Anyone experienced with trapping kittens/mother cats: Question

Hello

Good news, the mother cat and kittens I have been feeding/attempting to trap have returned. I now have three of the kittens and need to catch the remaining three and the mother.

I just have a question for those experienced with TNR and catching kittens: If you have been monitoring a mother and kittens for over a week and have seen the maximum of six kittens, do you presume that is all she has? I read on a TNR site that initially all of the kittens won't all come at once to a feeding location, but then after a couple days they will all go together.

The mother cat is friendly with me, I plan to get her used to living in a home with people and have her spayed/vaccinated so she can be adopted. For a bit she was splitting up the litter: three of her kittens were sleeping in the hood of my car and she didn't bring the other kittens to my house for a couple nights, keeping them in another location.

I just want to make sure before I trap her that it's safe to presume she only has the six kittens. Five of them are gray tabbies--I caught the one black kitten-- so I can't distinguish one from another, I just have to go by how many I've seen altogether.

Thanks for any advice anyone can give me~

I'm sure someone more experienced will respond shortly. And thank you so much for rescuing these kitties. As Ondine points out so often, most people won't bother.

You said "For a bit she was splitting up the litter". Did you mean spitting AT the litter?  I ask because a prior litter that I trapped was being spat at by their mother. She was already pregnant again and they were about 3.5 months old at that time, and I've read elsewhere on this forum that it would be expected behavior under those circumstances. 

I'm new to TNR myself, and am now managing a small colony from my backyard, so I've been able to observe the behavior of these few cats over the course of a year or so. My mama cat had only 3 kittens at a time, and she always brought them out together. With 6 kittens, that might be more than she can manage at a time, so I'd rely on more experienced advice on that particular datum.

If they're old enough to be weaned, around 8 weeks or more, I would just go ahead and trap them.  If you put out an especially attractive trap, just keep getting them until you've got at least all 6. After you've got all 6 of them, put the trap out again to see if there's one or more that you missed in prior observation. That's what I would do, anyway.

I hope some of that helps. Thanks again for rescuing those kitties.

Best,

a

Oh, no. By splitting up the litter I meant, she kept some of the kittens here-- they slept in the hood of the car during the day-- and she had the rest of the kittens somewhere else. She was going back and forth for a couple days, tending to one group of kittens and then the other, and I didn't see some of the kittens for a couple nights.

Today I was able to rent an adult size cat trap from a local clinic that does spays/neutering/vaccinations on free-roaming cats, so I hope it works in catching the remaining kittens. I hope I can get the kittens all in the larger trap together, maybe. The kitten-size Havahart trap I bought was hit or miss-- sometimes the kittens would go in, but they wouldn't go all the way in or another kitten would be obstructing the door so I couldn't manually snap it shut by pulling a string and yanking an empty soda can out from under the door.

I suppose I can trap all the remaining kittens I've seen, hopefully, and see in the next day or so if the mother cat brings any more kittens over. The kittens are about 7 weeks, from what I can tell-- they're about eight inches long. They still want to nurse, but mom cat won't always let them, since they are being weaned. They eat kibble and drink water from a dish. But I don't want to leave any without their mother, they are still so small... Though, I also want to get the mother cat taken care of before she goes into heat again. And she is a bit thin and needs TLC and all... So I just don't want to hold off too long on trapping her.

Thank you for your advice and encouragement~

I totally misread your "splitting" sentence. Now I get it. 

In my experience, I can trap only one cat at a time. For feral adult cats, I leave them in the trap to be vetted. I time the trapping to the appointments so that they're not stuck in the trap longer than necessary.  I put the trap up on blocks with a smaller crate tray and wee wee pads beneath, which facilitates cleanup. Make sure they have fresh water at all times. and food until midnight prior to the date of spay/neutering.

for kittens, I'd trap them one at a time, then transfer them to large dog crates--or to where ever you're housing the ones you've already gotten. That way they're together with siblings and possibly mama, have room for food, water, litter, scratch post, bedding etc.  And since you have a friendly adult, you might want to keep her in a large dog crate, or a small room, with the kittens, or by herself--depending upon your available accommodations.

In any case, I think you'll need to trap one cat/kitten at a time until you've got them all.

Kittens are fairly easy to transfer into a carrier to take to the vet.

I sometimes use gloves and kevlar sleeves at first, which are really cheap from here:



those are not affiliate links. That set, which I use, comes to < $30 and are as good as the ones on which my friends spent a lot more. I even purchased those items for the people who taught me how to trap. They said they spend over $150 on their gloves. 

Hope some of that helps. I look forward to hearing about your progress.

best,

a

Meant to also comment that I think that they're old enough for you to separate from their mother. I'll let others with more knowledge comment otherwise. From what I've learned, by 8 weeks old, they should be mostly weaned.

Good luck!

best,

a

I just had a similar experience. I'm not an expert, but here's how I managed to get them all indoors. First I have a sun room that I left slightly ajar with some wet food. Mom started coming in there to eat . The kittens did too. Every time I opened the door they would run off. The first kitten was trapped by sneaking around and simply closing the door. The second and third kitten was trapped with a carrier. One of the other folks from the sight suggested I get creative with a string and a carrier. I tied the string from the front to back. I placed stinky wet food-meow mix tuna and shrimp(it's kitty crack) then when one was eating I shut the door. The next morning I caught another one in the same manner. Now 4th kitty wouldn't fall for it after seeing brothers and sister trapped. I even went out and bought a trap no luck. So the next day my husband talked the mom cat into going out to tend to her last kitten. At that point I put all of the kittens in a carrier then we left the door open. Mom came inside to check on kittens crying in a carrier. Last kitty had missed her mom so bad he followed her into the sun room. My son then snuck  around the side of the house bare footed and closed the door. I didn't sleep for like two weeks. I was so worried. Everyone on this site was so supportive and helpful.

I'm so glad there are people out there in this world like you! Thank you for helping them Good luck getting them all in! I have no doubt you will esp since the mom cat is nice. Mine are feral and scared of humans.

Thank you for sharing your story. Glad you were able to help all those cats. I couldn't get the string and carrier method to work, myself.... Maybe I just messed up doing it, idk. I had thought of doing something similar with your sun room scenario, but with a garage-- see if I could get the mother cats and kittens used to going in there. But I'm not sure it'd work, as there is no side door, so they'd have to be trapped by closing the main door quickly enough.

I managed to trap two more kittens last night, so there is just one left with the mother, afaik. She saw me trap the two kittens and took her remaining kitten to wherever she has her den around the prairie preserve across the street. I did come really close to trapping that kitten, too, but it still eluded me... One of the kittens I trapped last night has a neck wound-- a raw scrape that is probably infected, it looks like... So I have to take him to the vet in a bit. I hope that goes alright....

The mom cat was on the front step earlier and I took out the one kitten who is already tame--- he is seriously mellow and sweet, lets me cuddle him and carry him without any worries-- and she had a joyful sort of fit when she saw him in the carrier. She rubbed all over me and meowed and I petted her and the kitten mewled all over the place. I felt bad having to take him back inside as she sat on the step and meowed for awhile, even after I gave her some canned food. I hope she does bring back the other kitten tonight and doesn't hide him away for awhile... I figured maybe if she understood the kittens were in the house she may be fine with bringing the kitten back again, but have to see.

I understand how it goes with not sleeping... These kittens have given me so much anxiety, and standing at a window or sitting on a porch all night is... tiring. But it's worth it.

You're welcome! Yay sounds like you are doing an excellent job! I wonder if you could try feeding her in the garage and maybe her and the kitten would come inside. You could also put her babies in the carrier and coax her and the kitten that way.  You're lucky your kittens are so sweet and mellow! That's such good news.

Best of the luck at the vet! It sounds like these babies really needed you! 

We really should start a kitty catching anxiety support group LOL! 

I have to thank you for sharing your story about trapping the mother cat and kittens. I tried a similar scenario-- using the garage cracked open with the captured kittens in carriers inside-- and the mother cat and her remaining kitten went in and we were able to then pull a block out from under the overhead door and trap them inside tonight. I honestly don't know how else we would have nabbed that final kitten... I had tried small and big traps, but I think because of my inexperience and botching a couple captures he became too wary of traps and was having nothing more to do with them.... So if this hadn't worked then I don't know what else we could have tried. He is now with his five siblings in the kitten/ferret cage and the mother cat is spending the night in a room by herself. Hope to get her a vet check and spayed next week.

Anyway, thank you again! And, yeah, it is a great feeling to have all that anxiety lifted, knowing the kittens and mom cat are safe and can now find homes~