download/print - Neighborhood Cats

If you might have to care for unweaned kittens, have bottlefeedingformula on hand. “Kitten Milk Replacement,” also knownas KMR, is available at many pet supply stores. For an alternativeholistic nursing formula, see “The Natural Cat,” by Anitra Frazier(page 88).If you’re caring for kittens less than five weeks of age (“bottlebabies”), check out the highly informative, “Kitten Care Handbook”by Los Angeles-based Kitten Rescue (www.kitten-rescue.com). It’simportant, for example, to hold the kittens in the proper positionwhen feeding (tummy down as though nursing from the mother)and to use a special bottle designed for neonates, not aneyedropper, so the kitten can control the flow of milk.(b) Foster resources availableIf the kittens are going to be fostered and placed for adoption, then there are threeways you can proceed, depending on your situation:- Trap the whole family and keep them together in a cage, using the Feral CatSetup described in Chapter 12, until the kittens are eight weeks old, then startfinding homes for the little ones. At that point the mom can be spayed andreleased. The great advantage to this approach is mom does all the work foryou when it comes to caring for the kittens. You should handle the kittens asmuch as possible so they are well socialized and, if you brought the kittens inat an early age, gradually introduce kitten food when they’re five weeks oldso they’re weaned by the time they’re ready for adoption.- Leave the family outside and take the kittens from their mother when theyare five to six weeks old and can eat on their own. This is the riskiestapproach because the mortality rate for kittens living outdoors is high.You’ll want to gather the kittens as soon as they’re weaned because of thedangers of outdoor life and the need to begin the socialization process at asearly an age as possible. Keep the litter together and don’t adopt them outuntil eight weeks of age so they have a chance to learn from one anotherabout appropriate cat behavior, like not biting too hard.- Leave the mom outside and take the kittens in when they are less than fiveweeks old and unweaned. This means you’ll need to bottle-feed and provideneonatal kitten care. This approach is much more work than bringing themom inside, too.There is a slight risk when you confine a feral family that the mother will attack herkittens. This is rare, but happens once in a while with a female cat who is extremely feraland greatly stressed by captivity. One way to assess this risk is to transfer the mom into acage inside a feral cat den. While she is locked inside the den, place her kittens in the86