Trying to introduce my orphaned kittens to a new mother.

For the whole story please read my post about my kittens, in ferals and rescue, it's called 'please help need advice about 5 2 weeks old kittens'. It explains the story behind my kittens and what has been going on. They are so sweet and I am hoping today can bring good news for them!

My friend has called me (we've not seen each other in around a month) and her cat has just had a litter of 3 kittens, they are now just under 4 weeks old, the same age as I estimate my orphans to be at now. We have been doing some research and have found out that we have a chance of including my orphans into her litter. I know 7 may be a lot but we will be on hand to help and this mother is not a stray and lives at home so there is always plenty of food available.

Just wanted some advice, any tips to make this go smoothly?

Make sure your kittens has the smell of the resident kittens.  Do some  scent swapping, from the other kittens, and or the owner of the mom.

If you know the resident mom, and she knows you as being friendly with her,  you can let her smell on you some and pet her....   If not,  keep yourself from there, and let only they host handle the kittens.

With any luck, she will acceepts  the newbees,  most often they do it without big fuss.

Lets hope others will also chime in!

Good luck!

Scent is the biggest thing.  Some mamas are just fine with newcomers but others growl at the strange scent, although they are not likely to hurt the babies.  As @StefanZ suggested, do your best to make the new babies smell like the resident home, either the scent of the human who lives there, or the scent of the babies by swapping bedding, rubbing them with the bedding of the existing family, etc.

Another thing you can do if she seems upset by their smell is to put something with a strong smell, like mint or catnip drops, on her nose.  Some people have suggested Vicks but I think that is way too strong and might upset the mama.  Most mamas have not been resistant in my experience but for the ones who are, we have gently held them still and rubbed their ears while their babies were nursing and plugged in the newbies for awhile.  Usually we have to put formula on mamas nipples because the bottle babies only know the smell of formula and bottles and have no idea that mamas nipples provide it. The trick is that once the new kittens have nursed from her and her milk has gone through them and out the other end, she will accept them as hers, so even if you have to kind of force a nursing session every 4 hours or so for the first day, by the second day all is usually just fine.

It worked! She accepted them! We put the mother in a different room and then put my kittens in the box with hers. The other kittens started licking and smelling mine and they all seemed fine together. After about 15 minutes we let the mother back in with the kittens. First she was smelling the box, but after a few seconds she got in and was licking everyone the same as if mine has always been in there. We left her alone with them and after about 20 minutes she was lying down in the box and everything seemed good! This is such a happy ending for these kittens and now they can get everything they need. My friend will keep me posted and I will visit them in a few days after they have settled in with new mom. They seemed so much smaller than the other kittens so it was clear to see how much they were losing out on being abandoned by their own mother.But I think (and of course hope) that they will be okay from now on

We had a mama cat that took on two orphans.  She was trying to wean her own kittens--the two orphans were about a week or two younger than her kittens,  She fussed a little, but took on the two newcomers anyway.  They just needed a week or two of nursing, then they were weaned just like the other kits.  Good luck with your babies.

CarlyWhyte1348 said:

 
It worked! She accepted them! We put the mother in a different room and then put my kittens in the box with hers. The other kittens started licking and smelling mine and they all seemed fine together. After about 15 minutes we let the mother back in with the kittens. First she was smelling the box, but after a few seconds she got in and was licking everyone the same as if mine has always been in there. We left her alone with them and after about 20 minutes she was lying down in the box and everything seemed good! This is such a happy ending for these kittens and now they can get everything they need. My friend will keep me posted and I will visit them in a few days after they have settled in with new mom. They seemed so much smaller than the other kittens so it was clear to see how much they were losing out on being abandoned by their own mother.But I think (and of course hope) that they will be okay from now on

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Great news!

Wonderful news!   Tx a lot for telling us, and also, what trick you did use.   A nice variation of our tips!   Purrpoint awarded!

Make sure the mom gets lotsa of first rate food, as 7 babies is much.  Usually not too much, but much.  It will be perhaps even proper to give her some extra calcium.

Good luck!

Thanks, I'm so glad everything worked out! I have bought some whiskers kitten pouches for mom, as it says it is a good source for a nursing mother, to go along with her regular food.

CarlyWhyte1348 said:

 
It worked! She accepted them! We put the mother in a different room and then put my kittens in the box with hers. The other kittens started licking and smelling mine and they all seemed fine together. After about 15 minutes we let the mother back in with the kittens. First she was smelling the box, but after a few seconds she got in and was licking everyone the same as if mine has always been in there. We left her alone with them and after about 20 minutes she was lying down in the box and everything seemed good! This is such a happy ending for these kittens and now they can get everything they need. My friend will keep me posted and I will visit them in a few days after they have settled in with new mom. They seemed so much smaller than the other kittens so it was clear to see how much they were losing out on being abandoned by their own mother.But I think (and of course hope) that they will be okay from now on

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Great news so far.  Do make sure that the orphan kittens have figured out how to nurse on her and aren't waiting for a bottle, or nursing on the other kittens' boy parts (something orphans often do!)