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- Sep 1, 2021
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Hi all!
Kind of long, so thanks for reading. So, here is the situation:
A few days ago, I was on a morning walk and saw these kittens playing on a neighbors porch. I went and looked and they were sitting with one of the ferals who I feed treats on my walks whenever I see her. I had remembered that I thought she was pregnant around a month ago, these were clearly hers!
So there are four of them, 3 gray tabby one dark tabby, mom is a brown tabby. They appear to be ~5 weeks old, wobbly on their feet but they run and jump and play with each other on the porch.
I've discussed with the neighbor and he has said I could take over in getting them situated. So I've been feeding them for the last 3 days, including the mother. They have all grown increasingly open to me, the mother will eat just a mere 3 feet away from me now, and two of the kittens I was able to grab and hold, one let me feed it treats and he is admittedly the bravest of the 4, the other, the dark tabby, he is the most feisty of the 4 and did not tolerate me holding him. They all still will hiss and thump at times.
Anyways, so, it's getting colder here in Michigan and will be sub 32 degrees very shortly, and they are so young that i am concerned about their future wellbeing, so i asked my other neighbor and she said we should get them to a shelter, her friend has offered to take in all 4 kittens AND the mother, and it's a no-kill shelter, which is phenomenal. Another reason for this is that the mother could easily become pregnant very soon or already is, there are a lot of community cats on my street. I know the general advice is to not bother with under 8 week old kittens who have their mothers still, but these two reasons have made me think otherwise. So the guyis willing to take them to the shelter for us this week, but i also worry about the shelter getting the unimmunized kittens sick?
So my question is:
Should I send them to the shelter?
Should I separate them from mama and have her TNR'd? Kittens to a foster home til 8 weeks?
Should I leave them there (and feed them) until 8 weeks?
Should they ALL be fostered? There is evidence to show that the mother is socializable, despite being 2 years old and feral. She trusts me a lot by now, as I've been feeding her in general for about 2 months. She has shown signs of docility.
Anyways, what should I do? I'd love to foster them myself if I felt I could (which i might be able to), but I have a cat and it would take some energy I might not want to expend, then again, it's only about 3 weeks til theyre 8 weeks!
thanks so so much for any replies
vids attached below:
Kind of long, so thanks for reading. So, here is the situation:
A few days ago, I was on a morning walk and saw these kittens playing on a neighbors porch. I went and looked and they were sitting with one of the ferals who I feed treats on my walks whenever I see her. I had remembered that I thought she was pregnant around a month ago, these were clearly hers!
So there are four of them, 3 gray tabby one dark tabby, mom is a brown tabby. They appear to be ~5 weeks old, wobbly on their feet but they run and jump and play with each other on the porch.
I've discussed with the neighbor and he has said I could take over in getting them situated. So I've been feeding them for the last 3 days, including the mother. They have all grown increasingly open to me, the mother will eat just a mere 3 feet away from me now, and two of the kittens I was able to grab and hold, one let me feed it treats and he is admittedly the bravest of the 4, the other, the dark tabby, he is the most feisty of the 4 and did not tolerate me holding him. They all still will hiss and thump at times.
Anyways, so, it's getting colder here in Michigan and will be sub 32 degrees very shortly, and they are so young that i am concerned about their future wellbeing, so i asked my other neighbor and she said we should get them to a shelter, her friend has offered to take in all 4 kittens AND the mother, and it's a no-kill shelter, which is phenomenal. Another reason for this is that the mother could easily become pregnant very soon or already is, there are a lot of community cats on my street. I know the general advice is to not bother with under 8 week old kittens who have their mothers still, but these two reasons have made me think otherwise. So the guyis willing to take them to the shelter for us this week, but i also worry about the shelter getting the unimmunized kittens sick?
So my question is:
Should I send them to the shelter?
Should I separate them from mama and have her TNR'd? Kittens to a foster home til 8 weeks?
Should I leave them there (and feed them) until 8 weeks?
Should they ALL be fostered? There is evidence to show that the mother is socializable, despite being 2 years old and feral. She trusts me a lot by now, as I've been feeding her in general for about 2 months. She has shown signs of docility.
Anyways, what should I do? I'd love to foster them myself if I felt I could (which i might be able to), but I have a cat and it would take some energy I might not want to expend, then again, it's only about 3 weeks til theyre 8 weeks!
thanks so so much for any replies
vids attached below: