Fostering Pregnant feral

I have been asked to foster and extremely feral mama - our rescue has been trying to catch her for almost two years (and three or four litters!) I have a large sun porch with a glass door leading to the living room. I usually tape paper over that when I foster, so my cats don't make the visitors nervous. I have had one mama and her litter set up on the proch and it worked wonderfully but she wasn't feral.

I am not sure how wild this one is but I've been told she's pretty bad. I have a 48" crate that I connect to a 40" crate for a "suite." The potty is inside the 40" crate and that leaves the 48" crate for the bed and dinner. It has worked well for fosters - I used it first to get them used to the smells of the room. Eventually, I let them into the room and dismantle to suite.

Do you think I should just let her have the room or use the suite? Anything else you can think of to get me ready for her? I have had ferals in there - but they've been kittens I socialized. This mommy is not going to be socialized and will be realized after her kittens are weaned and she is spayed.

Are you sure that she could never be socialized? I brought in a feral, that had a litter of kittens which were rescued and homed, into my home after she was spayed and against the advice from my vet. My vet said that she was the wildest cat she had ever seen! The techs still talk about her-2 years later.

However, here we are, 2 years later and she is the most lovable sweet cat. She still runs and hides when company comes over, but then so do some of my other cats. I realize each situation and each feral are different, but I say never say never! Good luck.

I haven't actually met her yet, so time will tell. I plan to do my best to socialize her. I was concerned about the arrangements, though. I was told that feral mothers do not take well to confinement and it affects the pregnancy - or she can harm the kittens. I really wanted to avoid stressing her any ore than the trapping did.

Thanks for your reply!

Originally Posted by Ondine

I haven't actually met her yet, so time will tell. I plan to do my best to socialize her. I was concerned about the arrangements, though. I was told that feral mothers do not take well to confinement and it affects the pregnancy - or she can harm the kittens. I really wanted to avoid stressing her any ore than the trapping did.

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Ah, both arrangements should be fine. The cages are especielly useful if you dont have a suitable room, and must have the cat in a unsuitable room. Say a cellar or a stable.
But a big cage does have advantages too. Some fosterers believe the fostering is easier and thus quicker.

All in all: do as you feel convenient for you.

I dont have own personal experience of fostering. But I have a lot of reading experience from fosterers telling!

Thus, there are a great many fosterers and rescuers who did helped pregnant feral mothers, including birth (sometimes even assisting at the delivery!) and fostering of the kittens.

It almost seems it is easier to help such a high pregnant mom than help a non pregnant feral. Why? It seems the ferale moms chief concern is alike human moms: ie the welfare of their children - NOT "freedom".

The key here is they must settle down, cool down. Realise nobody is mean to them nor threatening them or the kittens. The peculiar humans are very strange but apparently quite docile and harmless.
Of course no barking dogs, shouting children (or children talking with high voices - I know, not easy...). Quiet, easy, stressless.

Then you practically cant fail. It is almost fire-proof!

I cant quarantee you will foster HER into a home-cat, but the process will go rather smooth (everything is relatively!) and you will surely be able to foster the kittens.
The mom will surely be protective of her kittens. But as long she understands you are verry easy, careful with them and not threatening - she will let you handle them, later on foster them, etcetera.
This has happened time and time again.

You can take the extra precaution of using a Feliway-diffuser for stressing down, but it is not really necessary.
Low music, classical or with slow tacts is also good for downstressing.

A very friendly homecat can also be of help in some variations.



Mothers eating of kittens - yes, it does happens.
Usually it can happen when the mother is highly stressed. So the key is to make her environment stressless. No unpleasant disturbances like a unfriendly dog or cat coming in...
Another variation is young mothers with their first litter. They perhaps dont know what is happening and what to do, and may bite wrong when biting off the umbilical cord...
This happens of course more often with ferals, as homecats are seldom such young mothers...



Good luck!

Thanks StefanZ. You have such good advice. I am really looking forward to meeting her and hopefully, helping her with this last litter.