Taking Kittens from Mother Question...

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leesali

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I have a colony of ferals that I have been feeding & sheltering for about 2 years now. After much time & patience, the adult females will let me pet them, rub their bellies and even sit on my lap
They have let even let me handle their newborns while they watched. I have taken-in two litters and two kittens I have kept...the rest were successfully adopted out


I am working with a local agency to have all trapped, spayed, neutered and realeased back in my yard.

In the interim, Blinky, one of the adult females had a litter approximately 2-weeks ago. Late afternoon, I finally found her litter of 4.

Here is where I really need some suggestions: 1. Do I bring in the kittens and bottle-feed until they are of age to be adopted? Or 2. Should I leave them with the mother until they are a bit older?

My thoughts are this: the longer they are outside (even though they will have their mother) they are susceptible to disease, other strays (toms), other animals, heat, etc. and it will get really tough to socialize them.

As mentioned, I have taken two litters in and although it was emotionally and physically draining, it was so well worth the labor-of-love to have beautiful, healthy, social kittens in the end.

What do you think?
 
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Originally Posted by leesali

I have a colony of ferals that I have been feeding & sheltering for about 2 years now. After much time & patience, the adult females will let me pet them, rub their bellies and even sit on my lap
They have let even let me handle their newborns while they watched. I have taken-in two litters and two kittens I have kept...the rest were successfully adopted out


I am working with a local agency to have all trapped, spayed, neutered and realeased back in my yard.

In the interim, Blinky, one of the adult females had a litter approximately 2-weeks ago. Late afternoon, I finally found her litter of 4.

Here is where I really need some suggestions: 1. Do I bring in the kittens and bottle-feed until they are of age to be adopted? Or 2. Should I leave them with the mother until they are a bit older?

My thoughts are this: the longer they are outside (even though they will have their mother) they are susceptible to disease, other strays (toms), other animals, heat, etc. and it will get really tough to socialize them.

As mentioned, I have taken two litters in and although it was emotionally and physically draining, it was so well worth the labor-of-love to have beautiful, healthy, social kittens in the end.

What do you think?
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Is it possible to bring the whole family inside?? If you do take these kittens away from mom..you will have to feed them and bottle feed them. The best thing is to keep mom with them, but remove them from being outdoors. It willl also help for later on when you have to have her spayed.

Katie
 
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leesali

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I would love to bring the mother inside with her babies...I agree that would be the perfect solution. Keep in mind, the mother is a feral. Although she lets me pet her, she doesn't let anyone else near her. She has never seen a wall in her life and to put her inside, might stress her out where she won't nurse her babies.

I also have 4 inside cats...2 adults & 2 kittens. I can contain little babies but I don't think I can contain an adult mother.

Yes...I realize the bottle-feeding (every 2 to 3 hrs.) can get to be extremely draining but if that is what is best for these little ones...I will handle it.
 
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If they are somewhere reasonably safe and you can watch them and feed the mother (and the kittens when they need solid food) I would leave them with their mom at least another few weeks. And meanwhile keep petting the mom and feeding her so she is not inclined to move them. But it all depends on the situation as to dangers.
 
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I too vote for taking in the entire family. If you could find a large place to put mama and the babies so they can all be together, that would be great! Do you have anyone who can help you trap them? She will be hard to handle but it's best to get the babies before they are 5 weeks or else mama will teach them to fear humans. She will anyway of course but if you have them and they learn to interact with you, that would be better!

Good luck!! You are a kitty angel for doing this!
 
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Though mother cat is "feral", she is the friendliest of the colony. She let me pick-up and clean the eyes of her last litter from birth. I give her belly-rubs and she is truly sweet. No need for a trap with her...I can easily place her in a carrier when the time comes to spay her.

When I went out to feed the adults this morning, I checked on the kittens ...5 fuzzy little babies and they are still in the same spot as yesterday. They are in a corner of a house in the shade and under a chaise lounge.

I purchased a large dog house last year to shelter the adults from rain & snow. In the past, the adult females have used this house to nest their babies and one litter was actually born in this dog house.

I am tempted to move the kittens under the watchful eye of mother, into the dog house. We are expecting rain and I am fearful of other animals getting to those kittens. At least in the dog house, they have some shelter.

Will give you an update this afternoon. I would like to keep mother & babies together for awhile.
 
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Originally Posted by leesali

Though mother cat is "feral", she is the friendliest of the colony. She let me pick-up and clean the eyes of her last litter from birth. I give her belly-rubs and she is truly sweet. No need for a trap with her...I can easily place her in a carrier when the time comes to spay her.

When I went out to feed the adults this morning, I checked on the kittens ...5 fuzzy little babies and they are still in the same spot as yesterday. They are in a corner of a house in the shade and under a chaise lounge.

I purchased a large dog house last year to shelter the adults from rain & snow. In the past, the adult females have used this house to nest their babies and one litter was actually born in this dog house.

I am tempted to move the kittens under the watchful eye of mother, into the dog house. We are expecting rain and I am fearful of other animals getting to those kittens. At least in the dog house, they have some shelter.

Will give you an update this afternoon. I would like to keep mother & babies together for awhile.
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Leesali....the problem with your solution is that an intact male can get to your intact female and get her pregnant again in the time it will take for her to wean her kittens. Are you will to have her spayed while pregnant? If the answer is no....then you really MUST bring this family inside and away from an area where she is suseptible to intact males. The problem isn't whether you can catch her and bring her to the vet...the problem is that she is now able to go back into heat and become pregnant again if left outdoors.

Katie
 
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leesali

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The problem isn't whether you can catch her and bring her to the vet...the problem is that she is now able to go back into heat and become pregnant again if left outdoors.

I totally agree with you. I have become well known here with 2 local TNR/adoption organizations. There is such political insanity going on & ego's to match. The organization that assists with newborns & adoptions has assisted me thus far.

I actually marched
myself into city hall and complained about the other organization that claims to do TNR. They have until 4pm today to call me with traps and a vet. appointment. If not, trust me...I am not done with them yet.

Again, the true problem is not trapping the females...they are very trusting with me...the males I will definitely need traps. The problem is financial and housing these females before & after surgery.

Going to check on the babies in a few minutes. Although, the sugggestions on this forum are leaning towards leaving babies with mother, I have to admit that my knee-jerk reaction is to bring in the fuzzy babies, break out the KMR, bottles, boxes, towels...all the baby stuff.
 
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leesali

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The babies are fine. I moved them into a carboard box lined with towels and holes punched-out for some ventilation. Mother cat watched as I thought she would with no apparent stress. I just fed the mother cat some wet kitten food...she looks too thin to me. Nursing 5 little babies is a tough job.

Can I help the mother (and babies) by supplementing her nursing with bottle-feeding? I am confident that she would let me. I just want to make sure she knows it is still her job too
 
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Everyone really needs to come in. A small room like a den or even a walk-in closet would be a good place for them.

Otherwise, if you can leave the babies with Mom until they are at least a week old, your job will be much less daunting. As long as they are eating well during the day, you can let them go 6 hours without a feeding at night from about 10 days old.

If you take the kittens, you have to get Mom spayed immediately. There are two reasons for this. First, she can get pregnant again right away. Second, her hormones will still be telling her to make milk and she can get mastitis. If her ovaries are removed she won't have the hormones anymore (though she can still lactate if she has kittens nursing - nature is really cool that way), so she won't become engorged and get mastitis.
 
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leesali

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Thank-you for the information regarding spaying while lactating...very helpful.

Update: Took a visit to my local Humane Society and explained the situation. They gave me 2 names/numbers for TNR. I now have funds waiting at a local vet. for spay/neuter on the colony
Hopefully, the TNR people can assist me in proper size cages, etc. after the females have surgery. Both women are away for the weekend but hoping I can get this taken care of once and for all the early part of next week.

They suggested leaving the kittens with mother for as long as possible. I will try to coax the mother into a carrier and maybe she will nurse them in my home...out of the heat with a little peace for her.

I checked on the babies about an hour ago armed with a bottle but the mother was laying with them in the shade & nursing


So far so good. Thanks again to everyone for such good suggestions.
 
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