Stray Mommy has brought me her kittens and then left!?

At least I think she left with them and a some other animal didn't get them. Here is the story, I am desperate need of advice as I am really nervous.

About a month ago this very small black cat appeared on our 2nd story balcony which has open railing. We (my fiance and I) live in a high turnover apartment complex where people sadly leave their pets when they move. We have two adopted male indoor cats that are our family and will never leave our side no matter what. Anyway, I felt bad for this black cat and I set some food and water out for her. I noticed a small bulge on her sides but she was so small herself I didn't really believe she could be pregnant. I set a box with a towel on the balcony anyway.

So yesterday out of the blue she appears with 3 kittens about 1-2 weeks old and she is very timid and the kittens of course are feral and hiss. I called my local Petsmart adoption lady who said it's the season and no one can help me foster and I should tame the kittens ASAP and try to find them safe homes. So my fiance and I quickly avoided the hissing, gained mommy cats trust through warm food and kitten proofing the patio so only mommy could get in and out and the kittens couldn't fall through the railing. We handled the kittens until they hissed no more and were starting to play around us and get curious. We cleaned their eyes which were pretty gooey (I think they have colds, we washed up very well and changed clothes before we came back inside to our indoor cats).

So later that night, mommy cat left the kittens on the patio to make her rounds and a male cat came around. I went out side to defend the kittens. I recently read male cats will kill kittens to put mothers back in heat. Anyway, mommy cat came back before we went to bed and soundly fell asleep with her kittens suckling. We made sure to remove any food so that it wouldn't attract any other animals.

We woke up early this morning to find mommy and kitties gone!

Why would she leave?

Do you think it was the male cat she smelled?

Do you think she will bring them back?

Do you think it is because we handled the kitties? (she seemed happy we were cleaning their eyes and was purring as we were doing it)

We searched all the bushes and can't find her or the kittens. We are scared because we don't want them getting killed be male cats or birds. Please advise!

Thanks so much!

The scent of the tom cat made her move them.
Seen it 100s of times.
You can only hope that she might bring them back, or lead you to where she'd hidden them.

That's what I thought.....oh I hope she does bring them back....thank you for the answer...

Now.....my next question.....

Since I have two male indoor cats, I can't actually bring her inside with her kittens. If she comes back, what should I do to make her stay and keep the tom cats away? I just want to do what is best for her and her babies. I don't want to take her babies away, I mean technically I could close off 1 bedroom of our house and raise them myself (they are eating mushy food now), but I am not sure what to do or what is best and I don't want her to get depressed.

Sorry for so many questions. This is the first time this has happened to me. I've mostly had boy cats.

Why can you not bring her in? You cats are neutered aren't they?
Bring her and her babies in and seclude them in a room alone.
Kittens should stay with mom for at the very least 10 weeks if at all possible, and if you do this inside, you can continue to socialise the little buggers.

However, if you are not in a fininacial situation that would allow you to get both mom and babies fixed at the appropriate time, it would be best to either get them to a rescue/find a TNR group, or not get involved.

I can never not get involved, too big a sucker

I know....I can't not get involved, I love animals and I feel so blessed that she brought them over to us. I am trying to figure out exactly how old they are.

Yes my boys are fixed. Smokey is very friendly and curious but my spoiled Salem is SUPER jealous and hisses even through the sliding glass door and pouts and is mad at me just for looking at mommy & babies. It's super stressful on him just having had them on the patio.

We do have a 2 bedroom apartment and the second bedroom is our office with a bathroom and second litter box already in it so it wouldn't be too hard to put mommy & babies in there (I just have to convince my fiance...he thinks I am getting too involved.)

I will keep my fingers crossed and hope she comes back. If she does, I will plan to do this and then after 10 weeks get them shots and get them all fixed and try to find them good, safe homes. A good deed well done. Whew.....of course I know I am going to end up getting attached. Thank goodness for my fiance or I would end up with a house full of cats.

Hehe I do have a house full
I live in a travel trailer (28ft) in Needles (Home of zero no-kill shelters) and added a young stray mom and a feral born kitten.
The mom cat adopted us, so as soon as her kittens were all in homes we had her fixed and kept her, the kitten well, now an adult is actually the niece of the momcat.
I caught all three kittens and kept a black one and my boyfriend kept the other two.

So I have three adult females living harmoniously with each other and a large senior dog.
Because I can't not get involved


Good luck, I hope she brings them back, or shows you where she's hid them.

Thank you Arlyn, I will keep you posted. Today my fiance is throwing me a small birthday get together at our place. Yesterday was my birthday so it was such a wonderful birthday surprise from momma cat to bring her kittens over on my birthday.

that you find momma cat and the babies. And Happy Belated Birthday!

Thank you, Mojave, for helping this poor mama. I too had a pregnant stray adopt me and now have her and one of her (almost grown) kitten (plus a house full of other pets!). I think your mama cat will return...she knows you have food and she needs a lot of calories now. Plus she trusts you even tho the Tom may have her spooked.

And don't worry about Salem....he's just manipulating you . Cats love drama, so in spite of all the hissing he's enjoying the excitement. Good luck and thank you for helping an animal in need.

Good luck with getting momma back~ 8D I know how easy it is to get attatched to kitties - every time I go into the nearby animal shelter, I want to take all of the cats home with me. <3

Anyways, keep us updated - I wanna know how it goes. She'll be back... *dramatic music*

First of all thank you for the b-day wishes! I had a wonderful get together!

As promised I would keep you updated.....so here goes what went down today....boy do I need some advice...

So as I am getting ready for my b-day get together, my fiance calls to me from downstairs that mommy cat is meowing and being chased by some neighborhood kids. So naturally I bolt out the door and frantically try to find out what is going on with my fiance right behind me. We come to find from the kids that mommy cat is hiding not only the three kittens she brought last night but FIVE kittens on a balcony of an abandoned apartment.

These kids being young are chasing the kittens and they are falling and running into walls and I am screaming at the kids to stop and I am in near panic mode. We finally get all five kittens safe and sound and I line our second bathrooms bathtub which we never use with bath rugs and place the hissing kittens in there with some wet kitten food which they promptly begin eating and water. They are smart little ones and they also being using a small litter box I placed in there as well.

I left them in there with the door closed during the get together. After the get together, my fiance and I spent a long time holding them and they started to fall asleep on us. We spent some time outside and when mommy cat came around, she wouldn't come in and wouldn't let us hold her, even though we had our boy cats Salem and Smokey in our Master bedroom.

We can't seem to get mommy cat to let us touch her and we can't let the kittens outside because the kids, tomcats, hawks, owls, it's far too unsafe.

What do we do if we can't get mommy cat to let us get her?

The kittens are eating wet kitten food and I am making sure they are getting enough water too. Poo and pee looks good. They are getting tamer and closer to shot/fixing/adoption time.

Any advice?

Here is a picture of them.

Horrible children! Young or no they should know how to treat animals!!!! My daughter aged 1 was nothing but loving when we had our first "family kitten".
I would say looking at the picture they are somewhere around 4 1/2 to 6/7 weeks I would probably say nearer to 5 if they are still a bit wobbly, This is the weaning period and if all else fails and you can't get momma in they will probably be fine but there are other issues from being weaned too early so Ideally try to get momma in too.
If you sat in eye shot of momma holding one of the kittens with the door open enough for her to come in through her maternal instinct may override her nervousness about coming in long enough for you to shut her in and show her she is safe. The Ideal would be being able to put momma in with them BUT don't give her the kittens back outside if she won't come. find them homes and get them fixed also Momma is obviously semi happy with you already( she brought you her babies) so it shouldn't be that hard to build trust.
she may already be pregnant again mommas can come into heat instantly , feral mothers can have 3 or 4 litters a year.
If you don't suceed in trapping her she may bring the next lot to you too, you have made a friend
I think you are wonderful for doing what you are doing and giving this family the best chance possible good luck getting momma!

I'd say about 5 1/2 weeks old comparing them to my kittens. They are really cute
It's really important that they get socialized at this age, or else it will be difficult later. My mom was a bit scared of people too, but just give her time to trust you (PS, Mom's LOVE wet food )
Other than that, you seem to be doing fine!

"If you sat in eye shot of momma holding one of the kittens with the door open enough for her to come in through her maternal instinct may override her nervousness about coming in long enough for you to shut her in and show her she is safe."

I guess my instincts were pretty good because this is what my fiance and I did this morning. That of course was after we woke up and checked on the little buggers and they happened to have done some creative paw painting work with their poop on the bath tub walls. We spent the morning paw cleaning and scrubbing the bathroom down. They are finally playing with us and pouncing on strings we drag across the floor. They are drinking from the water bowl and for the most art aside from the wall art, using the litter box.

So this morning we saw momma at the sliding glass door. My fiance brought one of the babies down and handed it to me (we can't tell the sexes yet...too small), and as I held it, it saw momma and the conversation began. She came in, my fiance shut the door, and I handed him the kitten, momma trusted me enough and let me picker her up (I was shocked), and off to the bathroom we went.

I couldn't believe the happy meows coming from all of the kittens when they saw momma! It almost made me cry. Of course she was a bit more interested in her new environment, but she did give them a few tongue licks so I know she will be attentive soon.

About 5 years ago I lost one of the best friends ever, a Siamese female Princess Leia. She was 11 and I had her since she was about 2 months old. I sent over $8000 in the end trying to find out what was wrong and it turned out to be cancer. It was the hardest thing I have ever went through. I have her ashes in a cedar box on my nightstand. Anyway, I could never get rid of her leopard print cat bed. It just meant to much. For some reason though I had this feeling that it was meant to be used by this mommy. So I put it in the bathroom and momma and kitties are in there sleeping right now.

Wow, what an interesting last three days. I feel bad putting the kittens up for adoption because it is taking them away from their mom, but that's normal right? My first resort was going to be to my co-workers who are all animal lovers and will for sure keep them indoors and give them all the proper medical/vet attention they need. Honestly, I can't afford to fix and give shots to all of these kittens and the mother.

So am I okay for putting the kittens and the mother up for adoption to people I know as INDOOR ONLY but also stating that they do need to be fixed and have their shots? I wish I could afford to do it for all of them but right now I just can't. Is that bad?

The mother cat will wean the kittens when she's ready. About the same time you'll probably notice her distancing herself from the kittens. She won't want to be around them all the time and adopting them out at that point will be fine. She may not even notice they're gone.

The kittens should stay with their mother until they're 10-12 weeks old. Could you at least get their first shots done before then? You can ask for a small adoption fee to help with the costs. Also, if someone is paying for a kitten they're more likely to be serious about taking care of it. I'm not sure how you can enforce it, but do make it a requirement that the kittens be spayed/neutered, kept indoors, and NOT declawed. You can start trimming their claws now so by the time they go to their new homes they're be used to it.

I was doing some research on the shots and at what age to get them. I agree that I think they are about 5 weeks old. I was reading that 9 weeks was the age for shots, is that correct? Can I get them earlier?

Thankfully, I work with some very wonderful, animal loving people so what I am hoping is that I can take pictures today of the kittens and even mommy, find homes for them with my co-workers which I trust and I know they will keep them indoors if I they tell me they will.

I have an average size bathroom where mommy and babies are in. Is it bad for mommy to be confined in there for 5 more weeks? My boys will try to fight with her if I let her out and I don't want her outdoors.....any suggestions on that one?

About how much do all the shots cost per kitty?

My kitties always had theirs done because they were older when I got them. My youngest that has passed I had given to myself because I worked at a pet store at the time and I had access to all of it for free.

Sorry for all the ?'s. You guys are awesome! Thank you for all the help.

Oh I finally got momma to really trust me. I spent about 30 minutes with her, just holding her while the kittens were sleeping and momma fell asleep in my arms purring super loud and when she woke up she gave me that pleased eye look....the half open half shut I'm relaxed look.....whew!

Originally Posted by MojaveRain

I was doing some research on the shots and at what age to get them. I agree that I think they are about 5 weeks old. I was reading that 9 weeks was the age for shots, is that correct? Can I get them earlier?

Thankfully, I work with some very wonderful, animal loving people so what I am hoping is that I can take pictures today of the kittens and even mommy, find homes for them with my co-workers which I trust and I know they will keep them indoors if I they tell me they will.

I have an average size bathroom where mommy and babies are in. Is it bad for mommy to be confined in there for 5 more weeks? My boys will try to fight with her if I let her out and I don't want her outdoors.....any suggestions on that one?

About how much do all the shots cost per kitty?

My kitties always had theirs done because they were older when I got them. My youngest that has passed I had given to myself because I worked at a pet store at the time and I had access to all of it for free.

Sorry for all the ?'s. You guys are awesome! Thank you for all the help.

Oh I finally got momma to really trust me. I spent about 30 minutes with her, just holding her while the kittens were sleeping and momma fell asleep in my arms purring super loud and when she woke up she gave me that pleased eye look....the half open half shut I'm relaxed look.....whew!

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Sounds like Mama was a scared stray not feral, if she fell asleep in your arms. You might be able to get a rescue to help you out or check around on craigslist for info on low cost vax for kitties. Some clinics and Humane Societies are sponsoring regular programs b/c of the economy and the boom in the cat population. She may got a little crazy locked up in there for 5 weeks. Is there any way to let her out and put your boys away while she gets a little time to stretch her legs?

Yes I could do that.....for sure. I also investigated what vaccination I would need to order online in order to vaccinate the kittens myself (I know how to give the vaccinations because I used to work at a pet store, I just don't remember what it was called because it was a long, long time ago). It comes out to about $30 for all the kittens to be completely vaccinated against everything (Fel-O-Vax IV. The only thing they have left is Rabies vac which HAS to be done by a vet. I haven't looked into that yet. I am just weighing all my options. I will keep you all posted!

Oh, wow, I'm glad everything went alright and your Momma trusts you now

By all means check into a low cost spay/neuter clinic in your area, so you can recommend to anyone taking a kitten. I certainly wouldn't feel bad about charging a nominal amount to cover the vaccine cost - $10/ea or so. That certainly shouldn't deter anyone wanting a kitten, and would cover some of your expense too.

I think you should consider keeping mama cat! She sounds like she is bonding to you, and I'm sure your boys will accept her too. But please get her spayed!