Someone PLEASE help me! The feral cat I took in had kittens last night & I'm packing

Someone help me please. I'm seriously panicking since the feral cat I took in 2-3 weeks ago just had kittens last night. I had managed to get her in the house and into my office with her two kittens which must be around 1-2 months. Now she just gave birth last night to about 4-5 kittens and I don't know what to do or if I should get her anything. I can't keep them forever since I already have 3 dogs and 1 cat (all around 9-10 years) but I CAN keep them a few more months.

Btw, she won't let me anywhere near her. She won't go anywhere near the crate I have to take her to a vet and she certainly won't let me take her kittens to help them.

Please help me. I'm going to have a melt down if one of her newborns die because I didn't do anything I'm supposed to.

Take a deep breath and don't panic. She is not a first time mom and knows far more, from experience and instinct, than you do. Her new kittens have far more chance of surviving inside your house than they would have had outside. The only thing is whether they will get enough to eat if the older kittens are still feeding off Mum. And even if they are just weaned, they will probably try suckling again once they realise there is milk to be had. So you may have to try to separate her older kittens at least part of the time to allow the new ones to feed. Then the older ones may need supplementary KMR as well as kitten food, depending on how old they are.

I think that is your priority right now, and you may need help to get the kittens away from her. Your vet may lend you a trap to use, or you may be able to distract her long enough to get the older ones into a box.

Others with more experience of this exact problem may be along soon. Meanwhile the very best of luck with these little ones.

Ah, so you are only panicking?

I though you were packing, ie preparing to move, and started to worry... THIS would be troublesome with a feral mom who dont want you anywhere near... Thus, you couldnt even held her in your bathroom - usually the most cat-friendly place when moving...

JennyRansome advice are good and I second them. Ie, take it easy. She surely manages quite well on her own. Surely better with you than somewhere outside...
So you had already done your duty towards her, her kittens, the holy motherhood and God. So to speak.
Everything above it is pure bonus.


What is worrying me is, most ferale moms do accept the situation once they "landed" and understand nobody is mean to them, nor threating.
They can hiss some and so, but usually they do allow this friendly human to handle their kittens, and accept they kittens gets fostered.
You do seems to have the exception... Or, by some reason, she doesnt feel reasonably safe.
Thus, what can you do to make her feel even more safe and secure?

Feliway diffuser is never wrong. Soft, calming music, preferably harp, is another idea...
More ideas?

Good luck!

omg thank you so much! my mom and I were going crazy because we have no idea what to do. My dogs and my cat were all strays but we pretty much found them when they were older than a year so we have no experience with newborns. I was just worried sick that we were supposed to do something so they wouldn't die. Right now she is feeding the kittens but there is one that she has her paw over him like over his head. Should I worry that she may suffocate him?

Oh and another question I have, I don't know if the two old kittens are male or female so how do I know if they are old enough to have kittens themselves? I don't think I could handle one more cat getting if one of them gets the other pregnant. They look pretty big to me but I can post pictures if needed.

Thanks also StefanZ! Yeah I just realized I put packing instead of panicking. ^___^

I don't know why she hisses at us but her two older kittens even play with me and we found them all when the kittens were kind of big so it's not like they were used to humans. At least she used to come out and eat with her dish near me. I just couldn't try to pet her. I'll stay in the room with her this weeks since I don't work to see how things go especially at night.

Oh and thanks for the advice! I have a cd player that I can play music in so I'm going to get some calming music. I hope that helps her feel better.

It sounds like the older kittens could manage away from her, at least until the little ones get into a routine with feeding. If you possibly can, I would remove them from the scene and put them into another room. I think the young ones need mom to themselves. ANd the older ones will be company for each other. They will not try to mate till they are several months old, so I would not worry about that yet. ANd do post pix if you can - it is much easier to assess the ages, apart from wanting to see them anyway!

Yes, it may be so it is the older kittens who are stressing the mom now. Being mom at two fronts at once, with entirely different demands, is never easy. And being a ferale at that - thrice so difficult.

So I too think, if not anybody of them protests too much or so, try to keep the little older kittens for themselves.


Of course, keep your own residents apart too from the mom and the small kittens - unless they ARE very friendly with the mom and kittens, and the mom entirely accepts them.
Such happens, and if a quarantene istn no issue, cooperation is welcome.

But if in any doubt at all - keep them apart.



About the paw on the kitten. If you cant do anything, so you cant... You had done your part, and her fate is hers now. It is hers children.


Good luck!

At this point there's really nothing for you to do, the mother will care for the babies by herself for a few weeks and won't need any help. Just keep the box clean and dry, in a warm area. Feed the mother kitten food, as much as she wants (nursing mothers needs lots of calories!) and keep fresh water available at all times. Make sure the litterbox is clean.

The older kittens must be at least 9 weeks old, because that's how long cats are pregnant. They can get pregnant again as soon as the kittens are born, so I'd estimate them at that age. You don't really have to worry about them mating until at least 16 weeks old, so you have a few weeks before there's a risk. But do ask at all the local animal rescue agencies to find a way to have them spayed/neutered as soon as possible. They're definitely old enough for that now. And they do need to be separated from the mother and babies.

Thanks a lot for your help everyone! I feel so much better now knowing I'm not doing anything wrong by not helping her. We tried to get the two older kittens out of the office and in my room (and my pets would be out in the living room) but they started to panic and nothing, not even food, would get them to come out of under the bed in the office. I even tried leaving both doors open since they face each other but after a couple of hours I figured they wouldn't budge. My mom and I got two planks od long and somewhat tall wood and basically did a little fort around mom and the newborns. We included a box with towels, a litter box for mom plus a dish with food and another with water. Then we also put food and water and another litter box as far away from the fort as we could for the older ones. Now the only problem we seem to have is that mom jumps over the planks to feed and use the litter box we put out for the two older kitties! I don't get it. Her food is better because it's dry plus wet food and the other kitties are only on dry food at this point so why would she go to all that trouble?

Here are pictures I took:

One of the older kittens (the other was hiding behind a bookcase)

http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/3116/img0595kc.jpg
http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/8898/img0600s.jpg

And one of mom and the kittens, I tried to get as close as possible without frightening her.
http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/936/img0601u.jpg

What a gorgeous family- good luck finding homes for the kittens when it is time. Feed mom at least 5 times a day. Feed her canned kitten food, dry kitten food, KMR and be sure she has plenty of fresh water. Her system is going to go into overdrive to take care of her babies and she needs all this constant nutrition

EDIT: I forgot to ask a couple more questions. At this point I don't think we're ever going to be able to give up the mom and the older kittens since they are feral and, especially mom, don't like people. Mom and I made the decision that at least they will be better off living in my office for the rest of their lives (pray to god that at some point as they get older they will at least come out to our room or the living room) than on the street since I live in a neighborhood were strays usually end up dead (I've seen a lot of cats and dogs dead on the streets and there are tons of cats around running around at night with no home. There is also the problem that all houses are right up against each other so they wouldn't just stay in my backyard and I don't trust people around here because they even let their dogs run around during the day by themselves instead of walking them (can't call animal service on them because our animal service sucks and they usually kill everything they get and it's not the dog's fault their owners don't think about the consequences of leaving them outside especially since we live half a block away from a major street)

How long do we keep the newborns with mom? The only safe place for them when they are ready to be adopted is at a humane society where they really care about animals. That's where we end up taking all the strays cats and dogs we've found once we make sure they are friendly enough to be adopted out.

I wish I could keep them all and feel bad taking them away from mom but there is no way I can keep 8 straight cats plus my 3 dogs and one cat in this house.

Originally Posted by mailyn

One of the older kittens (the other was hiding behind a bookcase)

http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/3116/img0595kc.jpg
http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/8898/img0600s.jpg

Click to expand...

What a beautie! Is the sibling similiar? Or "patched" like mom and the
half siblings?

And yes, he looks not so small anymore. 3 months sooner than 2.
At that age many moms began to avoid them, even when they dont have new kittens.

Wow, I wonder where those flame-point genes came from!

Keep the baby kittens until they're 10-12 weeks old, then find a good no-kill shelter or rescue to take them. Don't separate them before 10 weeks--they learn important cat lessons from their mother and littermates. Handle them frequently, teach them to enjoy being petted, so they don't grow up wild like the older kittens.

The babies are very nicely marked, they should be easy to place. Black and "plain" tabby kittens are harder, in my experience. Some people only want flashy colors . But those kitties are very flashy, so they should go quickly! The older kitten is gorgeous. Obviously some Siamese in their background--the mama's face looks somewhat Oriental, and the flame point kitten looks like he could almost be purebred. Is the other older kitten the same color?

Thanks everyone! The other shy one is spotted black and white. I wonder why none of her kids look like her!

I have a pic of the other one here: http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/5976/foster12.jpg

He/she was a bit younger then. I"m not sure what they are and I can't take them to a vet until Oct 2 so I hope and pray that they don't decide to mate or that they are both female. That would be easier lol.

The two older ones haven't bother the mom but I've caught her twice away from the newborns, once to use the litter box outside and another time to eat the food outside as well. I don't get it since we give her more food and we're mixing it with wet food. Plus the other litter box is just as big! And seriously, why isn't she hissing at the older two when they try to get near her when she is with the newborns???? Isn't she supposed to be guarding them from everyone else???

Oh and I can't handle the kittens. I'm pretty sure mom wouldn't let me since she won't let me near her even before she was pregnant.

You've GOT to figure out a way to handle the kittens. Wait until Mama Cat leaves to use the litterbox or something. Otherwise they'll grow up wild, too. It's not as important the first week, but you have to have something figured out by the time their ears and eyes open. They need to be tamed if they're to find new homes. She'll start spending more time away from the kittens as they get older, so handling them should be easier.

It's OK if she allows the older kittens near the babies. In the wild the females would stay with her until they have their own litters (from what I've seen with my ferals anyway), and if she thought they'd hurt the babies she wouldn't let them near. The best reason to separate them is that they'll try to nurse, and take away the nutrition the baby kittens need, but it's not likely they'll actually hurt the babies.

How did you catch them? If the mama cat actually let you catch her without a trap, there's a good chance she'll eventually warm up to you. The older kittens, too. They may never be the entertainment at parties, but it doesn't really sound like they're fully feral.

There's a 75% chance that the flame point is a male (always true of red cats). And the black spotted one has to be female. . .calicos/tortoiseshells can only have red males and red or black females. They can't have calicos themselves---only red females can have calicos, if the daddy was black. This is true of the babies as well--all the dark spotted ones are females, the red spotted ones have a 3 out of 4 chance of being male. But it's not likely they'll get any big ideas before October 2 so it should be OK. Just make sure you get them fixed as soon after then as possible.

In the pic of Mama with the babies, the little red guy under her arm--is his tail OK? It looks to be at a weird angle.

How long till their eyes open? We're just trying to figure out a way to do this. I just feel so bad taking her kittens away. How can people even breed their pets just to give away all the puppies/kitties??? I'm pretty sure no human would like it if someone took their child. I don't know why these people think it's ok to do the same to their pets. I just feel horrible doing that to her.

The only thing we can think of is to take turns staying in the room and just doing things like cleaning the litterbox etc so the mom gets used to use since before she had the babies she would just hide under anything till we left the room. Hopefully she'll get it that we aren't going to hurt the kitties when we are there.

Getting them to come inside was almost an epic journey. They sort of had lived in my neighbor's backyard or a while but she is a very old lady and she couldn't keep food out for them everyday so we used to do it. Slowly but surely we would take the food bowl and place it nearer to our backyard. Then we moved it to our yard, then closer to the back door. Finally in the house and then I started sitting by the door and, one time when they were more relaxed eating I quickly shut the door. They all went sort of crazy even throwing themselves again the glass sliding door.

Mom started hissing and looking not all to friendly at me but I basically just sat there still as a stone till they stopped looking at me and went to hide under the furniture. Then my mom and I took the dog fences we had and pretty much just made them go towards the office (kinda like when they round up the cattles, lol)

All in all I'd say it took us from practically when the two kittens were about 3-4 weeks old until now which they must be around 3 months from the feedback I'm getting here. ^___^

So far as we've been able to look all the kittens seem normal but I'll try and check today when I'm in there to make sure the tail are ok.

I'm relieved to hear that they can wait till October 1st. I don't know what I would have done if I just had to take them now. We're still trying to figure out how to get them in a crate to take them to the vets. All I have is a dog crate but they're too smart to go for that especially after the fiasco of trying to move them to another room to get them away from the newborns. We wonder if we should just try the direct approach and grab them with a towel (I've grab a feral once like that) because we honestly don't know what else to do. We're also worried that mom will get agitated when she hears all the panicking the older kitties have when we try again to take them away. I can handle two kittens biting and scratching me but I don't think I could handle that from a fully grown cat.

When I had to get my ferals into their carriers, I had them in the bathroom and just chased them around until they went into the carriers to hide. The mama cat was in the basement and wouldn't go in the carrier so I had to throw a towel over her.

Originally Posted by Willowy

When I had to get my ferals into their carriers, I had them in the bathroom and just chased them around until they went into the carriers to hide. The mama cat was in the basement and wouldn't go in the carrier so I had to throw a towel over her.

Click to expand...

Yeah that's gonna be our approach. We're going to try to lure them every day until then with food inside the crate and hopefully we can shut the door fast enough. That's basically how we got them in the house in the first place lol.

I have a question about food. We keep putting dry food with wet food combined for mom to eat and dry food for the older kittens but mom just leaves the newborns, goes right by her plate and straight for the dry food outside. What gives? I thought the dry/wet combo would be more appealing.

She perhaps does it mostly for talking a little walk... streching legs, you know...

Out, on their own, they have seldom food with them, so willy nilly the moms must abandon their nest and go get food some elsewhere. After it, they do come back.



Being online, I want to second Willowys strong advice. Whatever you do, you must work on fostering the littles ones, and preferably the three months too...

I suspect there is something you do or not do. Think about it, do analyse for yourslf.

Perhaps you are too respectful to hisses?
There are hisses and there are hisses. Some are mostly dutifully, some are very strong warnings...
In practice, most are dutiful, without real energy behind.

Have on you thicker clothes and gloves the first times, if you feel unsecure.