How can I take kittens home??

There are kittens and their mom staying in our neighbor's backyard. The neighbor doesn't know about it and we don't want them to cuz they have very naughty kids.

I would really like to take the kittens and mom to my house (I'd like to help them and also socialize the kittens who are approx 5 weeks old) how do I do it?

If I got a cage won't the kittens be scared and run away? btw the mom knows me she is lovely but a bit aggressive to touching.

oh another question:

since Gerber 2 baby food is expensive, I'm going to make a homemade one(chicken puree). Do you think the kittens will like it as much as they do with Gerber? 

really? no one has an answer to any of these questions?!

Hi Sara,

Sorry you haven't had any replies to your questions yet. I think it would be better if this thread was moved to the strays and ferals forum. More people with that kind of experience will see it there.

I will ask a mod to move it for you

Sara Hmdan said:

 
really? no one has an answer to any of these questions?!

Click to expand...

hi and welcome to TCS!

i'm sorry you haven't received any replies as yet. i'll see what i can do to catch the attention of someone who is very knowledgeable about this kind of thing.

@catwoman707 -- may i ask for your expertise for the OP (original poster)?

my understanding is that to trap kittens that young takes a special trap, one that only requires the very slight weight of a kitten to set the door to closing/dropping shut. if you're able to follow momma cat, to see where she's got her kittens settled, then you might very well be able to simply pick up the kittens and place them in a cat carrier to bring them home with you. i would bet that momma cat will just follow you back home, once you've got the kittens in the carrier (and very likely crying for their momma cat).

5 weeks old is very young. i believe at that age the kittens would be walking and playing, but i think they may be young enough that they wouldn't want to roam far from their nest or momma cat.

at 5 weeks they should be small enough to just pick up and put in a carrier for the trip to your house. They can be weaned and separated from the mama also to prevent her from moving them elsewhere.

Baby food isn't really recommended. A good quality kitten wet food is better. try fancy feast or iams.

In a couple of weeks you can start them on dry kitten food.

They are young enough to be socialized - just spend  as much time as possible with them, petting, cuddling, playing,  so they learn to enjoy human company.

The mom will follow, if you leave food out for her she will relocate to your yard. If you can't tame her, hopefully you can tnr her.

Thank you for caring! Be sure to post a follow-up!

Hi Sara,

You need to trap the momma cat first. That should be pretty easy using tuna.

Once she is trapped cover the trap with a towel so she calms down and doesn't hurt her nose trying to escape. (they push with their noses thinking they can open up the wire)

Once you have her then go for the kittens.

Not sure how accurate the age estimate is unless you actually do know when they were born, so that will determine how to get them.

Very young kittens, about 5 weeks and under, are very simple. They might try to hiss or hide from you but they really can't outrun you, so you can just snatch them up and put them in something while getting the next.

If they are older than 5 weeks, but less than 7, you can use a dish of food to bait them with. Canned food works fine, fish flavored usually.

A net is great for this, you can net them when they come to eat from the dish.

Older than that you will need to trap them. Often times with kittens, when one goes in to the trap to eat, the others will see and think it's safe since sister is fine, so let me go get some, and you will get more than one at a time.

Hopefully for yours and their sake they are super young, otherwise it's alot more work and time to tame them, but it can be done too.

Mom and kids will need a contained area, whether it's a large cage/crate or a room, so she doesn't leave the scene.

She of course needs to be spayed as soon as she dries up a bit.

If the kids are bigger and able to fully eat without any nursing, then good, mom can be separated and allowed to dry up, about 10 days.

If they are very young, they can continue to nurse but begin to wean, which they will start on mom's food, they can learn by watching her eat and they see what they are missing out on

Living outside only, and lack of exposure to people will cause them to need taming, if they are super young, piece of cake. 6 weeks and older is much more work.

If they are over 6 weeks, ideally they need to be separated, which I know is a real pain and often not possible, but this is because they feed off of each other's fear and reactions, in other words you can work with one, and by the time he gets put back, has gotten very calm and relaxed, so nice progress, then gets back in with sibs and 5 minutes later is right back to the way he was, so it's much harder to tame them with just one person working with them.

I would love to know how you're doing with.mama and babies.

I hope you got the mama and kittens home with you!