Feral kitten hiding, mother dead.

So the situation is really bad. This cat that roams around the locality, hopping from house to house, died due to some unknown reason in our garden, and then we found a baby kitten in our backyard, behind some old furniture. There's a lot of stuff there and so the kitten has many spots to hide. My mother says it is probably around 10 days old. I have been keeping cups of milk and water since yesterday, but it rarely seems to touch it, although I did see it licking through both the cups this morning. It often gets out of the furniture, finds a safe space behind some old bicycles, and cries. The milk I kept this evening (only a few teaspoons) seems to have been finished, so I kept some more but it's still there. I'm guessing the kitten did drink it, and that it didn't look empty because it dried off at the average day temperature of 45 C here (I live in India). We tried to catch the kitten several times when it was out, so that we can bring it in and feed it properly, but it is very scared of us and runs right back into the furniture when any human comes close to it, and yeah, it runs faster than me. It's about 5 am now, and it still seems to be crying periodically. Last evening, a big Garfield type cat with a really deep voice walked through the neighbour's boundary wall (which it does often but without making that voice), and the kitten got really excited about it and ran out of the furniture, crying out really loud, running to see the Garfield cat. I got scared and thought that maybe that cat came there to kill the kitten, so I rushed to the place, and after seeing me there, the cat slowly walked away from the boundary to another house and it hasn't came back yet since then. We live in a small town with no animal doctor near us. Please tell me about the things I can possibly do to make things better for the kitten. I'm guessing trying to capture it is a total waste of time. I can't help but keep going to check if the kitten is still awake, crying, every few minutes. This has increased to the extent that I'm getting hallucinations about hearing its cries even when it isn't crying. Is there something apart from milk that the kitten might be interested in? Is there someway to convince the cat to come near us so that we can take care of it better? Any advices will be very helpful. Many thanks.

Do you have any way of setting up a trap? I could also suggest if you have a smartphone or something similar you can look up some internet videos of cats meowing. You can try to set up something like that to lure the kitten into the house.

Keep trying to catch the kitty. It's much too young to be outside that long without proper shelter and nutrition. Best of luck to you!

If the kitten can run away from you I guess he or she must be older than 10 days, maybe 5 or 6 weeks? 

The best thing to use to catch him would be a humane trap, but if you don't have one a drop trap would work. You need to get a large crate or a box, place it on the ground open side down and then prop up one side. A pet bottle weighted with water or sand is a good prop. Tie a long piece of rope around the pet bottle. Place something that smells very strong and appealing to cats, some fish or some cooked meat, under the trap. Set the trap up near where the kitten is and then hide and wait for the kitten to go under the trap. Then pull the rope so that the trap drops and the kitten is inside.

Practice a few times so you know how hard you have to pull the rope to get the trap to drop.

Once the kitten is in the trap cover the whole thing with a blanket or sheet. The kitten will be calm if he is covered, you should be able to pick the kitten up wrapped in the sheet.

Take a look at some drop trap videos on You Tube to give you an idea of what to do.

Here's some more information.

http://droptrapdesign.blogspot.jp/

Let us know how it goes. Good luck and thank you for trying to help.

As it sounds the kitten would be about 5 to 6 weeks old in order to be running from you. You might continue to place milk and other food out for the kitten and see if you can get the kitten to come to you.

keep us informed with any new information please.

Oh dear. My heart is breaking for you and for this little kitten. The kitten is so hungry. I would also agree that a drop trap may be the way to go! Can you get a hold of some tuna, kitten canned food, cooked grilled chicken, sardines something to draw the kitten to under the drop trap. I fear since the kitten is calling out - kitten will go downhill quickly now.

Another way to try to catch the kitten is to set out a cat carrier with the door propped open. Tie a rope to the door, near the latch and run it through the sides and put food inside the carrier to draw the kitten in the carrier. Once inside the carrier - pull the rope, and drag crate to you and then latch the door shut. When you pull on the rope, the door will slam shut but not latch, of course

I think the only way to trap the kitten is to use some very, very tempting smelling food - even if it is so young still to be nursing. At this point, kitten is so hungry that the good smelling food will draw him into the trap.

OH I hope that you can save the little one and bless you for trying. I am sending out a zillion vibes that you have success. Poor little baby.

IF you catch the kitten, following are some links on how to care and feed kittens:

http://www.kitten-rescue.com/
http://www.kittenrescue.org/index.php/cat-care/kitten-care-handbook/

How to make kitten glop - http://www.hdw-inc.com/glop.htm

Just checking in here today for an update. Many vibes coming to the little kitten.

Hey all. I'm really thankful for all the help and concern. I wasn't sure about getting fishes, because they usually degrade in quality by the time they reach smaller inner towns like ours. I did try playing cat voices on my phone and that got the little kitten really restless. It did come out shouting loudly of its place but stopped short of coming all the way to me, and continued meowing really loud from the place it was standing. The kitten was relatively more responsive the day after I wrote this post, it drank more milk and didn't hide all the time but kept crying. Last night, when the kitten was crying again, I heard two different voices, each calling the other. Turns out there was another kitten a few houses away! I think they are siblings, and the mother gave birth to both of them at different places. I started thinking that maybe I should go to the nearby houses in the direction of the source of the sound today and ask them if they have a kitten without a mum they might want to give away. That night the kitten cried a lot, but at dawn today, my brother heard two voices from the small window above the bathroom (the place the kitten lives in just outside the window). It was the big Garfield cat with the deep voice and the kitten. I went out after a bit and found none of either two there. By afternoon mum saw the kitten walking around the neighbouring houses, jumping through the boundary walls between them. I swear it's just a little bigger than the size of my palm, but it can jump and walk properly. It came back to drink milk during the day. At evening, it came back with the other kitten, which is identical in size. The kittens roam around together now and stay at night in usual place in our backyard. I'm very relieved to see that neither of the two cries anymore. They seem happy together and drink a lot more milk than before, they are still scared of me though, but they play around our house when no one's around, so I watch from remote place when they are drinking. I'm a bit concerned about any possible negative effects drinking that amount of buffalo milk may cause to them. Are there any more food items kittens this small might eat? They rarely, if ever, touch the water cup kept nearby. Should I try serving a mashed boiled egg, or maybe chicken? Thank you for the help again!

The crying was for the momma cat.

Now they have gotten over the loss of her, and need each other, which I'm so glad they have now.

Chicken is GREAT! They will love it.

They are unable to find food on their own, so please continue this, and buffalo milk is okay. Full fat.

But not alone for very long, they do need more.

Is there canned cat food there, such as friskies classics?

Chicken is great, just not sure you are able to feed them chicken daily, it might get costly!

Oh I am so relieved to see your update, so thank you. The kittens are on my mind. I would ask also as Catwoman asked, if you could find some canned cat food somewhere? I know they are young, but they may be old enough to start licking up canned cat food. You could even mix in some of the buffalo milk to get them started. They will certainly need the extra calories, nutrition to thrive and grow. Do check out the links I posted above if you can because there is much information and instruction on how to care/feed kittens. Even the kitten glop recipe but not sure you would be able to get all of the ingredients where you live anyway. So the canned food would be the way to go. Please keep writing to us!!!!! Thank you so much for trying to save the little orphans.

I don't really know what buffalo milk would do for them either (I'm American I had no idea buffalo milk could be sold) however, I have heard goat's milk is a decent substitute for kittens. It is a good idea to keep setting out water for them though so they always have access to it. If you can get it, I recommend a Lysine supplement for cats to mix into the milk they are getting. It will help boost their little immune systems and help defend against diseases since they aren't getting that from mom's milk anymore.

I'm glad to hear they are doing well. I hope you make friends with them soon!

So glad to hear that the little brothers found each other. I hope they stay together at your place so you can gradually teach them to trust you. Chicken would be great for them, cats love chicken. Goat milk, if you can get it, might be easier on their stomachs than buffalo milk.

Thank you so much for caring for them.

Keep us updated.