In article ,
(Sheri) wrote:

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I have had situations like this at my colony. One very effective tactic
is to get them hungry. Very hungry. Make sure nobody else in the area
is feeding them. Then withold food for a day or two (you can feed the
altered cats, but only if they will eat while you monitor them). Try to
set it up so that nobody gets any food unless you give it to them, and
then only at assigned times. A feeding pattern (same time and place
every day), established beforehand, helps a great deal.

The baited trap will soon begin to seem much more interesting to the
recalcitrant-but-increasingly-hungry animals. Note that this will only
work if you can control the artificial (which is to say, human sourced)
food supply very throroughly. Don't worry about the prey catches;
they're neither sufficient nutritionally nor reliable enough to keep
the kitty stomach from rumbling. The important thing is to drive the
cat to distraction from hunger so it ignores its own cautionary
instincts.

The only other thing that worked for me is time. One feral queen had
two litters before I was able to get her (I often felt like Captain
Ahab against the great white whale)...but I DID get her (sometimes I
get the oddest feeling that she surrendered herself to me), and she
lives in the colony to this day, as smart and cagey as ever she was.
Just don't give up, whatever you do.

BTW, I have also seen one or two cats get out before the trapdoor
closed fully. I have also seen small kittens merrily walk all over the
trip plate, eat all the bait and walk out without ever tripping the
blasted door.

Trapping animals is an incredible PITA, an exercise in frustration and
patience. To think that frontiersmen sometimes made their living at it
is appalling. You do get better at it with practice, though.