Should I move queen and kittens to a more comfortable location?

My cat just gave birth to her kittens in the garage on a blanket under a shelf. Its warm in there but mamas back half is off the blanket so I am assuming kittens are not all on blanket either. Should I crawl under there and move them or let them be? They are in an enclosed little room in garage but its bare concrete floors. I put a box in their for mom to take her babies if she wants to move them. What do I do? I am so worried!! This wasn't even my cat, she adopted us 4 weeks ago...She is very sweet though. Any advice would be great. I was thinking of moving them in the laundry room too instead of leaving them in garage. What do you think?

Thank you for any words of advice you may have.

The laundry room sounds best,  if you can get them there.

I think you have two options.

If mom is friendly with you, and trusts you, you can essentially just go in, collect them kittens in their new nest, and carry it to the new place.

Do it respectfully so mom sees you arent harming them, and the kittens dont protest.   And talk sweetly to mom, so she knows she IS supposed to follow you to the laundry room.

If the nest is too big to carry, you have them in a basket, and carry the basket to the laundry room and the nest there.

If  she doesnt  trusts you, your plan B is what you have done: have this nest there, and hope she will herself move them.   Later on you may perhaps get them to the laundry room anyway.

She doenst want to use the soiled blanket much more, so she will soon want to move them anyway.

Tx for caring!

Good luck!

Thank you for the advice. I decided to remove soiled towels they weren't using and replaced with clean ones. She immediately moved to a cleaner area and I gathered her babies for her. I am still a little nervous about moving them to the laundry room. It's 1:55 in the morning here in Texas and I'm just exhausted! I think I'll move them in the morning. She gave birth to her first kitty at around 8:00pm and was finished (from what I could tell) around 11:00. I hope everyone is healthy and happy! holy cow this is stressful!!!

First time "Mama cat owner" here, needless to say I'm very stressed.

She had her babies last night, 7 total. The mother kitty seems to be doing well, but I was stressed that she had them in the garage. I made sure they were all on a blanket and this morning I moved them from the garage into the laundry room into a nice cozy cardboard box where there is plenty of room for mama and her 7 babies. =)

Okay my question is, how do you know when to supplement the kittens with KMR? How can you tell if mama has enough milk or if one is getting kicked off. I'm trying to give her privacy because when we go in the room she comes out and wants to be loved by us. As soon as we go out the door she jumps back in with babies. I am just worried that there will be a runt who will need supplementation since she had 7...Any words of advice would be great.

This mama kitty was a stray who just happened to like our barn. I was going to take her/him (wasn't sure what the sex was) to get a rabies shot and make sure she/or he was fixed and lo and behold SHE was starting to show! It's a girl!!! LOL

Anyway, mama kitty is a sweet heart.

If anybody has any words of advice on when to supplement kitties that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much!

OH and how often should we go in and check on them? I don't want to over do it...

Faithfor4 said:

 
First time "Mama cat owner" here, needless to say I'm very stressed.

She had her babies last night, 7 total. The mother kitty seems to be doing well, but I was stressed that she had them in the garage. I made sure they were all on a blanket and this morning I moved them from the garage into the laundry room into a nice cozy cardboard box where there is plenty of room for mama and her 7 babies. =)

Okay my question is, how do you know when to supplement the kittens with KMR? How can you tell if mama has enough milk or if one is getting kicked off. I'm trying to give her privacy because when we go in the room she comes out and wants to be loved by us. As soon as we go out the door she jumps back in with babies. I am just worried that there will be a runt who will need supplementation since she had 7...Any words of advice would be great.

This mama kitty was a stray who just happened to like our barn. I was going to take her/him (wasn't sure what the sex was) to get a rabies shot and make sure she/or he was fixed and lo and behold SHE was starting to show! It's a girl!!! LOL

Anyway, mama kitty is a sweet heart.

If anybody has any words of advice on when to supplement kitties that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much!

OH and how often should we go in and check on them? I don't want to over do it...

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i don't have experience with newborn kittens, but have learned a lot through this forum and it's members. first, i'll see if i can attract the attention of some members who do have much experience with young kittens. @StefanZ, @catwoman707, @Red Top Rescue   -- may i ask for your experience and expertise for the OP (original poster)? i'm sure someone with experience in this area will be along shortly.

one way to be sure the kittens are getting enough milk from momma cat is to weigh them, every day at about the same time. keep track of each kittens weight, so you'll be able to see if they're all gaining weight each day and the proper amount of weight daily. newborn kittens ideally should gain 8-10 grams each day, if they gain more than that that's great. a digital kitchen scale that can weigh in grams would be very good to weigh the kittens with. if a kitten gains less than 8-10 grams for a day or two but seems to be acting normally and nursing well, that is ok as long as the third day the kitten starts to gain again.

make sure the kittens stay warm near their momma cat. some signs to look for are a kitten acting lethargic, not nursing well or enough, is cold to the touch, or momma cat has moved the kitten away from her and the rest of the babies. these signs can indicate that that kitten could be fading or ill in some way.

my understanding is that around 3 weeks old, give or take several days, it's common for some kittens to start fading -- like lack of good appetite. with some supplemental feeding with KMR it may be possible to get the kitten through this period and start doing well again.

to do supplemental feedings, the kitten must not be cold/must be warm, and should be held tummy down much like if it was nursing from it's momma cat.

if momma cat is comfortable with you visiting with her and her babies, then that would be good for the kittens to help them learn that people are ok and can be friendly. this can help when it comes time to find them furever homes.  i'm sure other members with more experience will have more info about this for you.

mickNsnicks2mom said:

  
one way to be sure the kittens are getting enough milk from momma cat is to weigh them, every day at about the same time. keep track of each kittens weight, so you'll be able to see if they're all gaining weight each day and the proper amount of weight daily. newborn kittens ideally should gain 8-10 grams each day, if they gain more than that that's great. a digital kitchen scale that can weigh in grams would be very good to weigh the kittens with. if a kitten gains less than 8-10 grams for a day or two but seems to be acting normally and nursing well, that is ok as long as the third day the kitten starts to gain again.

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Yes, weighting them is the easiest and best way to Know.  They shall gain about 10 g or more, if they were smallish in the beginning, it will be less of course.

Experienced rescueres do often see the development with eyes and by handling them, but for a newbe the weighting is the easiest.

And of course, make sure the mom gets first rate nourishment, with as many kittens.  The demand on her will be even bigger later on, when they are big, movable, but has not yet began to eat themselves...

Good you do have gears ready,  dropper / syringe / bottle, KMR or goat milk, glucose sugar...  If you notice someone needs supplement or even more hefty emergency measures, you shall be prepared.

Good luck!

@Faithfor4  hi there and welcome!

No need to feel nervous or stressed, we will help you here.

 With a litter of 7, you can expect there is likely 2 runts. In their first week they will have chosen their favorite nipple and will nurse there the rest of the time.

Which means, someone is going to be getting bumped, constantly.

Hopefully mom is full with a good milk supply, but even so, rotation is your best option, or you can supplement.

Starting from today, where we are right now rather than looking into the near future days, we will start here.

You will want to observe and list who is who, and get a weight. Do you have a scale that will measure grams?

It's not as important to weigh the bigger ones everyday, once you know they're good, but the smaller and middle kids are important for them all to survive.

Take notes and chart who weighs what, and keep an eye out for one specific baby who seems to end up off on it's own rather than in the herd.

This is your first signal that a kitten is not going to thrive as well and may need your help.

If you are able to observe by going in with mom and go right to her and sit down, maybe she will stay with her babies?

If not then you will need to rely on their weight only, since you won't be seeing who is nursing and who is bullied off.

Personally, I believe as long as each baby has the desire to nurse and good suction, but they are not as big and are getting bullied off, then rotation works amazingly.

This is where you will have a small container that is padded and has a heat source, which means something that consistently heats to keep their temps stable, heating pad on low, etc and you pull the 4 biggest babies out and put them in the box for awhile. Then there is nothing stopping the small kids from nursing to their heart's content.

As long as they are warm in the box, they can be away for an hour or even more, but 1 1/2-2 hours max.

You want to do this several times a day, and watch their progress.

You will not be removing the little ones at all, they will always be with mom.

Thank you for the advice, I appreciate it more than you know. I am SO stressed out with worry...I don't even know if I have anything to worry about! 

So I was finally able to see mama nursing and there were 2 that weren't on. I tried to get them to bottle feed but they wouldn't AND mama was anxious and came out when I was trying. She is not thrilled when we mess with her babies, she lets us but it makes her stop caring for the others. I would be in a whole mess of trouble if she decided not to do her job at all. Remember this cat is a stray and has only been with us for 3 or 4 weeks now.

At this point can I just let them be?? Maybe try supplementing them in a week when its obvious that it is needed? I cannot take this stress anymore. I haven't slept well in 3 nights. Mama cat is doing her job, She is very attentive and is always with them unless we walk in the room.

Is it absolute that 1 or 2 kittens will suffer if I do not supplement?

This mama of two human children is absolutely not cut out for raising newborn kittens...puppies, goats or anything else!

This is why I suggested rotating them.

No worries about supplementing them at all, and since they have momma, they will not be willing to use a bottle. They would need it via syringe.

SO much simpler to pull out the biggest ones and allow the smalls to nurse without interruption.

I tried rotating them but mama cat wont have it. Anytime I take the kittens out she jumps out of the box and doesn't nurse any of them so I stopped interfering. They are 8 days old now and seem to be doing fine.

My next question is about nursing cat behavior. Is it normal for mama cat to want lots of attention from her humans? When we walk into the room she jumps out of the box and whines a lot. She appears healthy so I don't think she is sick but she just wants us to love her (pet her play with her etc). I keep reading that the mother cat stays with her babies unless she is drinking, eating or using the litter box...Not our cat, sometimes I walk into the laundry room and she is laying on the floor. Kittens aren't crying or anything so I am assuming they are content. I peek in and they look fine. Just curious.

She is probably just needing a break, my kiki had kittens on the 23rd and she takes about 4-5 breaks a day, and can be as long as an hour.

Oh good, I was beginning to worry.

I have two girls 8 and 10 yrs old. They go in to say hi to mama kitty and they were playing with her with some cat toys...is that okay? I don't want mama to lose interest in kittens. Please forgive all my silly questions, lol, I lack much knowledge when it comes to mama cats and kittens! And I worry way too much!