kittens i would get them fixed. they start breeding at an early age.

Myself I have never liked a cats.. i've had one now 9 yrs she showed up one day and has out lived 2 dogs. .. I still dont like cats.. but ive grown accustomed to cat being around. .

X2 on the spay or neuter.

There are other means of getting rid of mice. The only good cat is a dead one!