Here we go again....

Bathroom, pregnant feral and clawfoot bathtub. Five years ago I captured one of my first ferals, who happened to be very pregnant. She escaped, ran into the bathroom and hid under the bathtub. She gave birth there--three kittens, all of whom died two days later. When we recaptured her (an excercise in scratch and infected bite wounds), one of the dead kittens was stuck to her tail and had to be cut off with scissors.

Monday I captured a calico that appeared pregnant and behaved like a feral but might just have been a scared stray. She was in fact pregnant and was due for a spay/abort surgery tomorrow, but while I was cleaning her holding cage she escaped. She ran up the stairs, into the bathroom, and under that damned bathtub. Great.

So I closed the door, set a trap and went to work. When I came home she was in the trap, but so too were four newborn kittens. They appear to be healthy, but now I've got to figure out how to get them safely out of the trap and into a dog crate--they'll be with us for a while, I suspect--at least three months....

Awl..ya I had feral break into the bathroom and trap himself(window got knocked down by the falling screen and we knew it was crap so ALWAYS kept door closed. came home to see the screen off and window down..got a cat neutered out of that but had to get a broom and a 3 foot dog crate and scare the thing half to death.

Watch some of the crates gaps are to big and kittens can wander out(oh how do i know this...I came home to the black mom ad her 3 babies with a brown tabby from the other litter...it was at the time she wanted nothing to do with the others kittens. now she just has an issue with the other mom...works out better i guess...

Good luck. Tell them all they better be good as they werent supposed to make it(my black one went to the vet day of appt and I backed out.

I would set a cat carrier in back of dog crate then line the crate and trap upand see if she will take one into that...if the traps uncovered that may seem safer...i did that with an opossum

One of the kittens died in the trap during the night; I planned on burying it this morning, after I set up two interlocked holding cages for long-term occupancy and managed to get mom and the survivors out of the trap. I couldn't find the body of the deceased kitten and suspect it's stuck to mom, but now that she has ample room to move around I'll have an easier time recovering it.

The kittens are nursing, and mom's being put on a soft food diet with kitten chow, chicken, rice, KMR and lysine mixed in to give her milk extra nutrients--but so far she just kinda glares at the cook....

keep in mind cats will eat dead babies/very weak to(not the best thought there I know)
Go get a pair of grilling tongs makes things easier when you have a good foot of reach room thats not you!

Ah, you are a good person with the S/N program and helping this scared momma kitty!!!

I must agree with the suggestion that Momma ate the dead kitten while they were in the trap overnight--no other explanation adds up at this point, and the first time she used the litter box the waste was considerable. No bones, not even a skull, were found, but they would have been so soft as to be digested with the rest of the remains.

Tomorrow is week one for the remaining kittens, and by Monday their eyes and ears should be opening. Already I can tell that there is one female--she has calico markings on her tail. The kittens are mostly white; one has black spots and the other orange. The butterscotch kitten is the biggest and the boldest of the three, and I'm keeping my eye on the black and white kitten.

Momma growls and hisses every time I approach the cage, but she allows me to clean it and change her food and water. This is not a frightened feral but a protective mother. She does allow me to touch her kittens and handle them, which I will be doing more often as they become more independent.

The kittens seem to have reached a developmental point where they can regulate their own body temperature and no longer need to be glued to Momma (hard to believe, considering the heat waves we've had)--a danger point passed safely. But as we know there may be other dangers ahead....

The surviving kittens now have their eyes and ears open and are crawling around. They respond favorably to my touch but mew loudly when picked up--this upsets Mom, but they're getting used to my touch and my smell.

They're still nursing off of Mom exclusively and are not yet interested in solid food, so Mom's still getting the five-star menu. And of course she still growls and hisses when I serve her. They're three weeks old and starting to get curious; I've also seen them start play-fighting. It's fun to watch them develop, and I hope in the next week or two to give them time outside of the cage. By then Mom will be beginning to wean them and will welcome a break....

I make up food for Mom out of lunchmeat ends and boiled rice run through a food processor. The kittens are now showing an interest in this solid food....

Here's the problem. The kittens are developing normally and have no problem with humans; I usually take one or two out of the cage when I feed and hold and play with them. They cry because they're scared but soon calm down, but then cry again because they're hungry and still nursing.

As long as I give her food and water and change her litter Momma tolerates me; she gets hissy when I pick up any of the kittens but doesn't try to attack me.

The kittens are a month old now--their eyes and ears are open and they're stretching their legs. They're curious but cautious, as would be expected, and they're ready for a transition.

They're not weaned yet and won't be for a few weeks, but it's time for them to sample soft solid food. It's also time to let them explore and play--a cage is no place for a kitten to grow up past a certain point.

So here's what I'm thinking: Put a smaller cage, completely covered, within the larger cage as a "hidey hole" for Momma. It's a place where she can hide away from me and others and quietly nurse her kittens, but at the same time I want to open the larger cage so that the kittens can explore and play.

My thinking is this: Yeah, Momma is feral but as long as she's nursing she won't try to escape, and the kittens need some freedom. They're too old for her to grab and hide them, and they're socialized to at least be curious about humans--so it's time to let them explore but still have a place to go to nurse.

Momma will wean them in a few weeks--at that point she will be spayed and released into a managed colony, and the kittens will be prepared for adoption....

The kittens were climbing the bars and knocking the bowls all around, so I opened the cage door to let them out--they went for it. They've been happily exploring and playing while Mom relaxes inside the cage. She so far has made no attempt to escape; she hisses and growls when I feed her and change her litter but hasn't even tried to scratch me, much less bite me.

The kittens still nurse off of Mom occasionally but are now much more interested in solid food and by next week will be ready for first distemper shots and worming treatment--they will be six weeks old. Their eyes are still a bright blue and they're still wobbly, but they're already sprinting and play-fighting; the other household cats are getting used to them. They're socializing nicely--the calico follows me and the boys purr whenever I pet them, but they still panic when I pick them up unless it's by the scruff....

I'd been giving the kittens time outside of the holding cage to explore, play and socialize with us and the other cats--that was working nicely until Momma cat saw an opportunity on Saturday to bolt, leaving the kittens behind. Sunday she was spotted hanging around and coming into the house to eat.

This morning I woke up and noticed one of the kittens was missing. Her brothers were happily playing with each other, so I figured she didn't just go off on her own. Turns out I was right. During the night Mom crept in and took her, but could not scale the backyard fence with her; the two hid under the back wooden deck. I spotted them and set a trap. Mom ended up in the trap, and the kitten was an easy recapture--but within 24 hours she was being returned to a natural feral state. I got her just in time.

She's safe and secure with her brothers now, readjusting to life in the house. Mom is in a secure trap and will go to the very next clinic for spay surgery; she will then be released to a well-managed colony while the kittens have a host of adoption options. This could have been a tragedy, but fortunately it wasn't....