First time with newborn ferals

[RogerMiller]

Hello, a ferral cat gave birth to 6 baby kittens on my balcony 10 days ago and as I don't have experience with this (only an adult indoor cat, who doesn't like other cats), I'd like to ask, if I can help the kittens somehow a bit.

I built a secluded box, that gives cover from wind and rain for the mother and the 6 kittens and at night we have on average around 15 degrees Celsius or 60 degrees Fahrenheit here. From my observations so far, the kittens are not especially clean and rather smelly and seem to be wet most of the time and their box also gets quite smelly and dirty from defecating after 2-3 days, before I wash their blankets, but I'm not sure, if that's normal in nature or not? Also, the mother cat often ventures out with her babies on the balcony at daytime, when it's warm and the sun is shining, but at night, she doesn't bring them back to their warmer shelter and the babies either stay on the balcony surface with her or if she ventured out into the environment, the babies stay there on their own and warm themselves each other.

Today, the first of the six kittens died, which so far I guess is still normal in a litter of six kittens.

Is that normal or should I do something here? After some research on Google, it basically says, that newborns should only stay with their mom for the first 3 weeks, who will take care of everything, but they also should be dry, clean and warm. So what, if they are with their mom, but they don't appear as dry, clean and warm as possible and I don't know, if they are dry, clean and warm enough, or if I should clean them or put them into their warmer box on the balcony?

I'm hoping to get some practical advice from people with experience in similar cases. The ferral cat knows me and probably therefore chose my balcony to give birth and she doesn't panic, when I'm on the balcony to take a look around or prepare her box. Thanks a lot for any advice.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi
Mama should be cleaning their bottoms, and licking them to clean and dry them. It sounds to me as though she's inexperienced.

If you can move them so that they're dry and warm that would help them immensely, and also watch for their eyes to be gunky. If they are don't force the eyes open but gently clean the gunk from the eyes with a warm damp cloth. You may want to keep an eye out if there's poop on their bottoms and clean that as well.

Are you able to weigh them? It's vital that they gain weight every day.

Just in case, here's another situation where the person had to step in and help. I don't know that you'll have to go this far, but it's something to keep in mind and maybe see if you'd have anyone who might be able to help ease the load of work (if in fact it runs to this for you);
mom cat is getting over infection and she cries when nursing

 

[Sarthur2]

How old are the kittens now?

Definitely change the bedding daily, and return the kittens to the box at night.

Is there any possibility of bringing them all inside for now? Mom will need spaying before she goes into heat again and disappears to mate, leaving the kittens for you to care for.

Please get kitten formula and syringes in case you need to feed them.

 

[catsknowme]

Condolences on losing a kitten. Are the kittens meowing much or otherwise seem uncomfortable? It does sound as if the little family needs help although without your awesome efforts thus far (safe shelter, clean blankets), the prognosis would have been grim. If you could bring them inside, I assume it would have already happened but your cat might be surprisingly accepting.

 

[RogerMiller]

Thanks for the advice here. It looks like the situation has changed just after I started this post. This night the mother took her babies and brought them away to an elevated plant bed in the area, where I have no access and where I saw her from my balcony this morning.

Not sure, what exactly caused her change of plans, is it possible, that she didn‘t felt safe anymore with her babies after I removed her dead kitten yesterday? She wasn‘t around, but roaming in the area, when I saw, that the kitten is dead and I actually removed it quickly, but the dead kitten was it least stiff, so it didn‘t die just 20 minutes before I saw that. Nevertheless, she left the balcony with 6 babies and came back to 5 babies?

 

[catsknowme]

It was okay to remove the dead baby from the nes/ but it is a good idea for you to leave it nearby so she can smell it and eventually (within a few hours or much less) will accept the death and move forward in caring for the others. More likely, though, is that she moved the kittens away to a fresh area without the scent of the dying kitten. Or another scenario is that a night predator might be in the area and she moved the kittens to safety. Raccoons, snakes and even skunks and foxes are all a huge threat now as the babies will begin to develop a scent of their own (it's the same with chicks and ducklings). Hopefully the new location has limited access for predators. Please keep a lookout for them. Once they begin weaning, she will likely bring them to your feeding station and hopefully you can use a drop trap to catch them and rehome them.. otherwise, you can try TNR so that colony size is stabilized.. Many TNR groups and some animal control departments loan traps (most require a refundable security deposit). Please keep us updated! Thank you for helping with community cats - they aren't homeless by choice and you are creating a solution to a problem.