Need Advice - Should I separate Feral Kittens from Mama?

Hello there,

So glad I found this forum.  I've always loved cats and I'm currently living for three years in Honduras.  I started feeding a little feral kitten of about 6 months of age back in November.  She was a skinny little thing and would come several times daily to my back porch for cat food.  About 4.5 weeks ago she had three kittens under my car, and not feeling very safe or secure she moved them to a different location which I was unable to locate until just recently.  I finally found them, they are now 4 1/2 weeks old, three of them.  She is the best mama kitty and stands watch for them constantly.  I don't really want to soon have a whole colony of feral kitties here in our little neighborhood but I want to continue to care for the mama kitty, and hope to trap her at some point and have her spayed.  Should I think about bringing the kittens inside for socialization and finding them new homes?  Will the mama kitty be traumatized if I take away her kittens?  Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Kristin

I will answer you a little later. Unless others chime in....   I had a long day, and Im tired now...

Welcome to our Forums!

Hello, welcome to The Cat Site

Yes, now would be the best time to bring the kittens indoors but it's also the best time to bring the mama cat indoors too. She'll be starting a new heat cycle and will be pregnant again really soon. Do you have access to a humane trap? You can use the kittens as bait to catch the mother. You need to put one kitten in a carrier at the closed end of the trap, cover the carrier and trap with a blanket so that just open end of the trap is uncovered then when the mother cat enters the trap to retrieve her kitten she will spring the trap.

There might be groups that do TNR in your area that you can borrow a trap from. Have you tried Googling them?

Ideally you should trap the mother and take her straight to the vet to be spayed. That way she won't be traumatised by too much handling or need to be re-trapped. Do you have a spare room where she could recover from being spayed and take care of her kittens for a bit longer? Staying with mother until they are at least 12 weeks old is best, but if this is not possible then just try to keep mother and kittens together until she has recovered from being spayed.

Thank you for trying to help this cat. Please let us know if you need any more advice and keep us posted on how it goes.

Re the kittens, you do have a couple of  different ways.   Take them now or in a few days, before they get too movable, but when they are big enough to manage to eat solids without big problems.   AND they are still easy to foster into fully socialized home cats.

Yes, mom will mourn deeply, but inside of you, you will know its your best gift to her and to her children.   She will possibly even understand it, as you are her caretaker.

If you are her caretaker  and her main source of food, she will  bring the kittens to your place anyway, perhaps in two three weeks.   You will have your chance again, but being older they will be more difficult to socialize, even if you catch them.      If you dont catch them, you can anyways try and socialize them in the fields, but it will be more slow and almost surely, not so complete socialization...

And last but not least, you can try and take in them all now asap.  especielly as the mom is such a good mom.  She will probably follow her kittens inside...

Next question is of course, if you manage to foster a bunch of semiferale kittens with their shy mom nearby.

Some manage it nicely - the mom after landing and calming herself, does usually allows it, when she realizes nobody is mean to her nor her kittens, and you are in fact their best chance to manage well.

Cat moms are here exactly like human moms. The welfare of her children is more important than "freedom".

While other experienced rescuers  recommend to separate the kittens from their shy ferale mom...

Anyways, its wise to take her soon now, to spay her...   They can come in new heat  quite soon after delivery. Unlike humans, they are not protected by lactacing.

As you see, there are several possible plans, and it depends in much on the exact situation and your resources...

I hope my answer, together with Nora-chans answer, helped you some in your plans.

You are warmthly welcomed back with further questions and ideas to discuss..

Tx for caring!

Good luck!

Great advice so far!

Welcome to tcs.  

Glad to see you found this helpful site, and we are always here for advice and support.

The first thing is, the kittens, and the plan for their future.

If you would rather not see them grow up as ferals like momma, then trapping them now quite literally is the answer. Mentally at 4 1/2 weeks old, they will be able to eat from a dish of canned food smashed into a bit of kmr (kitten replacement milk) to start off.

At this exact age, they are too young to run away from you, but very soon, within days, they will be a bit harder to grab.

Just use a towel over your hand and nab one at a time, pushing down to the ground, then get a better grip by their scruff, which will cause them to relax, as this is natural holding to them, and pick each up.

They may hiss but it's harmless at this age. Don't be intimidated.

I would be sure to grab all 3 at that time so mom doesn't take any away and hide them.

Now this is what you want to do if you will see to it that they will go to good homes as tame cats. Then of course, trap momma cat. She will be in heat about now and need to be aborted, so best to get her asap. Get her spayed and she can be returned.

On the other hand, if you don't feel you can find homes for them, and will simply tnr them all, this is fine too, then I would hold off until they are about 9-10 weeks old and can be tnr'd along with mom.

Let us know what your plan is with them and we can explain in detail the 'how-to's' to achieve this.

Thanks for being such a caring person!  

Thank you to everyone for all your advice!  I'm so grateful . . . I have always had pets cats, but while on this foreign assignment do not currently have any cats.  So I'm totally out of my league with the feral cat stuff.  

My situation changed a bit, the mom moved the kitties into a small shed on the property, which as soon as I discovered it I made a gate for the door so the mom can get in/out but the babies can't get out.  I'm trying to organize the shed so I can decrease all their hiding places and get to them once again.  Which I think I can do this week.  I also am bringing them a bit of canned cat food mixed with milk once a day so they can learn to eat solid food.  I'm putting a litter box in the shed for them also this week so hopefully they can learn to use the litter box.  My goal is to catch / trap the mama as soon as possible so she can be spayed!  She still comes to the porch for food a couple times a day, so I am calling around tomorrow to some of the veterinarian clinics to see if I can locate a trap.

Any further advice is always appreciated!!

Thank you,

Kristin

One thing to keep in mind, is try not to change things too much in case mom decides to move them away from human contact again, the next time you might not be so lucky to find them, and that could be all bad.

They should have no problem using the litterbox at this time, as long as the sides are not too high.

Canned with milk? Regular cow's milk is no good, as it causes diarrhea, which can be dangerous to a young kitten, but the canned food is a good thing.

What is your plan for the kittens future?

I'm trying to find homes for the kittens, so I would like to be able to socialize them before they get too big.  So I should use canned milk to mix with the canned cat food?  Thanks again! 

Kristin

The best thing at this age would definitely be KMR added to pate canned food.

If you don't want to get KMR, then simply adding a bit of water to make the food less thick is okay too.

Theyre nearly 5 weeks now, so every 2 days or so before getting them means more work to get them socialized and easy adopts.

Very different story when they are shy and fearful of people to get them adopted out.

At this point now, they are quite easy to tame.

Plus they can run from you very soon which makes it harder to grab them too!

Okay . . . here's a little update (and a few questions!) . . . the momma cat kept moving and trying to hide the kittens from me, so I finally found them in a part of the shed where I could catch them all, so I brought them in the house and they are all safely ensconced in a spare bathroom, I wasn't sure they were eating solid food well, but they are doing ok with a little canned food several times a day, and are using the litter box I put in there for them.  I'm visiting them several times a day and working on socialization.  They do quite well, but don't approach me yet, but don't protest too much when I pick them up and pet them.  They all will start purring after a few moments of petting.  They are now six weeks and one day.

Now the mama kitty . . . I'm working very hard to trap her and hope to do so this week.  Then I will take her directly to a vet to be spayed.  

What kind of care will she need for the first few days after the surgery?  I think I will put her back in the shed for a couple days so the environment is familiar.  How long before she can just be released to go back outdoors?

What do the kittens need to be adopted?  Vaccinations?  When can they be spayed / neutered?  Dewormed?

Just taking it one step at a time here.  I have a full time job where I travel a great deal . . . so this has been an adventure I don't really want to repeat

Thank you to all for your advice and encouragement.  I certainly appreciate all the many cats and kittens you all are caring for on a regular basis!

I'm pretty sure I have found homes for the kittens . . . but still working on it.

Kristin

kkleinrn said:

 
Okay . . . here's a little update (and a few questions!) . . . the momma cat kept moving and trying to hide the kittens from me, so I finally found them in a part of the shed where I could catch them all, so I brought them in the house and they are all safely ensconced in a spare bathroom, I wasn't sure they were eating solid food well, but they are doing ok with a little canned food several times a day, and are using the litter box I put in there for them.  I'm visiting them several times a day and working on socialization.  They do quite well, but don't approach me yet, but don't protest too much when I pick them up and pet them.  They all will start purring after a few moments of petting.  They are now six weeks and one day.

Now the mama kitty . . . I'm working very hard to trap her and hope to do so this week.  Then I will take her directly to a vet to be spayed.  

What kind of care will she need for the first few days after the surgery?  I think I will put her back in the shed for a couple days so the environment is familiar.  How long before she can just be released to go back outdoors?

What do the kittens need to be adopted?  Vaccinations?  When can they be spayed / neutered?  Dewormed?

Just taking it one step at a time here.  I have a full time job where I travel a great deal . . . so this has been an adventure I don't really want to repeat

Thank you to all for your advice and encouragement.  I certainly appreciate all the many cats and kittens you all are caring for on a regular basis!

I'm pretty sure I have found homes for the kittens . . . but still working on it.

Kristin

Click to expand...

Good job!

So depending on how soon you get her trapped, will tell how her recovery will be.

If she is able to have a week or so to dry up a bit, it helps, not only is it easier for the vet to spay her without all that milk in the way, but her recovering time will be shorter too.

10 days to 2 weeks is ideal, but who lives in an ideal world right?!

She will need about 3 days to recover, longer by a couple days if she were to be spayed right now as she is, full of milk.

Kittens must be 2 pounds minimum, and will need deworm, flea med, and an fvrcp vaccine.

Minimum.

If you want to test them for felv it's another $50.00 each at least.

Microchip another $10-15. each.

Once adopted be sure the new owners understand each will need another vaccination (fvrcp) in 3-4 weeks following the first.

Then again in another 3-4 weeks.

It's a series of 3 vaccines for kittens to be protected fully.

Thank you!!  Stay tuned . . . sure to be continued

Another question . . . with the kittens who are now 6 weeks, one day,  do I continue feeding canned food?  For how long?  Is it a good idea to mix dry food in also so they get used to dry food?  Also, at this time, how often should they be eating?

Thank you again!

Kristin

Canned food is much better for them than wet food is. If they are happily eating the wet food I wouldn't bother giving them any dry. It's too high in carbohydrate for cats to be really healthy on and can lead to problems with dehydration.

Have you weighed the kittens yet? I guess they must be quite big by now.

We'd love to see some pictures.

They are old enough to be eating dry as well.

I use Royal Canin Babycat because of it's tiny size and so nutritious, but you might not want to as it is expensive.

Hopefully the dry will be small bites, for now at least. Purina kitten chow is smaller.

Kittens metabolize fast, so they are hungry often, maybe 4 times a day or so.

If this is not convenient you can also leave a dish of the dry out for them.

Another update - I continued to work on socializing the three kittens, and they did really well.  Two of them would come to me to be picked up, played with and petted.  The third would finally approach the food with me nearby if I was patient.  I would then pet and socialize this kitten and made some improvement with it as well.  About three weeks ago I managed to trap the mama feral cat and took her to be spayed.  I was a little worried because I had no way to get the antibiotics down her that they wanted her to take.  After the first couple she began to pick them out of the food.  So she never completed the antibiotics.  But other than that, she appears to be happy and healthy.

At eight weeks I took the kittens in for their first set of shots.  I found homes for two of the kittens and now have just the third which is now very well socialized and I think I may keep her.  We are really enjoying each other.  She is just about due for her next set of shots.  

One more question about the mama cat.  I will only be here on this assignment for two more years.  I hate to make the mama dependent on me for food as I will eventually have to leave.  Has anyone ever dealt with this before?  Should I start to decrease her dependence on me for food?

Kristin

You have done so great with this family, and got the mom spayed? Excellent!

This is a tough question, as she is so enjoying having you feed her and care for her.

Is there not anyone else nearby you might be able to get her acquainted with over time that will pick up where you leave off?

Going back to finding her own food is sad, yes, they can survive on it, but barely, they don't ever get thick and healthy weight, they are usually thin and tube-like bodies, never enough to feel satisfied, at least not for long.

Hi,

You've done an excellent job with the kittens, so glad to hear they'll all have new homes to go to. Good job on having the Mama cat spayed too. 

If you're going to be there for another two years it's probably too early to think about how she'll survive once you're gone. I don't want to be depressing here, but two years is a long time for a cat that lives outside and a lot can happen in that time. I care for a colony in a very quiet rural area with no predators. Even though the cats are fed daily and taken to the vet if they get sick occasionally one of them will disappear and I never see them again.

If you keep feeding her for now you will make her life a lot easier and in two years time, who knows? Maybe you could find someone to take over feeding her, as catwoman said. Maybe she will have become so used to you that you could think about re-homing her or keeping her yourself.

Whatever happens, you've already improved her life a lot by getting her spayed and taking care of the kittens.