Posted on 07/31/2010 6:14:21 PM PDT by KosmicKitty
Help!!
The stray cat my kids started feeding on July 4th just had 5 kittens in our garage.
We spent the last 3 week canvasing the neighborhood & no one claimed her, we figured that she adopted us so we were planning on taking her to the vet this week. When she didn't show up yesterday to eat & we heard little mewing sounds, my husband went to look for her & surprise!! 5 kittens.
We have been in touch with a vet, but neither hubby or I have any experience with momma cat & babies. Any advice would be most appreciated!
(Note: Due to a very large, very spoiled dog & my asthma, we can't have the kitty in the house. We had planned one making her a pampered outdoor cat with a heated kitty bed)
(At least it's not Winter!! Our garage is not too bad)
It's nothing but a stinky mess and if you never start it they don't miss it.
Don’t worry, mama will take care of the kittens. She’ll move them around a bunch. Just feed her.
Maybe I can help
What’s kitten taste like?
;-/
feed the mother well and let her take care of the kittens. make sure there’s lots of water to drink since garages can be very hot. The kittens eyes won’t open for several weeks so you don’t have to do anything. just keep telling your friends to take one when they’re about 6 weeks+ old.
We use to feed abandoned kittens with milk in eye droppers. I don’t remember how old the kittens were. Are you sure Mama kitty is gone? She may come back. Your vet may be able to help you.
Hope Mama Kitty comes back.
We raise cats for most of our income. Momma will take care of them just fine. Give her food and water and wait until the kittens are weaned to spay her.(Don’t wait too long.)
For now, not much is required of you besides keeping momma-cat well-fed — Nature pretty much takes its course, if ya leave it alone...
A couple of months down the road, if you haven’t found homes for the little monsters yet, you’ll want to get ‘em in to the vet for shots and spay/neuter (including, obviously, momma-cat...)
Enjoy... ;)
Start signing up friends to take the kittens when the time comes.
If you don’t have any luck, then wait 6 weeks and invite some of your girlfriends over for a few drinks, after the third drink, invite them out to help you check on the kittens.
Mom can be spayed 30 days after she stops nursing the kittens ... so start watching for that around the 7-8 week mark and write it on the calendar. She can also get pregnant as soon as she stops nursing, so some spay clinics and vets are willing to neuter sooner. Call around and check for prices. If you want help locating low-cost spay clinics near you, freepmail me with your city/state.
If mom has fleas, check with your vet about a flea med for her that won't harm the kittens. Proceed VERY cautiously with over-the-counter flea meds.
Probably the best way to find home for the kittens is to snap some cute photos and post them on your local Craigslist and Freecycle, and even on your Facebook page (if you do that sort of thing.) Kittens taken to OUR local animal shelter stand a 98% chance of being euthanized without ever going up for adoption ~ I don't know how your local shelter may be, but you should assume it's about that bad.
Basically, as long as the kittens are eating, drinking, peeing and pooping ... they should do fine; mom cat knows what she's doing. You just have to keep her very fed, very hydrated, and provide safe place for the kittens to grow up.
I live in Ohio.
Feel free to mail me one of the kittens.
Do not worry. They know what to do on their own.
Shortly after I moved into my beach cottage here in the Philippines, 18 months ago, one of several feral cats had kittens over my ceiling, under the metal roof.
All four are now grown and rule the roost, along with
a number of other cats.
One orange kitten that took up home here, grew up quickly and had two kittens, now about 3 months old...one is now after my breakfast and dancing on the keyboard.
I now have about 12 cats.
Let her wean them at 6 weeks and put them on Craigslist with a 10 dollar rehoming fee to keep away the snakefeeders. Say that they are 8 Weeks old or all the Craigslist freaks will get your ad pulled. The kittens will be in new homes by the end of the weekend.no shots, no fixing. People are dying to buy kittens that are not related to the various shelters because of the attitudes and prices.
Thread
Useless
Pictures
Kitty Pinglist?
Did I not read this correctly, is Mama Kitty still around? If she is, then let her do her “mama kitty” thing, then when old enough, take them to be adopted.
My two cats had 31 kittens between them in three years. Never a problem.
Don’t let any other animals get near her kittens. She will attack—I know, I still have scars when I got between the kittens and a cat a neighbor brought over. The mother will take good care of the little ones. She may move them about, let her. Female cats have great instincts.
Good advice from davetex.
But she may also like a nice cardboard box with some comfy rags in it, kept quietly out of the way where it’s not too light, and left largely to herself and her brood for the first couple of weeks. Only after a few weeks are they ready for some milk and cat food. If she’ll use a box, she can train them to one. You could post the kittens as available for people you know, with the understanding that they’d take them to the vets for their shots and get them fixed. If any of you work in offices, you could start posting cute pics of them from before they’ve opened their eyes, and by 8 weeks you may have some takers.
Sounds like Momma at least has found a home and she needs to get spayed after this batch. Good job giving her shelter, and there is nothing cuter than little kittens!
The Cat Recipes website has a recipe for Mother Cat and Kittens (Feeds 8)
http://catrecipes.com/recipes/index.html
If they are not in the way, leave them alone. Mama takes care of everything, including waste, for the first few weeks. Just make sure mama has proper nutrition.
A ferel (sp) female cat started coming to my house a while back and I managed to get her tame enough to accept my affection. Anyway, she was ‘carrying’ babies. When I found that out, I prepared areas in the house for her (didn’t work, she had kittens in the closet) Anyway, I couldn’t possibly keep them so, I ran an ad in the paper to give them away, along with a certificate to get them ‘fixed’ (I made arrangements with the local vet) and their first shots.
They were gone within a week of the ad.
Good luck.
Handle the kittens too, gradually increasing human time as they become older and less fragile. Get them used to the contact now and they will be better pets later.
Al, you’re twisted
please be aware all, that many that fight dogs or feed their snakes, take free kittens out of ads. It’s best to find homes for them with people you know.
I like the guy’s idea about getting your girlfriends liquored up and then show them the kittens :)
Oh, as soon as we can the whole happy family is going to the vets to be neutered/spay.
She had them very well hidden, so I was hoping for a small litter as she was a very small cat. Surprise. Both Mr. Kitty & and i are pushovers when it comes to animals, but we’re not sure we could handle 6 cats!!
You’ve heard the joke about the kittens being Democrats until they get their eyes opened, then they’ll be Republicans!!
Kitty afterbirth is great on toast
Good idea, we had the same thing happen, momma cat adopts us then starts bringing home the kittens. By the time they get here they are too wild to hold or even catch. We put out food and water etc. but they still run when we look at them.
but we’re not sure we could handle 6 cats!!
Handling is the key word. By about two weeks, you need to start quietly and gently handle the kittens daily. Cats aren’t herd animals like dogs. If you want them to be properly socialized so they can be welcomed into new homes, you must give them a lot of attention while they are young.
Momma Kitty, aka Spook, is there doing her job. (thank God!! I was indirectly involved with a mom on the run littler once at work. not fun!!)
She let me pet her and seemed like her normal self after all the excitement.
We just want the best for her & her babies even though she’s only been with use for 3 weeks.
Oh, as soon as we can the whole happy family is going to the vets to be neutered/spay.
You won’t be able to get the kittens sterilized until they are 12 weeks and about three pounds. Even then you may need to call around to find a vet that does early spay/neuter.
Actually, it varies by area. Locally, kittens are spayed and neutered as soon as they reach 2 pounds and are at least 8 weeks of age.
Well I don’t want to be redundant...see post #26
No
I am trying to change
You’re right, it does vary from vet to vet. The cats on your home page look great.
Al hon, I love you. Seen many of your posts over the years. But I suggest you find another thread to haunt as my family are animal lovers.
And we can be extremely vicious to those who are not. (I have intimidated everyone who works with my husband due to picture of me hold a shotgun!!)
I’m a little woman, but I can be real nasty!!
Hope you understand.
Kitten fritters
I agree with Outlaw Woman, you are definitely twisted. :-)
I used to get my girlfriends liquored up and then they'd show me their "kittens."
Of course, my husband’s expensive digital camera and even more expense lens got stolen out of my car last Wednesday.
They really are just the cutest little things. Momma is a tuxedo kitty (mostly black with a bit of white)
Looks like 3 babies look Momma and 2 are gray and white. Will try to get pictures later. My Iphone ones didn’t come out.
So you love me but threaten me with shooting me with a shot gun and Im twisted?
My vet spayed my bulldog at 4 months.
Said that smaller organs were better, smaller incision needed. Hope he feels the same way about kittens.
You don't want them to be abused or mistreated, kids unsupervised, etc., or some people will take them on a whim, can't have them where they live, etc., and dump them.
I decided no more kittens and have had mine spayed/neutered much as I've adored kittens growing up thru the years. Sad, but try to screen for really good, loving, stable and permanent homes for yours. There are no guarantees with anything. I agree about the shelter, most will euthanize too many unwanted ones that are otherwise healthy and adoptable.
Good advice offered here. Make sure their future feeding area is not somewhere they will get accidentally stepped on. Mama kitty takes them to the food which is right by the fridge and pass thru, and we had a couple tragedies that way.
I also had a disturbed neighbor kid get into my garage when I put some pretty white ones out there in the summer w/mama kitty, and he threw them through the glass windows. I think those all recovered, and I read the housekeeper the riot act but should have called to report animal cruelty long ago when people didn't tend to report everything.
Okay, I m twisted, never have denied that.. but i am an animal lover. Stopped watering a fuchsia plant on my porch cause a wren built a nest in it
And these kitties are so cute & I will do what is necessary to give them a good life!
Post cat recipes if you want. I can’t stop you being a jerk.
In the middle of winter, many years ago, my daughters asked if we could take in two cats whom they were feeding. I allowed it, despite the fact that our Westie and they didn’t get along. It was amusing though.
Not so amusing was that they both gave birth, very soon, a week apart, to nine kittens between them. I permitted my daughters to stay home from school to witness the births. Great experience for them. It didn’t take long before our house was like a scene from the Gremlins....I am not kidding. To this day, I don’t know how I did it. :) The girls loved it! Still talk about it to this day...they’re in their 30’s!
We found homes for the kittens except for two. Each of the girls wanted a kitten. Unfortunately, when moms are outdoor cats, we found that the kittens want to be outdoor cats also. Not good. We did have all the females spayed and the one male neutered.
I forgot how long the kittens need their mom, but that can be found on the internet. We made sure we didn’t give them away before it was time.
Good luck! Little kittens sure are difficult to give away! I felt like I was giving up a child for adoption! lol
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.