Please Help!! Only caught 3 of the 4 stray kittens. What should I do?

[almoststeph]

There's been a Mama cat and her 4 kittens coming for days. Today she left one under the deck and it ran away, we can't find it anywhere, that was 8 hours ago. Tonight, we trapped the other 3. We have them in individual traps facing out of the open door where Mama is watching them from a chair on our deck. I can easily get her in too but what about the 4th kitten? She's not going to go out looking for it when she can see her other 3 in distress. Should we lock the 3 we have away and keep her outside? Should we put captured kittens and Mama in the bathroom overnight? I was hoping to bring them all to the shelter in the morning but I'm terrified of this last kitten being lost and no Mama to look for it. They're around 6 weeks old. What should I do?

 

[deepsearch]

When I was trapping kittens, I got all of them save for one, and I didn't take the mom in until I also had the last kitten. Six weeks is really too young for the kitten to be on its own. Keep leaving food out for the mother and the kitten and they should continue to return, hopefully, and give you more chances to trap the kitten. In my case, even though I spooked the last kitten a couple times, the mother cat kept caring for that kitten and bringing him back to where I fed them. I would take the caught kittens inside and if you don't want to care for/foster them you could go ahead and take them to a shelter so they can begin the process of being tamed. Be sure you take them to a place that is willing to place them in foster homes to tame them, as they will need to get used to people before they can be adopted.

The other kitten is probably hiding, so he undoubtedly just isn't going to come out for awhile or until his mother calls to him. There is the option of trapping the mother and using her as bait for the final kitten. You have the mother in a trap (or crate if she is tame) and cover most of it, then place another covered trap next to her so the kitten can only see her by going inside that second trap. The entrance to the trap will act as a window, basically, so the kitten can see the mother and then will hopefully enter the trap. But you would have to be sure the kitten is nearby and will come to the mother when you try this. And if it didn't work you'd have to release the mother again to care for the kitten. So if she is a feral or skittish and is unlikely to go into a trap again, you'd want to be sure you get the kitten the first time. You could also try feeding both the mother and the kitten in a larger pet crate and attempt to shut them both inside. But if the kitten isn't trap shy, then hopefully just setting a trap when he returns will prove fruitful.