Making a transfer from one birthing cage to another

Hello,

First time cat caregiver - frankly, I'm allergic to them.  But, my wife and I just moved to a wooded lot and were pleasantly surprised in Feb to find two small feral cats walking around.  It was a cold winter so we fed them and they kept coming back and boy could we use some mousers!  We wanted to get them fixed but didn't until this past week.  Well, that was the plan.  We trapped one and brought her to the vets and they found she was very pregnant.  As a matter of fact, she had them the next day after we transferred her to a larger cage. We spec'd the cage with food, water, litter box, and an empty box.   She been doing well with at least two kittens but we've covered the entire cage to make her feel safe so we don't really know what is at the back.  However, we do know it is filthy - she gave birth back there and I'm sure the kittens have used the same area as well.  We think we should transfer her to another cage (we have one) that is the same size but has the silly door swings.  My question is, is there harm with keeping her in the same cage for another 5-8 weeks or should we try and move her over?  Should we just air drop some small pieces of fabric?  We can put them next to each other to do this and others have suggested taking the covers off the old one and put them on the new one to get her to move over.  Of course, we are very hesitant to move as this is how we lost the 2nd feral cat (longer story)  What do you think?

FWIW - They are in our attached garage.

Thanks

You really do need to clean her space immediately.  Usually I change the bedding in a cat's delivery nest 24 hours after she delivers, and then I change it on a regular basis, putting in clean sheets and taking out the old and washing them.  In the wild, she would move her kittens away from where she gave birth within 24 hours or so in order not to draw predators by the smell.  As for litter, the kittens are not using it, the mother cat consumes all their waste as long as they are little, but SHE is no doubt using the litter box so it must be changed frequently.  If you have it near a door to the cage (does it have a back door?) you can pull it out, dump it, wash it, and put in fresh litter daily.  I don't know what you mean by "silly door swings" but you do need to have access to her food and water dishes in order to keep them clean and also the litter box and bedding. 

If you need her to move from one cage to another, the best way to get her to move is to get the new cage set up and then move the kittens there.  It sounds like you could get them by pulling her box close to the door of the cage, and if she's scared she would go behind the box.  Then you could transfer the kittens to the new cage, cover it, and put the door of the old cage against the door of the new cage and let her go over herself.  Then you can close the door to the new cage.  Also, it is good for you to handle the kittens at least once daily while they are newborn as it will help with domesticating them if they know your scent from day one.  They may hiss at you anyhow, which is endearing when they are still tiny and toothless and their eyes aren't even open. 

We have many good articles on dealing with ferals -- just scroll up to the brown bar above and click on Articles.

Yes, good advice.

The problem is, it's not just filthy it is wet. Wet isn't good for the babies or momma to be on.

I also had another idea, why not use one of those grabber things, that you can get in there, grab the dirty bedding, bring it to the front then grab it out, slide new bedding in and use the grabber to set it in the back.

I also meant to add, for being a first timer, you are doing really great.

Covering most of the cage except the front is perfect for mom feeling more secure and not exposed to predators as she would be thinking, even though we know there's nothing that can get her in the cage, she doesn't.

Thank you very much for the advice.  We butted the other cage up to the other prior to feeding this AM.  We put new food in the new clean cage and left mom alone to move the kittens to the new place.  However, when we went to check on them 20 minutes later, only she had gone over to eat (maybe we didn't wait long enough) and left her kittens (5 of them) in the old cage.  So, we moved them over (Mom's voice went from a growl (don't touch my babies) to a whimper (don't hurt my babies).  We cleaned out the old cage and left it in place in case we need to move them again.  This was nerve racking and it was the first time mom had taken a swipe at us.

Here is my next question - in the old cage, we had a little box that mom used to hide both her and her kittens.  In the new cage, our Spay n' Stay person suggested we use a cat carrier instead of a box.  So we did.  But now, mom cat is in it and the kittens are neatly in the middle of the cage.  We aren't used to seeing mom away from the kittens but she did feed them/arrange them after they were handled from one cage to another so I think all is ok.  I hope.  The kittens are 4 days old.

In my experience, the mom wants to get rid of the box, or open one side, a few days after delivery.  The last one I had began removing the outside walls of the box (I had it in a corner of the walk-in closet) with her teeth and I came in to find cardboard shreds all over the place.  I got the message and got rid of the box.  Then she was happy.  After the first few days, the mama cats frequently move away from the kittens once they are fed, which allows them time to sleep.  If there's plenty of room for the carrier in your cage, she can use it as a place to sleep or else a shelf to sit on to watch over the kittens.  If it crowds the space, just take it out.  As long as your cage has no openings big enough for kittens to fall out of, they will be fine.  The fact that she fed them and arranged them is perfect, that means she is OK with the new arrangement.  She will get less aggressive towards you as she learns you are not going to hurt her kittens.

One of our moms at our main shelter (Cherokee Humane Society Thrift Store, find it on Facebook or Google it) has a double animal hospital-type cage with a connecting door.  She's funny -- she will move some or all of the kittens over to one side and feed them, and then return them to the other cage to sleep.  She sleeps on a shelf above them when they are all in the sleeping cage usually, but sometimes she moves over to the "nursing" cage and stretches out all by herself.  She is one of the wet nurses for newborns, so she always has very young kittens.

catsinmyhat said:

 
Here is my next question - in the old cage, we had a little box that mom used to hide both her and her kittens.  In the new cage, our Spay n' Stay person suggested we use a cat carrier instead of a box.  So we did.  But now, mom cat is in it and the kittens are neatly in the middle of the cage.  We aren't used to seeing mom away from the kittens but she did feed them/arrange them after they were handled from one cage to another so I think all is ok.  I hope.  The kittens are 4 days old.

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This is very common for feral moms to do. Basically what she is doing is hiding from you. 

Sometimes it ends up that she is in the box but the kittens are not, so rather than risk lack of nursing availability, as well as being apart from her babies since she is their heat source, remove any boxes or carrier too, be sure the litterbox is very low sided so she doesn't feel protected by it, which will eliminate any problems with this. Use a large towel, folded twice and place it on the floor of cage, also acts as a shield for two sides where it's cornered to prevent cage bars exposure.

Cover the cage all the way, top to bottom all around the cage except the lower half of the front. This gives her privacy and security.

One important thing is, all around the inside of the cage, there needs to be something to prevent any kittens getting caught up in the cage near the bottom of it, almost like a baby crib needs a bumper pad, I use rolled up towels, securing them with zip ties. These won't need to be changed either, they stay clean. This is what I meant above by protection from cage bars.

Many years back I learned this the hard way, I had a VERY feral mom and her newborns, went in one morning and found one baby had worked it's way behind mom and was smashed between her and the cage.

Just an fyi, but mom cats aren't bothered by their babies smelling like humans from handling, so no worries there. They don't abandon them like other species.