Cat doesn't like the its own house. Anyway I can make him sleep there?

[jrs21c]

Hello,

I posted a couple of times asking about cat behavior.
This is our first cat, and is a stray cat.
He is neutered, approximately 5-7 years old.

Here's the first post I wrote about 2 months ago, with a few pix.
New Cat questions and hello

The cat was about 8lbs when first visited us. Now good 11 pounds. He tends to overeat everytime we feed him.

He stops by at our house at least 3 times a day. And we feed him twice a day.
When he is around, we pet him, feed him, play with him for a while. When we go inside, he stays a bit and leaves.

Sometimes, when our cars come in, the cat hears the engine and comes home to say hello. We again pet him.

As soon as the cat starts to staying around the house, I built a house you see in the previous post.
The cat first stayed there when rained or slept in there.

When he was away for 4~5 days and visited us only once a day for food. He always came back with scars, dusts.
After doing that for about 5 days. He showed up more often, and sometimes slept near our house. But not in the cat house.

We thought something has changed, so we bought one of those plastic boxes with lids. Made a hole, filled with straw. But the cat doesn't want go in there.
We tried to put his favorite treats, but he would eat them and just get out as soon as he's done.

It's getting cold even in Georgia, and we felt so bad he had to leave us every night to sleep somewhere else.

So we even bought the heated cat house from Amazon for Christmas hoping the cat would stay if it is warm in his house.

We assembled the house, and brought the cat inside our house. Put the cat food in the cat house so that he realizes how warm it is. After that, we put the cat house right outside the door. The cat simply won't sit in there unless there's food.

It's 11 pm again, and he has gone somewhere, and we have three different kinds of cat shelters sitting outside our front door for one cat. And he still sleeps somewhere else.

For additional information, we have a neighbor who keeps 7 stray cats in her backyard. She has a big shelter for cats that's covered with some kind of water proofing cover. All of her cats are fed.
We once talked to her as our cat was eating there (and she called), and after we talked to her, she told us she won't feed him anymore (as she knew the cat was fed somewhere else). But she told us he is always welcomed to come and play with other cats. But she also told us that the other cats always chase our cat when he visits them.

Another thing is, when we had to bring him to the vet, we fit him in a small cage to make the 15 min drive trip. The cat really hated to be kept in the box, but didn't think there was any other way. The second time we visited, the cat peed in the box. I was afraid to open the box after stopping the car so just poured and cleaned with tissues, and hurried up to home.

I am not sure above mentioned will affect his current behavior, but we are not sure what we can do to have him stay and sleep at any of the houses we bought/made.

It's not like he doesn't love us.. When someone visits us to see the cat, the cat always approach the family members, not the strangers. He is a nice cat, but I think he recognizes us well enough.
It's just that he always leaves us behind after staying around for a while.
BTW, when he started staying with us. He stayed near our house maybe always. We go out, and he was there. But not anymore.

Thanks for reading, and any of your thoughts would be greatly helpful to us.

And Merry Christmas to all!

[marie73]

He tends to overeat everytime we feed him.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. How can he overeat when you feed him? Do you put a huge bowl of food down and expect him to stop when he's full? Are you feeding him with other cats and he's eating more than his share? If so, feed him alone and cut back on what you're giving him. Someone else is definitely feeding him.

[jrs21c]

Originally Posted by marie73

I'm not sure what you mean by this. How can he overeat when you feed him? Do you put a huge bowl of food down and expect him to stop when he's full? Are you feeding him with other cats and he's eating more than his share? If so, feed him alone and cut back on what you're giving him. Someone else is definitely feeding him.

Well, he always seemed to want to eat more when we were giving him 'recommended amount' which was not much. Considering he was always starving being a stray cat, we felt bad. About a month ago, our neighbor told us that he was eating at her place as well, and she told us she wouldn't feed him anymore. So we almost doubled his daily food to see if we could ever satisfy him. I guess not. He always finishes everything we give him except for a few times. He's always eating by himself and he eats fast in one sit. I guess we need to cut back on what we are giving. We just felt so sorry for the cat. We didn't want him to be not full and sleep out there in cold weather. Sorry I wasn't descriptive enough.

[marie73]

My girls act like they're starving 10 minutes after I feed them. If I opened 3 cans of food and put that in front of Charlee or Cleo, they'd eat until they puked.

Usually the "recommended amount" is more than they need (companies trying to sell more food), and cats acting hungry and never satisfied is, in most cases, cats being cats.

[lovetimesfour]

The 'recommended amount' is for a pampered house cat. Not a cat living outside. Feed him as much as he will eat, unless he appears to be getting too fat. He needs the energy and nutrition for outside living.

Is he neutered?

How do you know for sure he isn't using the shelters? Try to not worry. He knows they are there, if he needs it. Cats can be suspicious of someplace new. He may decide to take them over eventually.

What does he do when you bring him inside?

Peeing in the carrier is a common thing, many cats do it, out of stress or fear.

[lovetimesfour]

By the way, always thump the hood of your cars a couple of times before you start them. Cats tend to climb into car engines when they are warm.

[jrs21c]

Yes. He eats a lot. We can understand though considering he was a stray cat.
Vet told us the cat was out on the street at least a couple of years.
So I assume he tries to eat as much as possible when it is available.
This is strange enough for us, as we never had a cat, and for dogs we have, they control their foods themselves. Even for all the dogs we had previously.
I guess Things are very different for cats, and that's why I joined the forum

When we let him inside, he walks around in the house checking every room. Downstairs and upstairs. Our Chiwawa hates him inside, but she always hides in her house. Cat doesn't seem to care even a bit.

The reason I know he never used the shelter anymore is that seriously we check on him at least 20 times a day. And he's not there.

We tried hard last night for him to realize it's warm in the house. We put his golf ball and he played a bit. But he was gone after that.

I checked multiple times after that, and he wasn't there.

I went outside at 3 in the morning, and heard bell ringing and saw him sitting in the new cat house

This morning, we removed 'old' cat shelters away. I guess he found a new home finally.

Thanks everyone for your inputs!! and Truly Merry Christmas.

That was a good Christmas present for sure.

[kittyfreak]

hi i take care of 14 ferals and have made shelters like you i also have 2 cats that are mine. the way i find out if they were sleeping in there was i would put a blanket in there and could see some hair on the blanket and i would know they had been in there. hope this helps.

[tghsmith]

ferals often look at a box bed as a trap, ie, some other animal could get them and with no escape route they are trapped, try putting one of the boxes up of the ground were a cat can get to but other critters would have trouble.. my outdoor rehabbed feral lives in large kennel, but during the day when he is out running around he will not go back in(one way in, no way out if something came in after him, in the evening he will herd me over to the kennel to lock him up for the night,, he knows its a safe place..

[catloverami]

Thanks for looking after this sweet boy. It does seem now that he has found "another home", maybe one that he can go inside of.

I'm rather curious why you didn't let him stay inside when you found out that your Chihuahua instead of chasing him like you thought he would, actually "hides in her house", and the cat seemed to feel right at home there exploring all the rooms and really paid no attention to the dog. It seems the cat likely had a home before with a friendly dog as it wasn't concerned about it. Was there some reason you could not have kept it?