Catching feral kittens

Question
Hi,
I just read your answer in response to someone who is trying to trap, spay/neuter, and release feral cats. She said that the female just had kittens and she can't find them. You told her: "As for the mama whose kittens have disappeared, hopefully she will bring the kittens around when they are to the age when they are starting on solid foods, around 5 weeks old. If you catch them just then, you can tame them up and adopt them out. However, if they aren't caught immediately thereafter, they will begin to get hard to socialize, so I would encourage you to try to catch them the moment you see them." While I agree about catching them after they are five weeks old, I hope she also understands that she should not bring them in sooner unless she plans to bottle feed them around the clock (not as good as mama nursing them) or unless she catches mama FIRST. We have had a female stray in our neighborhood who recently got pregnant for the second time. The day I was going to try to catch her, she gave birth. My daughter found the babies under a tarp in our yard and brought them in. It took me four days to finally catch mama, and thankfully she is now nursing them. It could have gone either way... We didn't know better.

Answer
Hi Catelynn,

I'm glad you were able to reunite mama and babies. This is always the best case scenario, and one volunteers hope can happen in every situation. It's not one that every foster family is willing to accommodate! I applaud you for stepping in the help reduce pet overpopulation, and also for opening your home to not only mama, but also to her family, and for putting in all the extra effort to nurse the little ones until she could be found.

Although the other questioner was in the complete opposite situation and was unable to find the kittens, I generally recommend that kittens of ferals be brought in immediately upon finding them and be bottle fed. While it's always a very difficult decision to make, most trap-neuter-return volunteers come to feel that it's very important to bring kittens in to be socialized younger than 5 weeks of age. Kittens are found to develop socially at a younger age than puppies, making their biggest strides between 2 and 5 weeks of age. So to prepare them to make the best pets, it often means removing them from a feral mom very young, because few people are willing to foster a completely feral mom. You are correct - this means bottle feeding. However, in cases where people ARE willing to foster mom, we always prefer to keep mom with babies until they are weaned, because you are correct again - breast milk is healthiest for the babies, and she also teaches them important lessons about grooming, using litter and getting onto solid foods.

So to recap for anyone reading this question and answer: babies should stay with mom whenever possible, until they are weaned (around 10 weeks old). They need to be socialized with humans, preferably starting by 2 weeks old. And kittens should start on solid foods around 4-5 weeks old. Most can be on solid canned foods as a sole source of nutrition at 5-6 weeks if absolutely necessary, but kittens under 5 weeks must be bottle fed at intervals no more than 5 hours apart (younger kittens need to be fed more frequently).

Thanks for catching the information I failed to pass along!

Best of luck with your fosters!

Jessica