4 week old feral kitten

chrissyr

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Is chewing on my toes and slipper! I guess by now I can't call them ferals anymore. The main Momma likes people but her children only tolerate me. Does that still make them feral?

Anyway, I knew the three females had babies last month but I never saw them. On Friday, I went to go check out what all's being done where they live (the former owner is cleaning up the place) and Trouble (1yr old female) was acting real strange. She kept coming to me, yeowling, then running off. Over and over until I finally thought to follow her. She led me right to her 3 kittens. 2 are fine, up walking about and following Trouble as she led them off. The 3rd kitten was laying in an old rusted stove with the firebrick on its backend, hissing, and not moving. I picked it up and it spat at me then just settled down.

Trouble already had the other 2 moved and didn't look as though she was coming back. She actually nursed those 2 in front of me while looking all trusting at me. So I brought this one home as it was all tense and unmoving.

I discovered it's a boy, he's black tiger striped (well, black with blacker stripes) with a white triangle on his chest and a white slash on his belly. For a wild born kitten, he has settled into life as a bottle baby with remarkable ease. He enjoys beating up the adult cats and me.

He just turned 4 weeks old Tuesday and he's already started weening for me. He eats some wet but loves this bottle. I have named him, for now, Munchkin although I keep calling him Midget.

He seems to have no injuries. He would hold his left eye slightly closed and rub at them both from time to time. I've wiped his eyes for him several times a day. He goes potty and it's loose but I expected that. No blood there or in his urine so I think he was mostly scared. The part that got me was, Trouble walked off and left him there almost like she was leaving him for me.
 
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chrissyr

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Well, today I got to see the other black kitten. Now I'm confused on age as this one is a bit bigger then Munchkin. I imagine it's possible that Munch is 4 weeks old and this other black kit is 6 weeks although Munch acts almost like he's 6 weeks or so old. *Sigh* I dunno his age but Munch is cute and has suckered us all in to the cuteness that is. LOL
 

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I know what you mean about the different sized. Saffron is bigger than Sachi but the two we have not caught yet one is little like Sachi and one is bigger than them all.
 
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chrissyr

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Don't you just enjoy not knowing age nor who belongs with/to who? I haven't seen this other kitten since the other night so I can only hope it's ok.

Munch took 2 dives off my couch today and gave me a heart attack. I know it's the way he'll learn but it still scares me when kittens dive off things. He can climb up just fine but falls like a brick to get down. I even put his little cage in front of the couch and he still took the long way down. The first time was all him the 2nd time my resident "mom" (spayed, though) was giving him a bath and knocked him off. I think he hurt his foot as he held it up for a moment and told me all about it.

Oh, and the tip of his tail must be broke. It's shaped almost like the number 7 and the top area feels boneless. I'll get him in next week for a check up and see about that tail. Also, he's a sassy boy. He stood up to one of my adults and yelled at them for knocking him over then swiped at the cats face.
 

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Congrats, sounds like mama gave you the runt. They are my personal favorites. You will have your hands full. Mama might have been running low on milk and took the two with the best chance and hoped you would take care of him. A very big honor in the cat world. A wild mama gave me her 3 babies at about 3 wks old during a terrible cold spell and I was bottle feeding for weeks, then weening etc. Almost all my babies have found me, my hubby says I am on cat radar. Anyway, watch for signs of kitty flu and talk to your vet about worming him. Probably too young yet, but soon. Congrats again and watch out, I think you just got on cat radar. lol
 
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chrissyr

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OMG! Stair step kittens! LOL I went down tonight right around 8:30 to check on the kits and low and behold, there are 5 kittens on the porch looking at me. One real tiny, fuzzy black/white tux, 2 gray/white tuxes a bit bigger then the black/white, and the 2 kittens that I know are Munches sibilings, the black one and the striped one. All 5 were just sitting there looking like I should run up and eat them. I put down some wet food and the tiny one came over and I got to touch it ....once, before one of the females growled and pushed it away.

I'm not sure if I should trap the adults first then try for the kittens or the other way around? Any thoughts on this? We have the fence finally done and escape proofed so all of them will go in there.
 

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Originally Posted by ChrissyR

Oh, and the tip of his tail must be broke. It's shaped almost like the number 7 and the top area feels boneless. I'll get him in next week for a check up and see about that tail. Also, he's a sassy boy. He stood up to one of my adults and yelled at them for knocking him over then swiped at the cats face.
Firefox's tail was evidently broken at some point.... must've happened a while before i rescued her, because it had already healed in a permanent crooked position.
it's not real obvious to the eye, but you can feel the slightly thickened, knobby bits when you stroke her tail.
 
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chrissyr

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His is pretty obvious. I'd say it's the top 1/4 inch of his tail that's pointed outwards. My hubby even made a comment about Munches tail and hubby isn't really observant when it comes to the cats. LOL

Munch fell off the couch....again. This time he was asleep and landed on all four feet. I was proud of the landing just not the falling.

Do you know what I'm talking about when I say he does the sideways kitten dance? It's where he's so cranked up his little back arches up and the tail fuzzes out and he comes after the toy or whatever kinda sideways? I had Munch doing that today. It's the cutest thing ever. He was spitting and yelling at my arm and I laughed. Of course he decided he had to dance at me and spit at my face. LOL

He got his very first toy today. I bought him this little block looking thing from Walmart (comes in a pack of 3) that rattles and it's small enough for him to flop on and toss around. He likes playing with it but enjoys chewing on me more.
 
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chrissyr

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His tail looks like Firefox's baby picture (by the way, Firefox and Chip are adorable!). Hopefully his'll grow like Firefox's did and he can have some use of it.
 
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chrissyr

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Originally Posted by kat89447

Congrats, sounds like mama gave you the runt. They are my personal favorites. You will have your hands full. Mama might have been running low on milk and took the two with the best chance and hoped you would take care of him. A very big honor in the cat world. A wild mama gave me her 3 babies at about 3 wks old during a terrible cold spell and I was bottle feeding for weeks, then weening etc. Almost all my babies have found me, my hubby says I am on cat radar. Anyway, watch for signs of kitty flu and talk to your vet about worming him. Probably too young yet, but soon. Congrats again and watch out, I think you just got on cat radar. lol
I meant to respond to you but had a brain fart. LOL I love the runts, too. Such big attitudes in such little packages. Oh I've been on that radar. LOL I even have a sign outside that only cats see that invites them in to stay.


I did an inspection earlier today and found the "kitten nest". By last count there's at least 6, if not 7 kittens. I'll have to grab up hubby one evening and go kitten grabbing. They are in an area I can't get to easily but Mike can get to just fine.
 

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Loved the bent tail. Had a cat with the same thing, like the top two bones went straight back. For the poster that wanted to know if you should grab kittens or adults, I grab whatever I can get first. If I can get Mama then the kittens will usually stay close to her meowing and they are easier to catch. Usually though I try to get all the kittens at one time if I go for them first, otherwise you take the risk of mama moving the ones you don't get. It is best to get help though, more hands, the merry. It mostly depends on how much the mama trusts me, I have one next door that will start dropping them at the front porch when they get about 7 or 8 weeks for us to have lol. We think she has a system, and we are part of it. Now if we could just catch her and get her spayed lol.
 

cc12

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I grabbed the kittens first before they became feral. I guess it depends on if the Mom is feral and hard to catch. Sometimes you just have to grab who you can I would think.
 
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chrissyr

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Well, wish us luck. We're going after the kittens tonight during the last hour of daylight. We'll have them indoors overnight in the soon to be nursery and we're going Mom trapping tomorrow and using the kittens as bait. I hope this works out the way I want it to and I don't end up hand weaning about 7 kittens.
 

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I dunno his age but Munch is cute and has suckered us all in to the cuteness that is. LOL
I love that sentence................ I totally relate how cuteness can sucker you in...........hehe

GL with catching them........It's a good life helping the little kitties.......
 
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chrissyr

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Originally Posted by jcribbs

I love that sentence................ I totally relate how cuteness can sucker you in...........hehe

GL with catching them........It's a good life helping the little kitties.......
Thanks but sadly, it rained like mad so we had to halt our plans and decided to go in tomorrow morning. Hopefully by tomorrow night we'll at least have the 3 females and all the kittens.

My downfall is black kittens and tuxie kittens. I'm such a sucker for both. When I saw the 5 little ones outside the other night I got all gooey and "awww" -ed everywhere. My hubby just shook his head. LOL

And, shhhhhh, don't tell anybody, but, Munch has been here for a little over a week is already spoiled to death!
 
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chrissyr

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Yay us!
We have 7 kittens but I coulda swore I saw 8. We tore the place apart looking for the last one and there was nothing there. I guess I was seeing things. We also have 2 adults up here. One of the females and one older male. The other 3 left to be trapped have now decided to stay across the road and avoid the trap and property.

The female keeps yelling for her kittens and when we took the 2 we know to be hers out to her, they walked (the kittens) right out of the Perfect Fence like it wasn't there!! We got the kittens back and they are with the rest is the house until we can figure out how to keep them all in there.
 
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chrissyr

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No pictures yet but I'm working on it. Right now they are all calm and together, but, when I walk into the room, all you see is little teeth and hear various air leaks. LOL They've ate through several cans of wet food and I just fixed them some mushy dry food.

Tomorrow we'll bring them and the crate out into the living room so they can get used to seeing us and the other cats.
 
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