What to do..

We had a situation where we had found a kitten that was 4 weeks old and a couple weeks after we had him we lost him. (the cute little orange kitten!)

We then had a woman bring us the two kittens we now have which they are doing great. =)

My dilemma.. My dad just went down to our barn and found a little kitten all by herself probably around 4 weeks old. I don't want to leave her there because I'm afraid something might happen, but I also do not want to take her because of the first situation.

My question.. Would it be acceptable to keep her in some sort of crate or something where the mom could get to her but that she couldn't go far that way once she is old enough we could take her? She's a beautiful little calico. This may be why we haven't seen the one cat around for a couple weeks also as it might be this little kittens mother.

I don't know though and just get worried. What do you guys think would be the best thing to do? obviously keeping it alive is the main priority.

Husband decided we don't want to take the chance, and I agree.

My mom said she is going to take care of her. Already started giving her KMR, thinking about giving her a couple cans of our wet food.

Mom knows it's a lot of work and knows what we went through with the little guy but hopefully *crossing fingers* we have learned from the little guy and have better knowledge on how to handle such a young kitten.

If all else fails, they will put her back in the barn.

I will give you my opinion on the situation, and it goes like this:

You are doing such an unselfish thing, that even if the kitten does not make it, you gave it all you could and you tried. There are many persons out there who wouldn't give it a second thought but you DID. This kitten is alone and needs you to at least give it a chance. If you find the mom, that's wonderful. If not, you gave it your best shot and you can try your best at keeping the kitten viable.

Thank you for doing this, from this crazy cat lady, I love to hear about the unselfish deeds people do for cats on this site.

We went down to the barn a little while ago and found three other kittens so we put her back and put out food and water for the mom.

We are going to keep an eye on them and make sure we know where they are and as soon as they are old enough I think we'll keep one and my parents will keep the little one they found. =)

They are the cutest kittens.. One is all black-a girl. Another is the calico they found black, tan, white-a girl. Third one is cream colored-a boy (and sooo cute!) and the fourth one I have never seen before, a calico but light grey, cream, and white-a girl.

I wish I could keep them all! =) I think with four if we can keep an eye on them we'll keep one, my parents one, and I have two good homes for the others.

I'll keep you guys updated if you want. Maybe I can get some pictures of them.

Ah, so you found both siblings AND a mom? Excellent.
Your plan sound certainly feasible. Hopefully the moms stays there where she and the kittens can get good food. And with time with a little luck, get more and more tame.

Dont forget to plan on spaying the mom, and with time, also the kittens.
If you dont afford, try to get help from some rescue organization or such...

If they dont get adopted, they will surely do quite well as barn cats, with some help from you Im sure you will give them. But they must be spayed/neutered for a real lucky outcome.


Good luck!

Originally Posted by StefanZ

Ah, so you found both siblings AND a mom? Excellent.

Your plan sound certainly feasible. Hopefully the moms stays there where she and the kittens can get good food. And with time with a little luck, get more and more tame.

Dont forget to plan on spaying the mom, and with time, also the kittens.
If you dont afford, try to get help from some rescue organization or such...

If they dont get adopted, they will surely do quite well as barn cats, with some help from you Im sure you will give them. But they must be spayed/neutered for a real lucky outcome.


Good luck!

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Thank you!

We found out that the mom of these kittens is one of the feral barn cats we recently started feeding canned food to. (they were previously eating dog food.. bleck..)

I was a little worried because I set food down there around 9 ish this morning and we just went down there around 5:30 and the food hadn't been touched. My dad just got back up from the barn and said the mama was up there eating the food.

Is there any chance that the mama would reject the kitten that we had found earlier? We only had her in the house overnight and fed her some KMR in a bottle. I was so worried that the mama had rejected all the kittens.

Everyone is joking now that I'm becoming a cat hoarder. I never was a cat person but these kittens really tug on your heart strings.

I'll keep an update going.

As soon as they are old enough if we still have them (if they haven't been adopted out) I will take them to this place that does spay/neutering for a very low cost.

I do not want to add to the pet overpopulation.

Originally Posted by tiberius709

Is there any chance that the mama would reject the kitten that we had found earlier? We only had her in the house overnight and fed her some KMR in a bottle. I was so worried that the mama had rejected all the kittens.

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There is some risk for it. But I think and hope this will not happen. The kittens welfare is important for moms: you can even often use the kittens as a "bait".

Nay, if we talk risks, in such case the risk is bigger the moma did abandoned the kitten earlier, and it was why you found her. Although I do hope and think the mom was moving her kittens, and happened to drop this one on the way. Or something. Ie, no abandondong but difficulties of the day.


Good luck!

I meant to update this but I just started school and I am working 40 hours so you can imagine how little time I have! lol

Within the past few days we found a SECOND litter of kittens and now we think the calico we found and put with the first litter actually belongs to the second litter we found. Uh oh!

We check on both (lol) litters now every day and all kittens are good so the mom of the first litter is allowing this little calico to feed.

After the kittens are old enough we HAVE to try to round up the three females and definitely get them fixed. It's just a money issue at this point because none of us really have the money to do it. It has to be done though.

At this point we now have 7 kittens that will need a home. Most likely 2 little kittens will be coming into the house with us.

I'm going to try and get some pictures this weekend. Each litter is in between hay bales and they hiss like little snakes when you try to get them out. lol It's soooooo cute!!

The second litter comprises of another cream colored male, an orange male, and a calico girl.