Feral Cats. Feral Cats information, definition of a feral cat, how feral cats live, feral cat colonies, and pictures of feral cats.

A feral cat is either a domestic housecat who has been abandoned or gotten lost and returned to wild behaviour, or the offspring of such a cat.

Living without human contact for a long period of time, or without crucial socialization to humans as kittens, feral cats are extremely frightened and suspicious of humans.

How Does a Feral Cat Live?

Domestic cats may not have the properly honed hunting instincts necessary to fend for themselves, despite what many people think.

They are opportunistic, scavenging scraps from dumpsters and accepting hand-outs of cat food where they find them.

Feral cats are prone to picking up serious diseases such as feline leukemia and feline AIDS from other unvaccinated cats they encounter, and of course they are always in danger of being hit by cars.

Female ferals are constantly pregnant or trying to nourish their kittens on a starvation diet, and males risk injury in violent cat fights.

The average feral cat only lives for three years.

A feral colony is a social group of cats who avoid human contact, and breed with each other to create a growing population of homeless cats.


They are born outdoors and usually are hidden by their mothers; they have little or no human contact in the formative months.

As they are often nocturnal, you may not be aware of their presence or total colony size.

You might be aware of the spraying, nighttime mating, and the strong smell of urine from the intact males.

Adopting a Feral Cat