- Joined
- Sep 7, 2022
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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.
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.