Feral Queen and kittens

Question
Hi Ali,
I have been feeding feral cats for 8 years, and have fur lined boxes on my apt. patio.
The reason for this e-mail to you is that a feral Queen who is a young cat herself(born early 2007)who I have been feeding also since her mother introduced her to my apt., brought me 5 kittens 3 weeks ago.  The kittens looked like they were about a month when she brought them over a 2-day period.  They are very cute, and I have been feeding them tuna, salmon, and canned cat food mixed with some kitten chow from the time they arrived, because the Queen was looked exhausted and didn't appear to have any milk.  I was trying to build up her weight and stamina.  Everyone is doing fine and the kittens are growing beautifully.  One kitten was very sick and mom seemed to be rejecting her(I think the kitten wasn't able to nurse because the other 4 were beating it to mom.) It is doing fine now, because I hand fed it kitten milk from a bottle, and was advised to give it some yogurt and a little kaopectate for its diarrhea.  I also added some pedialite to its diet, but most of all, I believe in prayer and the power of prayer.  
I am trying to find homes for these little critters because I have no room for them in my one-bedroom apt, plus, I have 2 dogs inside with me and birds.  The kittens are fine on my patio, which is enclosed and so far they cannot get off of the patio(mom can come and go because she just jumps over the gate to the patio).  My concern is that the kittens have doubled their size since arriving, and are learning skills daily.  I am watching them jump and they are slowly learning to climb.  I have some people interested in providing some of them homes, but I am concerned that once I begin to separate the kittens, the mother will notice that not all of them are here and move the remaining ones to the woods, and they too will become feral.  I plan to try to capture the Queen and have her spayed, because this first litter seemed to wear her out.  Since she knows I am taking good care of her offspring, she leaves for several hours(mom's day out)comes back and nurses them.  Since they eat and drink on their own, I don't think they are weaning, yet they are still ready to nurse when she will let them.  If I give two or three kittens to good homes, will Mom become anxious and move the others, and once the kittens are gone, will she mourn or look for the missing kittens??  I don't want to cause her to not trust me or be anxious about her missing kittens.  What should I do?  I don't want them to climb over my 5'foot fence, and I don't want to wait so long that she will take them to the woods to introduce them to that lifestyle. Thank you for your information.

Answer
Marie,

I would recommend that you speak with the spay/neuter organisation/no kill shelter about borrowing a humane trap. You can catch mom by using a humane trap, essentially it is a wire box with two doors and one is left open. You can bait the trap with something stinky like sardines, salmon or tuna. Mom may be more willing to go inside of the live trap simply because there aren't solid walls. It would be nice for her if she came around enough to be adopted, but failing that you can release her into her territory a few days after being spayed and she will resume life as it was beforehand without the added difficulty of having litters to take care of. If you spay, vaccinate and release her she will probably still come and get her meals from you. I hope that this helps, I only wish that she will warm up enough to go to a new home since she sounds very sweet....If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to send them my way.


Marie,

What mom and the kittens need is to eat a good quality kitten food. Tuna and salmon can cause some medical problems when they are fed regularly. If you want to add some extra calories to the little family's diet you can feed a mix of a decent quality soft kitten food with the kitten kibble. Mom needs the extra calories and fat as well since it would seem that she is still nursing. What I would suggest is that you try and bring mom and her babies inside (I know space is an issue, but this will allow mom to nurse her babies as long as they need her and you will know that she isn't pregnant (hopefully!) when it comes time to spay her). It is in momma cat's best interests that you know that she can become pregnant while she is still nursing her litter, that is why I am recommending that you do your best to get her indoors as soon as possible so that the likelihood that she will become pregnant is lower. I would recommend that the little family stays together until the kittens are about 10-12 weeks old. Around 8-10 weeks of age mom will likely start to wean her little ones. The extra 2-4 weeks is important to providing the kittens with good social skills. In the weeks between weaning and 10-12 weeks the kittens learn important social skills and learn boundaries. The kittens learn useful things such as bite inhibition which if a kitten has ever bitten you can be appreciated. Momma and her babies can live in the bedroom or bathroom until they are ready to be separated. When mom has weaned her little ones give it about 2 weeks or so for her milk to dry up and then you can have her spayed. Once the kittens hit a minimum of 10 weeks of age they can start going to new homes since they are much stronger and less likely to break their bones which were fairly soft for the first 2 months which have hardened a bit by this time. If you have all of the kittens and mom she will likely notice when the kittens start heading to their new homes. It is normal and natural that she will initially search for her little babies, she is a mother. My advice would be to catch mom as soon as possible and the kittens will be easy compared to mom. If you have a small kennel you can catch mom when she is in the midst of nursing and take her into the house, as soon as mom is in the house and safely behind a closed door bring her the kittens ASAP so that she doesn't start to freak out. I do believe that momma cat wants an easier life than she lives at the moment for her babies. If mom didn't trust you or she felt threatened by you in any way she would never have brought her babies to you. She knew that you would care for her and her babies. Trapping mom and allowing her the luxury of not needing to worry about predators attacking her or her babies is a gift to her. She may seem less than grateful to not be allowed outside until she is spayed but I do believe that spaying and neutering saves lives and is a kind thing to do. Giving the babies great homes is also wonderful although I would highly recommend that you try to convince the new owners to spay and neuter as the operations save hundreds of thousands of lives every year. It would be great if you could find momma cat a home too. She may still want to go outside and roam, but I am sure that she will appreciate the security of having a warm place to come home to with food, water, toys and a nice warm bed to curl up on...I hope that you have found this information helpful. If you have any further questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me again.