5 recent feral kittens born. need help!

A mother and five kittens have been staying in my grandma's backyard. I just started giving them canned wet food but will begin to give dry food. Since the kittens are young, I am unsure what to do. Do I do the tnr? Should I find them homes? How many times should i feed them? Are there any organizations that help to neuter so then i can re locate them instead of being returned to their original location. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Jenny and welcome to tcs!

I will try to answer your question.

Can you tell me first, are the kittens also eating from the dish? Are they old enough to run?

When i walked up to them, all but one ran away and hid.they all ate from a can after I moved away.

I want to provide shelter also. Not sure what? Also, I have a large dog cage which I can try and use but what can I put in there in order to ease the process of capturing them?

Okay so the decision will be based on what you want to do pretty much.

If you are willing to trap them, take them in and tame them, which can be alot of work for one person that's for sure, especially when they really should be seperated to tame them alot easier.

Taming them, getting them vaccines and spays/neuters, and finding good homes for each of them.

Or, trapping them, getting them all fixed, including the momma is very important too, and returning them is so much easier, as long as they will be safe living there in the backyard, AND they will have food and fresh water daily.

You might also try calling around to rescue groups who may be able to help with either way too.

As for trapping, you can buy one for $20.00 or so, or borrow one, or if you can rig a string to the door of the dog crate, put tuna in the back of it inside, wait for them to go in it and pull the string so the door shuts, holding it tightly until you can latch it.

Traps are alot more dependable way to do this though.

If I get the kittens all neutered....and find homes for the kittens, will the mama cat be depressed? I think it will be easier for me to trap the kittens. Not sure if I will be able to get the mom. I am torn..maybe i should let them stay together.

You obviously are a very caring person, I can see this already.

That is why it's extremely important to trap mom too, please don't leave her behind, she will only continue to have litter after litter, this is so awfully hard on her. Not only that but there are not enough homes for all the kittens she will have, your grandma's backyard will be loaded before you even know what hit. You will constantly be dealing with the kittens, and there will never be enough homes for them, so they will live the hard life of a feral, outside, struggling to survive. There is simply no way you are going to want what will happen, I know this.

You can have your backyard little family, all healthy and happy together, but NOT continuing to grow at a rediculous rate.

Taming kittens is alot more work then you realize, what happens is, you will end up with them eventually getting used to you, but only you, they will be very shy, hiding cats, which are hard to find good homes for.

If she keeps having litters, you will not be able to get them all fixed, eventually one or 2 will not be caught, and they will mate with their mom too, males will fight, and that gets so ugly.

It's just all bad, believe me.

Thanks for all your help. I will definitely try. I want to buy cat food however should I buy kitten food? Will that be okay for mom? Because if I get adult cat food, I know kittens can't have it.

Adult dry is harder for the kittens to eat due to it's size. If you can get kitten dry this is best, and mom can eat it as well.

If you want to feed any canned food, adult is fine but be sure to buy the pate/classic type, not the chunky with gravy ones.

Hello...so I created an outside home for the cats. 

However, they are not going in it.

Are there are any ideas of how to get them to go in it?

Should i put food inside it only 1x??

And what are the best toys to buy the cats to they have some stuff to play with???

Thanks!!

jenny2786 said:

 

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Hopefully what you made the shelter out of does not have other dog/cat smells, I know you mentioned a dog crate previously.

If so, it needs to be saturated with a household cleaner like 409 and then hosed off well to remove any other animal scents.

You should put the food inside, which forces them to go in to eat, and they will soon enough discover this is a safe spot they can be without danger.

As for toys, the kittens will be very unfamiliar in recognizing an actual cat toy, however those little mice they all seem to be able to relate to.

Crinkle balls work, anything that is small and doesn't look scary or intimidating to them.

You can also do something I did before, get some catnip, some old socks or panty hose that are no good, or knee highs and fill the bottoms with a bit of catnip, tie a knot and that's that, they will LOVE them. I even stuck a feather in the knot to add to it's appeal, loved these! Just keep them small.

Great. Thanks for your advice. I made a new home using two containers. I only made one hole though, felt like it can get cold with two holes. I have been putting food in five different spots because they are pawing at each other and I don't want them to fight. Therefore I am only putting one of the containers in the home. They did go in but I think only bc the food was there. One of the cats has an eye infection will be going to pick up medicine at the vet tomorrow. Makes me so upset but trying to do everything I can to make them comfortable.

I think it sounds like you are doing great, the idea of the food inside is to get them to realize it is safe and good, rather than anything scary or dangerous.

Vet will give terramycin I'm sure. It's an eye ointment for bacteria, works great too.

Keep up the good work, you are doing a very good thing for them!

Hello..I have another question...I am feeding the mom, dad and their five kittens 2x a day. Should I continue or only feed 1x/day?

If you are feeding dry, you can have that out for them all the time, then maybe feed them canned once a day.

Well I don't live there so currently they are fed 2x a day. Food is always gone. If I only give dry, 2x is ok?

Yes, as long as there is enough for everyone to get full then that's fine too.

Hello again. So i need help! I am in panic mode. 

I have some issues:

There are 5 kittens, a mom and a dad (another adult cat hangs around not sure if male or female)

The father cat is chasing mom everywhere and is trying to hump her. She keeps pawing at him and running away. He follows her EVERYwhere when I go there 1x a day.

I know I need to get them fixed, but I don't see how I will get the parents....seems like the kittens will smell the food (lets say if I use tuna)...How do I go about this?  I believe home depot sells raccoon traps that you can use with cats. Do i Just buy one trap? Will the size be ok for adult and kittens? I rather buy a trap than borrow because the nearest place is actually just too far. And it may take me a long time to capture them...so I think it will be easier.

Unfortunately, I cannot feed them 2x a day anymore. I try to leave ALOT of food to hold them over for 2 feedings.

Another issue is that I will be getting married in Jan 2015. I will be moving and now I am freaking out because I have been feeding them and giving them fresh water. 

Please help, any advice, words, helps would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for always providing me information in the past posts.

No problem.

First of all, mom will, no doubt get prego again, if not already. But if you take her to be spayed asap that is not an issue, she will have to be aborted. Sad but necessary.

Why not trap them all and get them all fixed?

I know it's not cheap for regular people, but if you find a rescue group nearby they will help with the costs, or allow you to use their vet which is very low cost.

Contact the humane societies and spca's and any other places. If you don't find any who will help, ask vets, someone will be able to point you in the right direction.

It is what we rescue groups do.  It's all about TNR to prevent as many as possible from reproducing more unwanted kittens, fighting, marking behavior, and so on.

If the kittens get trapped first, so be it. Stick their butts in a cage or someplace, until you get the adults.

The kittens will need to be fixed very soon anyway, they are already plenty big enough, so may as well get it all done with, the sooner the better.

Feeding them once a day is plenty!

As far as you moving away, there must be someone who would be willing to take over when you leave.

Even sharing the cost of the food will help.

I was planning on catching one and bring to vet. Then catch again. Are you saying to catch all kittens then try mom and dad..then bring them together? If u catch kittens i am not sure where i would keep them????