Semi-feral cat gave birth in our house, how to help her like the litter box and being indoor?

[kaitkat]

Hello everyone!

Back in Dec 2020, this yellow tabby cat started visiting our backyard. We feed her some tuna and water and she would come back everyday. Eventually, we got her a nice little bed to keep her warm at night and regularly fed her cat food. Since then, she became quite comfortable hanging out with us and basically just stay in our backyard most of the time.

Fast forward to Feb 2021, we noticed her belly was growing big and her appetite was increasing. We've never had a cat before so I wasn't sure if she was pregnant, but I took her in a carrier to the vet to confirm it. Since then we've done our best to research and has been feeding her kitten food. She also started coming into our garage and then into our house and would nap on the couch for a few hours each day. Although she liked coming in to nap and play she always wanted to go back out after a few hours and leave our yard to go bathroom somewhere else (which I have no idea where). The vet told us it would be best to keep her indoor before birth so I tried to teach her how to use the litter box but she always showed no interest so we just let her out to do her business.

Last night, she unexpected gave birth a week earlier than the date the vet estimated. She kept meowing and wouldn't let us out of her sight and eventually gave birth inside our house! We've set up a crate for the kittens and they seem to be doing really well. Although she does go in to feed the kittens every hour or so, she like lounging outside the kennel in our living room like before and is still pretty active (trying to play with shoelace, etc.) All of this is exciting and very new to us so we would like whatever advice you guys could give!

Our biggest problem right now is she still doesn't know how to use the litter box. Earlier today she kept crying at us to let her out, which I assumed was because she needed to go pee/poo. She ended up escaping when someone opened the door too wide but came back 10 mins later. I've bought some Dr. Elsey's cat litter attractant but so far she doesn't care. If I could get some advice on how to get her to use the litter box and be okay with staying indoor 24/7 that would be great!!!

 

[StefanZ]

Hello everyone!

Back in Dec 2020, this yellow tabby cat started visiting our backyard. We feed her some tuna and water and she would come back everyday. Eventually, we got her a nice little bed to keep her warm at night and regularly fed her cat food. Since then, she became quite comfortable hanging out with us and basically just stay in our backyard most of the time.

Fast forward to Feb 2021, we noticed her belly was growing big and her appetite was increasing. We've never had a cat before so I wasn't sure if she was pregnant, but I took her in a carrier to the vet to confirm it. Since then we've done our best to research and has been feeding her kitten food. She also started coming into our garage and then into our house and would nap on the couch for a few hours each day. Although she liked coming in to nap and play she always wanted to go back out after a few hours and leave our yard to go bathroom somewhere else (which I have no idea where). The vet told us it would be best to keep her indoor before birth so I tried to teach her how to use the litter box but she always showed no interest so we just let her out to do her business.

Last night, she unexpected gave birth a week earlier than the date the vet estimated. She kept meowing and wouldn't let us out of her sight and eventually gave birth inside our house! We've set up a crate for the kittens and they seem to be doing really well. Although she does go in to feed the kittens every hour or so, she like lounging outside the kennel in our living room like before and is still pretty active (trying to play with shoelace, etc.) All of this is exciting and very new to us so we would like whatever advice you guys could give!

Our biggest problem right now is she still doesn't know how to use the litter box. Earlier today she kept crying at us to let her out, which I assumed was because she needed to go pee/poo. She ended up escaping when someone opened the door too wide but came back 10 mins later. I've bought some Dr. Elsey's cat litter attractant but so far she doesn't care. If I could get some advice on how to get her to use the litter box and be okay with staying indoor 24/7 that would be great!!!

Dr Elseys is a good try. You dont need to use it all, just sprinkle over a common, clay based litter. No scented! Just plain, smell free litter.

Another try is to use natural material. Say, lay some dirt "earth" and leaves in her litter box.

You can have several litters with different combos, and you will see which she chooses.


Good you do keep her in. If nothing else, cats arent protected by nursing unlike human women. So she can get pregnant anew already after 1 week.

Otherwise, she seems to be a very good momma, and does everything just so.

And you are are a very good GrandMa and GrandPa.