Question about not feeding kittens before mom is spayed

I'm taking my three adult cats to be spayed on Thursday. The vet said water is okay but no food after 10:00 PM Wednesday. I don't have any problem with that for the full-grown cats, but don't know about the kittens.

I don't have anyplace I can isolate the cats unless I put them in their carriers for the night. (I'm fairly sure I wouldn't be getting any sleep that way ).

My question is about Goldy's kittens. They are 11.5 weeks old now. Will they be all right with no food for that long? I normally feed one wet meal a day and free feed dry food. I plan to give them their wet food at about 9:30, then put all the food away at 10:00. I'll be taking the cats to the vet at 8:00 AM. I can put out some dry food for the kittens before I leave the house, but that's still 10 hours with no food. I should also mention that they seem to eat more at night than during the day most of the time.

Since only the adult cats are going to be spayed, I would just put the kittens in another room and feed them separately.

Surely there's a bathroom or something that you can put them in overnight? If not, they should be fine with going that long without food. They might be really hungry, but it shouldn't cause any lasting damage.

You could call up your Vet's office in the morning and just ask what they think, explain the situation, see what they suggest. I really don't think it would be a big deal for the kittens to go from 10pm the night before to the time you have to leave with the adult cats in the morning (around 8am) without food.

Is there no way, though, that you could put either the adults or kittens in, say, a bathroom for the night? (as long as it's cat-proofed and nothing they could get into, etc).....or in your bedroom with you, or even a large closet with the light on inside?

I wouldn't recommend putting your adults in their carriers overnight, that would be very stressful for them and I think it's always best to reduce stress in an animal if they're going for surgery.

I had this same thing with Sweetie and her kittens, I just feed them all a little later then usual, then just took everything up out of their way. By the time I was ready to leave with Sweetie in the morning, I put her in her carrier and put down the food water before I left. It worked out fine.

Thanks for all your replies.

My bathroom is very small with no window and no vent fan. I think it would be cruel to shut up either the three cats or the three kittens in there for 10 hours. I can close my bedroom door, but that creates other problems. I usually have at least 5 cats sleeping with me. (Miss Patchwillow prefers sleeping in her carrier--with the door off). I can just imagine the noise they would make trying to get in or out, depending on which ones I lock in.

My main concern was whether the kittens are old enough to go for 10 hours without food. I'm thinking the best I can do is feed them their wet meal right before I take up all the food. That way I can be sure the time isn't extended back to whenever they happened to last eat the dry food.

Well like I suggested, why don't you just call the clinic and ask them what they think about the kittens (they're almost 3 months old) going without food for 10 hours. If you're unable to isolate any of them, I don't really see that you have much choice. I can't see there being any problem with the kittens going 10 hours without food, it's only a one-time thing. They still have water. Call up the clinic and see what they suggest.

The kittens did okay without food last night. When I thought about it more I realized that if I'd been able to talk the vet into an earlier date to spay/neuter the kittens, they would have been NPO for the same length of time.

I gave them a wet meal at 9:30, even put out extra thinking that might help get them through the night, but they didn't eat any more than usual. They were pretty unhappy with me around 1:00 AM. I keep the dry food in 1-gallon glass jars, partly to keep it fresh and partly because the kitties tend to chew holes in the bags. I could hear the kitties scooting the jars across the tile floor trying to get at the food.

I put out some dry food for the kittens just before I took the cats to the vet this morning. They'd eaten at least half of it by the time I got back home. Then they were ready to play, not mad at me at all.

I'm going to have to go through the same thing in reverse in 4-5 weeks when I take the kittens in. However, I'm not as concerned about the adult cats going without food for a while.