Stray mother and kittens

Question
We have several stray adult cats that live near our house. One had a litter of kittens approximately a month ago with 2 survivors, a black unsexed and a calico male. We caught the calico male and he appears extremely weak. He wanders from mom and lays in the middle of the alley all day while his sibling runs around and plays with mon. Every bone in his body can be easily felt and his eyes were crusted over completely and he is far smaller than the black one. I am unsure if it is in his best ibteresy to stay and be bottle fed and nurtured with us at home or if he should go with mom and let nature take its course. She is unapproachable as is her black kitten. I have cleaned his eyes and will attempt to bottle feed him for the first time today. He's a very cuddly kitten but in obvious very poor health and I would like to do what is best for the newly dubbed Bartholomew. Thank you.

Answer
Hi Kayla,

Thank you for taking in the little one. I think the question is undoubtedly, what are you prepared for? What happens to him in your care will certainly be more comfortable than what happens to him outside. If you are prepared to cope with a potential loss, the right answer here is to try to raise him. If you are not prepared to deal with a loss, I certainly understand. Perhaps you could bring him to a vet hospital. Sometimes the technicians there are willing to take orphans.

I will caution you - male calicos are born with a mutation. Calicos MUST be female. For one to have male genitalia means he has received both male and female chromosomes. While this isn't dangerous, when one mutation occurs, it's more likely that another one has. And those mutations can affect vital organ function. It is thought that intersexed kittens could occur as frequently as every 500 births, but the last estimate I heard is that only 1 in 10,000 adult cats appears to be intersexed. There is am obvious difference in the number of intersexed kittens born and those who survive to adulthood. Many die due to other abnormalities. Hopefully your little one just ran into some tough luck outside and will perk up with some nursing.

Good luck!
Jessica