Stray mom cat and kittens!

[Kooshdakhaa]

I befriended a couple of stray cats this summer. One tom cat and a little female. A few weeks ago I was able to pick the female up and I discovered that she was nursing kittens. Just tonight I found the kittens! And are they ever adorable! They are under a van on my property. I believe she moved them there because it is a friendly atmosphere and I always put food out for them.

I brought the big old tom cat into the house tonight. Just picked him up and stuffed him into a kennel and brought him in. He has his own room until I can get him to the vet Monday for feline leukemia test. And he has an appointment on Tuesday at the SPCA to get neutered. He is no longer a stray cat. : ) And I think he knows it, he's all curled up snoozing away in his room.

I will rescue the female and kittens, too, if I can figure out how. The kittens won't come to me they run away, even thought their mom lets me pick her up and pet her. I figure if I spend some time out there, the kittens will eventually warm up to me. We have a big storm coming tomorrow, wind and rain, so I'll have to put that off for couple of days.

Any suggestions? The mom I could just pick up and carry into the house. But how do I get the kittens?

 

[Big Black Dog]

If you put a can of tuna into a live animal trap, you can catch the kittens one by one until you have them all caught. My wife has about 9 outdoors (barn cats) and this is how she catches the kittens that tend to be wild. We have all of the cats spayed or neutered except for one female we can't catch. Low and behold, a stray male cat came calling earlier in the year and as a result we have some kittens running around outside that we need to catch. I am not especially a cat person but my wife enjoys her yard cats and she keeps them well fed and cared for. BTW, please don't tell my wife if there is a yellow cat in the liter. She loves yellow cats and is looking for one.

 

[strollingbones]

the kittens should follow the mom ....just keep feeding them..give them a shelter from the upcoming storm...they are lucky they found you

 

[strollingbones]

early evening is the best time to trap them

 

[bigrebnc1775]

I befriended a couple of stray cats this summer. One tom cat and a little female. A few weeks ago I was able to pick the female up and I discovered that she was nursing kittens. Just tonight I found the kittens! And are they ever adorable! They are under a van on my property. I believe she moved them there because it is a friendly atmosphere and I always put food out for them.

I brought the big old tom cat into the house tonight. Just picked him up and stuffed him into a kennel and brought him in. He has his own room until I can get him to the vet Monday for feline leukemia test. And he has an appointment on Tuesday at the SPCA to get neutered. He is no longer a stray cat. : ) And I think he knows it, he's all curled up snoozing away in his room.

I will rescue the female and kittens, too, if I can figure out how. The kittens won't come to me they run away, even thought their mom lets me pick her up and pet her. I figure if I spend some time out there, the kittens will eventually warm up to me. We have a big storm coming tomorrow, wind and rain, so I'll have to put that off for couple of days.

Any suggestions? The mom I could just pick up and carry into the house. But how do I get the kittens?

If you can pick the mother up, the kittens aren't to far behind. Nice job on the new masters of your universe

 

[waltky]

possum thinks ya ought to be careful...

... right when ya think dey's yer buddy...

... dey'll smack ya onna nose.

 

[Zoom-boing]

If you get a Hav-a-hart humane cat trap (raccoon size) you can bait it and trap the mom and then the kittens. How old are the kittens?

Our neighborhood is home to feral cats (crazy cat lady started feeding them about 3 years ago). I trapped many of the adult cats and took them to the spca in the hopes of maybe they could be adopted but they were all too feral.

Two weeks ago I looked out my kitchen window and there is a black mom cat with two small kittens coming out from under our shed. Apparently the chicken wire we put up had come undone and she had a litter under there. I set the cat trap to try and get the mom but no luck so I positioned it by the shed then blocked off all other ways out. Caught the two little kitties within a couple of hours. They were about 6 weeks old and yes, too young to be away from mom but I took them anyway because I knew the mom would relocate them and there would be two more cats reproducing in a couple of months. Have been taking care of these two for about a week and a half and they are just terrific little kitties! They started out hissing and growling A LOT! but both have turned out to be very, very affectionate and will make wonderful pets. Amazing what steady food, calming voice and patience will accomplish. My daughter's friend is taking both of them. Yay!

This past Monday we look out and there is same mom cat with yet another kitten under my daughter's car. Kitten crawled up into the engine, took us about 45 minutes to unwedge him. He joined his brothers. He is the most active and started out hissing like the others but within 30 hours he was purring.

Two days later I see the mom cat out by the shed with yet another kitten! Trapped him and he joined his brothers this past Tues. night. He is still very shy and very unsure of people. Am working hard to try and get him to trust people. He finally came out to play with his brothers but I often have to pick him up and place him in the middle of the fun.

I am looking for homes for the last two. If I can't find homes they will have to go to the spca. I'm hoping that won't be for another two weeks (I think they're 8 weeks old now, hoping I can contain them in the area I made for two more weeks) but at least they will have the best chance of getting a home that way.

Hunger will win out almost every time with these guys. If you can get the mom you will be able to get the kittens. Patience is key. Good luck and keep us updated.

btw, anyone want a kitten?

 

[Kooshdakhaa]

possum thinks ya ought to be careful...

... right when ya think dey's yer buddy...

... dey'll smack ya onna nose.

That is good advice. I have two small scratches from the tom cat I brought in. They are healing nicely, no infection. The only reason he swiped at me is because I startled him. He was being defensive. Can't blame him for that. Otherwise, he likes to snuggle up to me and loves to be petted. I would guess he hasn't been petted in at least a couple of years, but you can tell he was once someone's cat. : (

 

[Kooshdakhaa]

The tomcat is named Lazarus because I thought he was dead and yet he started showing up again. : )

Lazarus hasn't used the cat box in his room, yet, but he hasn't gone to the bathroom outside the box either. I read that they will wait a long time in a situation like this. It will be a mini-triumph when he goes in that box!

 

[Kooshdakhaa]

I'm frustrated about the mom cat (I call her Delilah) and the kittens because I wanted to get them inside before the storm. There will be heavy rain and wind gusts up to 110 mph in the upper elevations of our city. We're supposed to get gusts up to 65 mph where I am, hopefully it won't be any worse than that. It will start tonight and go until tomorrow night. : (

She has found a good spot, she'll be well protected from the wind where she is. I think.

I do have a trap, in case I need it. Once the storm is over I can try spending some time out there and befriend the kittens. I don't think there's much I can do before then, although I will hang out there a bit before the wind starts picking up and see what happens. Like I don't have anything else to do. : ( (sorry, little whine there)

 

[Kooshdakhaa]

If you get a Hav-a-hart humane cat trap (raccoon size) you can bait it and trap the mom and then the kittens. How old are the kittens?

Our neighborhood is home to feral cats (crazy cat lady started feeding them about 3 years ago). I trapped many of the adult cats and took them to the spca in the hopes of maybe they could be adopted but they were all too feral.

Two weeks ago I looked out my kitchen window and there is a black mom cat with two small kittens coming out from under our shed. Apparently the chicken wire we put up had come undone and she had a litter under there. I set the cat trap to try and get the mom but no luck so I positioned it by the shed then blocked off all other ways out. Caught the two little kitties within a couple of hours. They were about 6 weeks old and yes, too young to be away from mom but I took them anyway because I knew the mom would relocate them and there would be two more cats reproducing in a couple of months. Have been taking care of these two for about a week and a half and they are just terrific little kitties! They started out hissing and growling A LOT! but both have turned out to be very, very affectionate and will make wonderful pets. Amazing what steady food, calming voice and patience will accomplish. My daughter's friend is taking both of them. Yay!

This past Monday we look out and there is same mom cat with yet another kitten under my daughter's car. Kitten crawled up into the engine, took us about 45 minutes to unwedge him. He joined his brothers. He is the most active and started out hissing like the others but within 30 hours he was purring.

Two days later I see the mom cat out by the shed with yet another kitten! Trapped him and he joined his brothers this past Tues. night. He is still very shy and very unsure of people. Am working hard to try and get him to trust people. He finally came out to play with his brothers but I often have to pick him up and place him in the middle of the fun.

I am looking for homes for the last two. If I can't find homes they will have to go to the spca. I'm hoping that won't be for another two weeks (I think they're 8 weeks old now, hoping I can contain them in the area I made for two more weeks) but at least they will have the best chance of getting a home that way.

Hunger will win out almost every time with these guys. If you can get the mom you will be able to get the kittens. Patience is key. Good luck and keep us updated.

btw, anyone want a kitten?

I think the kittens are about five weeks old. That's my best guess.

Screw the SPCA. I have one feral cat that I managed to tame down. He's still a little weird, but he lives in my home and doesn't cause any trouble. He was caught in a trap by someone else and they were going to take him to Animal Control, but he was crazy wild and I knew they would just kill him. So I took him in. He lived in a room in my house and I would go in there every night and read to him. He had taken to sleeping in a cat kennel in there so I was able to close the door and take him to the vet. They had to gas him in the kennel in order to get him neutered. With felin leukemia test negative I started leaving the door cracked open and he started exploring the house at night. It was 17 weeks before I was finally able to touch him. The first other creature in my house he approached was one of my Dobermans, started rubbing on her legs. : )

There's no such thing as "too feral." What it is is that no one wants to spend the time required to tame the cat down. Let's just be honest about that.

Aren't you going to help the mother cat?

 

[Zoom-boing]

If you get a Hav-a-hart humane cat trap (raccoon size) you can bait it and trap the mom and then the kittens. How old are the kittens?

Our neighborhood is home to feral cats (crazy cat lady started feeding them about 3 years ago). I trapped many of the adult cats and took them to the spca in the hopes of maybe they could be adopted but they were all too feral.

Two weeks ago I looked out my kitchen window and there is a black mom cat with two small kittens coming out from under our shed. Apparently the chicken wire we put up had come undone and she had a litter under there. I set the cat trap to try and get the mom but no luck so I positioned it by the shed then blocked off all other ways out. Caught the two little kitties within a couple of hours. They were about 6 weeks old and yes, too young to be away from mom but I took them anyway because I knew the mom would relocate them and there would be two more cats reproducing in a couple of months. Have been taking care of these two for about a week and a half and they are just terrific little kitties! They started out hissing and growling A LOT! but both have turned out to be very, very affectionate and will make wonderful pets. Amazing what steady food, calming voice and patience will accomplish. My daughter's friend is taking both of them. Yay!

This past Monday we look out and there is same mom cat with yet another kitten under my daughter's car. Kitten crawled up into the engine, took us about 45 minutes to unwedge him. He joined his brothers. He is the most active and started out hissing like the others but within 30 hours he was purring.

Two days later I see the mom cat out by the shed with yet another kitten! Trapped him and he joined his brothers this past Tues. night. He is still very shy and very unsure of people. Am working hard to try and get him to trust people. He finally came out to play with his brothers but I often have to pick him up and place him in the middle of the fun.

I am looking for homes for the last two. If I can't find homes they will have to go to the spca. I'm hoping that won't be for another two weeks (I think they're 8 weeks old now, hoping I can contain them in the area I made for two more weeks) but at least they will have the best chance of getting a home that way.

Hunger will win out almost every time with these guys. If you can get the mom you will be able to get the kittens. Patience is key. Good luck and keep us updated.

btw, anyone want a kitten?

I think the kittens are about five weeks old. That's my best guess.

Screw the SPCA. I have one feral cat that I managed to tame down. He's still a little weird, but he lives in my home and doesn't cause any trouble. He was caught in a trap by someone else and they were going to take him to Animal Control, but he was crazy wild and I knew they would just kill him. So I took him in. He lived in a room in my house and I would go in there every night and read to him. He had taken to sleeping in a cat kennel in there so I was able to close the door and take him to the vet. They had to gas him in the kennel in order to get him neutered. With felin leukemia test negative I started leaving the door cracked open and he started exploring the house at night. It was 17 weeks before I was finally able to touch him. The first other creature in my house he approached was one of my Dobermans, started rubbing on her legs. : )

There's no such thing as "too feral." What it is is that no one wants to spend the time required to tame the cat down. Let's just be honest about that.

Aren't you going to help the mother cat?

Five weeks is very young, you should have no problem catching them and it should only take a few days or so for them to come around to people.

I can't keep the kittens or any cat as I have a 15 1/2 year old male cat who is marking my house as it is because of all the cats outside, can't imagine what would happen if I bought another cat into this house. Putting in the time and energy doesn't have anything to do with why I can't take them in, the number of cats around here and my cat are why. I'm not talking about a cat here or there, there have been many, many cats ... no idea how many are still running around. I took them to the spca because there are so many; I stopped because no one else in the neighborhood was doing squat about the cat problem. Maybe when it gets bad enough others will pitch in. We have no animal control officer in our town, spca officer talked to crazy cat lady but she will not stop feeding them, she will not take medical responsibility for them, she will not have them neutered/spayed. So we have lots of feral cats who are constantly reproducing and no one willing to do anything about it. The situation is what it is.

If I can't find homes for the last two kittens then the spca it is, I have no alternative as I can't keep them. Better they be given a chance at adoption and a good life vs a hard feral life that won't be very long, imo.

 

[Kooshdakhaa]

I feed cats, too, that's why they show up at my house. I cannot turn my back on them. For some of them, I am their lifeline. I take that responsibility seriously.

No, it is good you are finding homes for the kittens. Even taking them to the SPCA is okay, because they're just kittens and easier to bring around than a full-grown feral cat.

Yeah, the marking is not acceptable to me. That will be Lazarus's true test. If he marks in my house, he cannot stay. I have my limits. I will cross that bridge when I come to it. My husband and I are talking about putting a cat door leading into a pen in the garage, so at least cats could come in and sleep in a warm place. We shall see.

 

[earlycuyler]

I befriended a couple of stray cats this summer. One tom cat and a little female. A few weeks ago I was able to pick the female up and I discovered that she was nursing kittens. Just tonight I found the kittens! And are they ever adorable! They are under a van on my property. I believe she moved them there because it is a friendly atmosphere and I always put food out for them.

I brought the big old tom cat into the house tonight. Just picked him up and stuffed him into a kennel and brought him in. He has his own room until I can get him to the vet Monday for feline leukemia test. And he has an appointment on Tuesday at the SPCA to get neutered. He is no longer a stray cat. : ) And I think he knows it, he's all curled up snoozing away in his room.

I will rescue the female and kittens, too, if I can figure out how. The kittens won't come to me they run away, even thought their mom lets me pick her up and pet her. I figure if I spend some time out there, the kittens will eventually warm up to me. We have a big storm coming tomorrow, wind and rain, so I'll have to put that off for couple of days.

Any suggestions? The mom I could just pick up and carry into the house. But how do I get the kittens?

Are the kittens eating food ? If so, you can tarp three sides of the van, and go head and collect the mom. Just kennel her and leave her by the van. Put food in her kennel and snatch kittens as they try to get to her or her food. Or you can just leave the kennel open by the van with food in it. When the weather hits they should all just go in to the better digs.

 

[uscitizen]

Cats have a sense to detect soft hearted suckers.
I have 4 little furry buddies that live outside. But all need lap time when I am out on the porch.

 

[gallantwarrior]

I befriended a couple of stray cats this summer. One tom cat and a little female. A few weeks ago I was able to pick the female up and I discovered that she was nursing kittens. Just tonight I found the kittens! And are they ever adorable! They are under a van on my property. I believe she moved them there because it is a friendly atmosphere and I always put food out for them.

I brought the big old tom cat into the house tonight. Just picked him up and stuffed him into a kennel and brought him in. He has his own room until I can get him to the vet Monday for feline leukemia test. And he has an appointment on Tuesday at the SPCA to get neutered. He is no longer a stray cat. : ) And I think he knows it, he's all curled up snoozing away in his room.

I will rescue the female and kittens, too, if I can figure out how. The kittens won't come to me they run away, even thought their mom lets me pick her up and pet her. I figure if I spend some time out there, the kittens will eventually warm up to me. We have a big storm coming tomorrow, wind and rain, so I'll have to put that off for couple of days.

Any suggestions? The mom I could just pick up and carry into the house. But how do I get the kittens?

Patience. If you can pick the momma up, you might be able to get the kittens to come to you too.

 

[gallantwarrior]

If you put a can of tuna into a live animal trap, you can catch the kittens one by one until you have them all caught. My wife has about 9 outdoors (barn cats) and this is how she catches the kittens that tend to be wild. We have all of the cats spayed or neutered except for one female we can't catch. Low and behold, a stray male cat came calling earlier in the year and as a result we have some kittens running around outside that we need to catch. I am not especially a cat person but my wife enjoys her yard cats and she keeps them well fed and cared for. BTW, please don't tell my wife if there is a yellow cat in the liter. She loves yellow cats and is looking for one.

I have a litter of six barn cats (ferals) living on my place, one is a really pretty, all-orange kitty, another is orange tabby with white bib and paws. Where can I send them?

 

[uscitizen]

Any Chinese restaurants nearby?

 

[gallantwarrior]

If you get a Hav-a-hart humane cat trap (raccoon size) you can bait it and trap the mom and then the kittens. How old are the kittens?

Our neighborhood is home to feral cats (crazy cat lady started feeding them about 3 years ago). I trapped many of the adult cats and took them to the spca in the hopes of maybe they could be adopted but they were all too feral.

Two weeks ago I looked out my kitchen window and there is a black mom cat with two small kittens coming out from under our shed. Apparently the chicken wire we put up had come undone and she had a litter under there. I set the cat trap to try and get the mom but no luck so I positioned it by the shed then blocked off all other ways out. Caught the two little kitties within a couple of hours. They were about 6 weeks old and yes, too young to be away from mom but I took them anyway because I knew the mom would relocate them and there would be two more cats reproducing in a couple of months. Have been taking care of these two for about a week and a half and they are just terrific little kitties! They started out hissing and growling A LOT! but both have turned out to be very, very affectionate and will make wonderful pets. Amazing what steady food, calming voice and patience will accomplish. My daughter's friend is taking both of them. Yay!

This past Monday we look out and there is same mom cat with yet another kitten under my daughter's car. Kitten crawled up into the engine, took us about 45 minutes to unwedge him. He joined his brothers. He is the most active and started out hissing like the others but within 30 hours he was purring.

Two days later I see the mom cat out by the shed with yet another kitten! Trapped him and he joined his brothers this past Tues. night. He is still very shy and very unsure of people. Am working hard to try and get him to trust people. He finally came out to play with his brothers but I often have to pick him up and place him in the middle of the fun.

I am looking for homes for the last two. If I can't find homes they will have to go to the spca. I'm hoping that won't be for another two weeks (I think they're 8 weeks old now, hoping I can contain them in the area I made for two more weeks) but at least they will have the best chance of getting a home that way.

Hunger will win out almost every time with these guys. If you can get the mom you will be able to get the kittens. Patience is key. Good luck and keep us updated.

btw, anyone want a kitten?

Two of my house cats originally came from the ferals living in my barn. The latest was only two weeks old when we rescued him and his sister. That was a year ago. Normally, I won't mess with the queen's nest, but momma had disappeared and these two were alone, hungry and filthy. I took them in, but it was too late for sis. I originally named the boy "Sylvester" because he's a black tuxedo cat with a white tip on his tail. I've renamed him since then. He's now "Sherman" (as in Tecumseh) because he's a destructive force in his own right, leaving a swath of destruction wherever he plays. He is a lover, too.

 

[gallantwarrior]

I feed cats, too, that's why they show up at my house. I cannot turn my back on them. For some of them, I am their lifeline. I take that responsibility seriously.

No, it is good you are finding homes for the kittens. Even taking them to the SPCA is okay, because they're just kittens and easier to bring around than a full-grown feral cat.

Yeah, the marking is not acceptable to me. That will be Lazarus's true test. If he marks in my house, he cannot stay. I have my limits. I will cross that bridge when I come to it. My husband and I are talking about putting a cat door leading into a pen in the garage, so at least cats could come in and sleep in a warm place. We shall see.

You know I feed ferals, too. They keep the mice out of my feed bins. Right now, I have six house cats and really don't feel like I can support any more indoor cats. I have been considering trapping the current crop of kittens, though. The past year, I have been donating goat milk to two cat rescues. 17 gallons of milk goes a ways to feeding kittens and nursing moms.