Is this starving stray pregnant, or has she had her kittens?/ Thomas

Again, thank you @catwoman707.  I'm in Brisbane, Australia, with kitten season  starting in spring (September), peaking in late spring or early summer, and ending in autumn. We've just started Autumn here.

It is good to hear it is unlikely she abandoned them. She may be with them now (I hope) as she disappeared at lunchtime yesterday and still has not returned. Her food bowls outside are still full.  That's more than 24 hours she has been away from my place - the longest she's been away in the just over 2 weeks she's been with me.  And it happened to be the day I brought home the pet tracker and try her out with a collar. I hope I see her tonight!  If not, I'll be ringing the shelters again.

Yes let's hope so, otherwise we have to worry!!

Of course she is not going to make things too easy for you, tracker ready, and she is nowhere to be found...............

Hope she shows up soon, she needs to eat at least! Wonder if there is not another food source for her............hmm.

It is possible there's another food source available for her, but it can't be much of a one (unless it has just become available in the last 24 hours) because when she turns up at my place for a meal she is always ravenous and eats a lot more than the average cat (well, any cat I've ever known).  She's hard to fill!  

I will anxiously await her return tonight.

Checkers said:

 
It is possible there's another food source available for her, but it can't be much of a one (unless it has just become available in the last 24 hours) because when she turns up at my place for a meal she is always ravenous and eats a lot more than the average cat (well, any cat I've ever known).  She's hard to fill!  

I will anxiously await her return tonight.

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I agree with you. 

Good luck!

As you're in the southern hemisphere her kittens could be fairly big and weaned by now, which might be why she's leaving them for so long. I've had feral kittens stay totally hidden until they're four months old and then suddenly appear with Mum to be fed, hopefully her babies are still around somewhere.

That tracking collar is a great idea. Hope she comes back soon, I'm interested to hear what happens next.

Thank you  @StefanZ  and  @Norachan.   I'm so chuffed tonight. Momma cat has returned, and has just finished her dinner!  Interesting how the inherent fussy feline nature doesn't take long to emerge, even in starving cats.  I was cookng steak mince tonight and suddenly her high-protein kitten food became less interesting as she sat by my feet at the stove looking up longingly. So I cooled some mince down for her and gave her a little taste. Then another. Then another, etc.  She is resting now, beside her food bowls!

If only she knew what was in store - her first experience with a collar, I expect, and this one will be carrying a 30-40g electronic box.  The tracker is slightly larger than a match box, which I expect will be pretty uncomfortable and definitely foreign to her.

Interestingly, tonight when she came in after being away for 31 hours, her teats, which 2 nights ago  were  dangling and felt full (a couple of you used the term 'engorged'), were no loger drooping. They are still prominent, but no longer swollen.  I'm wondering therefore if she may have fed kittens in her day away, or perhaps they've dried up in that time.

Will let you know tomorrow how the tracker went.  A storm is brewing outside with loud thunder, so it might be awhile before it's wise to let her go (8.50pm).

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The collar with tracking device attached was a disaster. She accepted me putting it on her, but within seconds was springing high in the air, arching her back, and running backwards.  

I think the new experience was made worse by a collar that was too big. I bought it from the RSPCA who fitted the device for me. It was adjusted to the smallest size, but this mother cat is tiny. The supplier of the tracking device told me to position the tracker so it sits on top of her neck.  But with the collar being so loose, it immediately slipped around to under her neck and dangled like a giant necklace. Clearly it wasn't going to work, so I took it off. She sat quietly while I removed it (so good to see she hadn't lost her trust in me), and she then stayed with me till sometime after midnight then disappeared into the night - hopefully to feed her kittens as she left with a full tummy so wouldn't have been heading off to hunt for food.

I'll discuss the issue with the supplier today. I think, even with a smaller collar, with such a petite cat with a tiny neck the device is going to be too heavy and uncomfortable for her, and will slip around to under her neck where it would distress her.  If only they made these things small enough to be implanted like a microchip!

My thinking is if you can get her a harness rather than a collar, which won't bother her quite as much hopefully, but with the device stationary on the back of her neck or even her back itself.

It's a good thing you took it off, if it hung down like a heavy necklace, she would have tried getting her head out of it and possibly getting her jaw stuck halfway through.

Or even caught it on something, and sure they don't have breakaway closures either.....

Great idea! Thank you @catwoman707  .  I will see if I can get one.

Checkers said:

 
Great idea! Thank you @catwoman707  .  I will see if I can get one.

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Please discuss it with supplier.  People don't worry enough about what can go wrong, drives me nuts.  Remember those chemical soaked flea collars owners would wrap several times around their pet's neck and poison them or maybe that was just a uniquely American approach. 

Oh wow first geese over the house heading north.  It's been a really long winter.

No, I don't remember those collars @Reba. Sounds horrendous. I don't think we had them here.  Geese. How lovely. I wish our summer would end. It's autumn now and still we're sweltering. That's good for the kittens, though, wherever they may be.

Thought I should give a little update, seeing as so many of you offered such caring advice, although I haven't much to report. 

I haven't yet located her kittens, but feel she is continuing to feed them by the look of her nipples and the advice I've received on this forum.  Whether she has fallen pregnant again or not, I just can't come at organising de-sexing while her current litter is still feeding from her.

When I brought an interested vet the news that I was heading off to buy a harness to secure the pet detector to, she advised strongly against it. She said the harnesses were meant to be worn when cats were accompanied - not to let them go out alone wearing one.She said they could too easily get hooked on something. I discussed this further with RSPCA staff who agreed. They recommended a smaller collar which I bought and it fits well (although she wasn't happy with it, I think she will adjust when I put it back on). 

I tested the pet detector before attaching it and it wasn't communicating with the pet-finder portal. We're having a lot of stormy weather here and that could be the problem. Whatever the glitch, I wasn't going to attach it when it wasn't working. When it did work a couple of nights later, the cat suddenly disappeared after her dinner and despite my calling, did not return. Last night she came back, and the detector wasn't working again, so there was no point putting the collar back on and attaching it.

Tomorrow is my final day at work before 4 days off over Easter, so surely in that time I can get the detector working, while the cat is present, and set her on her way with detector attached.  

Meanwhile she's very much enjoying her food and her smooches, although gave me a decent bite on the calf a couple of days ago, drawing blood, when I patted her tail forgetting she had objected to that earlier. Must be sore for some reason, although it looks fine.

I've attached a couple of photos to show how good and contented she is looking, but when she walks, her bones still protrude so she has some beefing up to do yet.  I'll keep you posted.

Thanks everyone.

Aww she's just a small little girl!

Very pretty eyes!

I should have mentioned about the harness, and the importance of how it fits on her. It would need to be snug, not squeezing tight but fitting good and snug against her body to prevent her getting hung up.

Oh well, the darn tracker isn't working still either..........

Thanks @catwoman707!  Yes, she is very small. Maybe that's as big as she'll ever get , but I do think she's very young. Younger than 12 months.  Her tiny teeth are pristine. But despite her size, she eats like a horse.  Extraordinary amounts!  I have wormed her, so that points to me, again, to her feeding kittens.  Her fur is like silk - much softer and silkier than any other cat I've had. 

The detector will work.  It will!  This weekend.  And I'll report back!

Sounds good

She's a beauty!!

AWWWW she's an itty bitty kitty. 

She is just beautiful!

A little update from the frustrated carer of the young lactating mother whose kittens I can't locate.  I finally got the tracker on her this morning, it's working, and she's settled down.

But now she won't leave so I can tracker her!  Sigh.  Will keep persisting.

You can probably appreciate from the photos why she's not a happy kitty with a tracker almost as big as she is!

You know I just happened to think, my stray Mom showed up on my back deck with her kittens when they were about 8 weeks, so I would think you'll have the whole brood eventually.