- Joined
- Apr 29, 2014
- Messages
- 22
- Purraise
- 9
Hi all,
I've gotten a lot of tips and encouragement just from lurking around here, but I guess I'll jump in with my own question because my situation is a little unusual. I've been fostering kittens for about 3 years. I've gotten some shy kittens, but the current batch is proving to be a real challenge.
My rescue coordinator emailed me asking if I could take 8 4-week old kittens. I thought, wow that's a lot of kittens, but I said yes, because kittens. Someone from outside our rescue was trapping them.
To our surprise, we got 4 terrified kittens of different ages. There is one orange mama cat who's probably around a year old (so not really a kitten?), a slightly smaller female tortie who may be 8 months old, an orange male kitten of maybe 3 months, and an orange baby boy who's about 2 months. The largest cat is the most feral, with the small kitten being the least. It seems that the orange female is the mother of the 2 and 3 month old kittens, but I don't know for sure how all these cats are related to each other. They do get comfort from each other so I'm reluctant to separate them.
I'll have had them for a week tomorrow. When they first came, they wouldn't even eat with me in the room. Now they will come within a foot of me to eat but I can't move or they run away. I only feed them when I'm in there.
I'm wondering if there is any way I can work effectively with these cats together given the different ages. My coworker, who has also fostered shy kittens, says that the big mama is teaching the kittens to be feral and needs to be separated. The problem is, catching her is nearly impossible. I put food in a cat carrier and she went in to eat it, but was able to escape when I tried to shut the door. I've tried catching her with a towel, which doesn't work and stresses everyone out, especially me.
Then I need to decide where to keep them and how to group them. In addition to the foster room, I have two bathrooms and a large 3-level cat crate. Should I put big mama in my bathroom and try to work with the others? Or separate out the two oldest? Who would be the best candidate for the crate, which I can wheel out to the living room? Or take the kittens out and separate them, leaving the two larger cats together? The tortie especially seems to love her family members. She cried pitifully when I separated her from her buddies, for about 24 hours to try to work with her in the large crate.
The more rooms I use, the more work it is for my husband and I to maintain litter boxes and work with cats in different rooms. That's why he is opposed to separating them. However, I feel like I'm losing precious time with the kittens.
I've gotten a lot of tips and encouragement just from lurking around here, but I guess I'll jump in with my own question because my situation is a little unusual. I've been fostering kittens for about 3 years. I've gotten some shy kittens, but the current batch is proving to be a real challenge.
My rescue coordinator emailed me asking if I could take 8 4-week old kittens. I thought, wow that's a lot of kittens, but I said yes, because kittens. Someone from outside our rescue was trapping them.
To our surprise, we got 4 terrified kittens of different ages. There is one orange mama cat who's probably around a year old (so not really a kitten?), a slightly smaller female tortie who may be 8 months old, an orange male kitten of maybe 3 months, and an orange baby boy who's about 2 months. The largest cat is the most feral, with the small kitten being the least. It seems that the orange female is the mother of the 2 and 3 month old kittens, but I don't know for sure how all these cats are related to each other. They do get comfort from each other so I'm reluctant to separate them.
I'll have had them for a week tomorrow. When they first came, they wouldn't even eat with me in the room. Now they will come within a foot of me to eat but I can't move or they run away. I only feed them when I'm in there.
I'm wondering if there is any way I can work effectively with these cats together given the different ages. My coworker, who has also fostered shy kittens, says that the big mama is teaching the kittens to be feral and needs to be separated. The problem is, catching her is nearly impossible. I put food in a cat carrier and she went in to eat it, but was able to escape when I tried to shut the door. I've tried catching her with a towel, which doesn't work and stresses everyone out, especially me.
Then I need to decide where to keep them and how to group them. In addition to the foster room, I have two bathrooms and a large 3-level cat crate. Should I put big mama in my bathroom and try to work with the others? Or separate out the two oldest? Who would be the best candidate for the crate, which I can wheel out to the living room? Or take the kittens out and separate them, leaving the two larger cats together? The tortie especially seems to love her family members. She cried pitifully when I separated her from her buddies, for about 24 hours to try to work with her in the large crate.
The more rooms I use, the more work it is for my husband and I to maintain litter boxes and work with cats in different rooms. That's why he is opposed to separating them. However, I feel like I'm losing precious time with the kittens.