Hello!
First I would like to thank everyone in advance for any advice they can spare. I have already found this site and forum to be an excellent resource and I am so very grateful for the people here.
So, just like the title says I am seeking some advice for how to care for 5 feral cats/kittens that we recently took in. For some background.....a few months ago a neighborhood cat had a litter of kitties that she would bring onto our property as she made her daily rounds though the neighborhood. We could never get close to the mother or her kitties as they would run as soon as they noticed us noticing them. Early on we (My girlfriend and myself) didn't think much of it and assumed the cat and kittens belonged to one of our neighbors. Well, about a month ago the mother disappeared but the kittens still showed up. The kittens would eventually make a home in a woodpile at the back of my property as well as near a neighbors shed . Once we realized these kitties were on their own and didn't belong to anyone we decided it would be wise to trap them and figure out what to do. Prior to trapping them we had fed them for about 2 weeks with the hopes of them getting comfortable with us. This worked pretty well as one of the kitties would run up to me and get within about a foot before realizing she was so close, then shed back up another foot or so. When the trapping started we thought we were dealing with 3 cats. 3 quickly turned to 5. We now have those cats living in dog cages in our basement while we try and figure out the next steps (all new cages purchased just for this). We have them separated by what we believe are 3 girls and 2 boys (4 cages total, this began 5 days ago). We think the kitties are around 4-5 months old give or take but it's hard to tell since the sizes vary so much. The cats also vary in terms of their comfort with us. A couple of them will let us get pretty close to them while they eat but 2 of them are a bit more shy (one of them won't eat when we are around). We are trying to figure out what the best course of action is. We plan to get them to a vet as soon as we can for all the testing/shots and spaying/neutering but we aren't sure if this should be a TNR or if we should try and socialize them with the hopes of finding them good homes. TNR would certainly be cheaper and less time consuming but we don't really care about that aspect. Our concern is what is best for these cats. I'm not sure that our neighborhood would tolerate a small feral colony and the thought of these kitties being poisoned or taken in by animal control is sickening. My question, is it reasonable to think we can socialize/rehab kitties that are 4-6 months old to the point where they become adoptable? Good chance we would keep one of the kitties but taking any more would be difficult as we currently have 2 high needs cats of our own (spoiled to death of course). I understand these things can take time but how long is it healthy to have cats in cages? If I could clear out a small room would that even be a good idea with 5 cats or would I be creating a kitty fight club? What started as a simple idea of helping out a few kitties has suddenly become much more. We are happy to take the time needed but we want to do things the right way and we want to have realistic expectations. Any suggestions for where to start are greatly appreciated. We are waiting to hear from our local humane society to see what assistance they can offer so in the meantime we have been trying to spend time sitting near the cages while they eat. We also talk to them throughout the day and we have 2 of them playing with us (using toys). There are a lot more small details as you may imagine but I tried to summarize as best as I can. Please ask any questions that you may have and thank you again in advance!
First I would like to thank everyone in advance for any advice they can spare. I have already found this site and forum to be an excellent resource and I am so very grateful for the people here.
So, just like the title says I am seeking some advice for how to care for 5 feral cats/kittens that we recently took in. For some background.....a few months ago a neighborhood cat had a litter of kitties that she would bring onto our property as she made her daily rounds though the neighborhood. We could never get close to the mother or her kitties as they would run as soon as they noticed us noticing them. Early on we (My girlfriend and myself) didn't think much of it and assumed the cat and kittens belonged to one of our neighbors. Well, about a month ago the mother disappeared but the kittens still showed up. The kittens would eventually make a home in a woodpile at the back of my property as well as near a neighbors shed . Once we realized these kitties were on their own and didn't belong to anyone we decided it would be wise to trap them and figure out what to do. Prior to trapping them we had fed them for about 2 weeks with the hopes of them getting comfortable with us. This worked pretty well as one of the kitties would run up to me and get within about a foot before realizing she was so close, then shed back up another foot or so. When the trapping started we thought we were dealing with 3 cats. 3 quickly turned to 5. We now have those cats living in dog cages in our basement while we try and figure out the next steps (all new cages purchased just for this). We have them separated by what we believe are 3 girls and 2 boys (4 cages total, this began 5 days ago). We think the kitties are around 4-5 months old give or take but it's hard to tell since the sizes vary so much. The cats also vary in terms of their comfort with us. A couple of them will let us get pretty close to them while they eat but 2 of them are a bit more shy (one of them won't eat when we are around). We are trying to figure out what the best course of action is. We plan to get them to a vet as soon as we can for all the testing/shots and spaying/neutering but we aren't sure if this should be a TNR or if we should try and socialize them with the hopes of finding them good homes. TNR would certainly be cheaper and less time consuming but we don't really care about that aspect. Our concern is what is best for these cats. I'm not sure that our neighborhood would tolerate a small feral colony and the thought of these kitties being poisoned or taken in by animal control is sickening. My question, is it reasonable to think we can socialize/rehab kitties that are 4-6 months old to the point where they become adoptable? Good chance we would keep one of the kitties but taking any more would be difficult as we currently have 2 high needs cats of our own (spoiled to death of course). I understand these things can take time but how long is it healthy to have cats in cages? If I could clear out a small room would that even be a good idea with 5 cats or would I be creating a kitty fight club? What started as a simple idea of helping out a few kitties has suddenly become much more. We are happy to take the time needed but we want to do things the right way and we want to have realistic expectations. Any suggestions for where to start are greatly appreciated. We are waiting to hear from our local humane society to see what assistance they can offer so in the meantime we have been trying to spend time sitting near the cages while they eat. We also talk to them throughout the day and we have 2 of them playing with us (using toys). There are a lot more small details as you may imagine but I tried to summarize as best as I can. Please ask any questions that you may have and thank you again in advance!