The Gift that Kept on Giving!

We took in a pregnant stray who almost immediately had four kittens. As a novice, I am struggling to determine the sex of the kittens. Can anyone look at this picture and tell?

As you do have 4 kittens the same age at hand to compare with, the easiest and best is you do compare them with each other. Its alomst sure at least one is of the other sex.

I myself do avoid to  sex them online,  I know examples of both breeders and vets whom too wrong on a kitten they held in hands....

looks like a female but its really hard to tell at that young age

So...we got my MIL a "kitten" at the pound. We got her on a Tuesday and I took her to the vet on Friday for a "clean bill of health" and to schedule her spay. We were supposed to give her to my MIL the very next day. Surprise! She was pregnant! Now, I'm a BIG believer in spay/neuter and definitely considered that option, but, this cat was very far along. We could see spines in the XRAY and once I knew she was pregnant, I realized I could feel the babies moving. 10 days later, she had four kittens.

Since we couldn't exactly give my MIL 5 cats, we have kept the mama and babies while we raise the babies. Here's the problem. We have a mature cat and a dog of our own. I don't trust our cat at all with the kittens, and our dog could easily just do something stupid where they are concerned. Right now I have mama and kittens isolated in our master bathroom. The kittens are EASY right now since they basically don't move and just pile up in one spot in their nesting box. (They are one week old today.)

My question is, how do a plan for the frisky stage that will be here in a few weeks? What does everyone else do? Give them free run of a couple of rooms? What about a kitten playpen or something? I need some way to keep them safe, but give them enough room for their social development.

Goodness, you have saved the mom cat and been blessed with her kittens! Thank you for caring for them.

They will be just fine in your master bedroom for a few weeks. That's where my 4 kittens stayed for about 6 weeks, when they were ready to branch out and explore other parts of the house.

It was good because it allowed me to wean them to kitten chow and wet food, and get them litter box trained, all in the one room and bathroom. I'm not a fan of playpens. They also outgrow them very quickly.

Once yours are to that point, you will want to give them more space to play. The space will also need to be kitten-proofed. If you decide to introduce your cat and dog, you would need to strictly supervise so no one gets hurt.

If you are planning to re-home mom and kittens, you may choose to keep your resident pets separate and avoid introductions, as it can be stressful and unnecessary unless you are keeping any of the cats.

Mom needs to be spayed when the kittens are 8 weeks old, and not allowed outside at all, as she can go into heat again soon and become pregnant.

The kittens can be spayed and neutered anytime after they are 8 weeks or two pounds. I had mine done at 12 weeks at my local Humane Society. I had mom spayed at my private vet when the kittens were 8 weeks. Moms continue to nurse, and it's best to wait until the kittens are 12 weeks to re-home them so they learn their kitten manners from mom. Re-homing in pairs works best.

Post a picture for us when you can!

Since we adopted a very pregnant cat, our local shelter is working with us regarding vet care. We are officially the fosters for the kittens, and they are going to provide all the shots and spay/neuters for them. The people that we find to take the kittens will actually go through the humane society to obtain them.  But the kittens will never actually have to leave our house.  And yes, we still have the spay certificate for mama kitty, so we will use that as soon as we are able to!

Thank you for the tips. I think we will plan to just keep them in the master bedroom/bathroom for now. I am a very unintentional kitten raiser, but I have done a lot of reading since we found out and everything seems to be going well.  I've basically taken a very hands-off approach and I'm just letting mama do her thing. All four kittens were born very small (68-79 grams), but I don't think they were premature since they were all very furry. (And keep in mind we saw spines in an XRAY 10 days before.) Over the past 7 days they have all gained (105-126). I almost stepped in early on and started supplementing because I was scared about the low birth weight, but I decided to hold off and since then their weight gain has been steady. Has anyone had any experience with really small kittens like this? And we don't seem to have a runt - they are all small.

Oh, and it's hard to get good pictures of them since they are always piled up together, but here is one I took on the first day.

Here's a couple more pictures:

jacpettus said:

patches.jpg

• jacpettus
• Jan 4, 2016

Click to expand...

They are so tiny and adorable!! Mama kitty is gorgeous!! Look at that smile on her face in the last photo. She sure loves her babies.   

Your dog is adorable too. Babysitting the new little ones? 

They were a tad small, but appear to be growing well now. You were wise to keep an eye out, though it appears mom has plenty of milk and all are nursing nicely. It sounds as though you are weighing them daily, which is the only way to really know if they are gaining. Healthy gains are 6-10 grams per day minimum.

It's great you have vet care covered, along with spaying and neutering.

They are adorable, and mom is quite striking! Keep up the good work!

Wow Momma is beautiful, and so are the little one. 

Mama is beautiful. You can see why we snatched her up from the pound! Honestly, I was disappointed in the babies. I REALLY wanted a calico that looked like mom. Of course, they are all going to be adorable and there's a tortoiseshell that I would like to keep for myself.

My kittens looked fine yesterday, and then this morning I noticed that one of them has one eye stuck closed. I have left it alone all day, but it's still shut tight. Should I intervene and try to help or leave it alone? I don't see any goop or discharge at all.

Here is a picture.

Yes, you need to hold a warm, damp cloth over his eye and gently wipe until he can open it. It's very important that the eye isn't crusted shut. He will also need to go to the vet for an antibiotic eye ointment.

Don't ever force the eye open, just loosen the discharge so it can open on its own. Do this as often as needed until he gets to the vet.

OK. I just made a vet appointment for 30 minutes from now. I will respond here with what they say so that others can benefit.

J jacpettus

What did the vet say? Is your kitten's eye better now?

It was an eye infection. On closer examination, she did have a tiny amount of green goop. The vet used a wet compress to open the eye, and she has been on antibiotic ointment for a few days now. The eye is clear now and none of the other girls got it.

That's great news! Thank you for the update! [emoji]128522[/emoji]

I also figured out why I was having trouble sexing them. Our resident cat is female. Mama Cat is female. And all four kittens are female! I had no comparison!  Here are the latest pictures!