- Joined
- Aug 4, 2014
- Messages
- 1,112
- Purraise
- 1,521
Hi all!
We take care of some ferals and have had a hell of a time trapping two of them primarily because of wildlife - namely raccoons, who quickly learned they would be immediately released and now have no fear of the trap and will trap themselves every 10-15 minutes all night long on our trap nights (and there are probably about 10 regulars every night). Because these two ferals generally live in peace with the raccoons and often eat with them, they've on more than one occasion witnessed the trapping and became weary of the traps.
I won't go into all we've tried, but it looks as though one of our little guys apparently had kittens at some point. Some time in the last 12 hours she must have moved this kitten to one of the shelters on our porch, probably due to recent weather.
The kitten appears injured and is not using one of it's legs. No blood or wound is evident and the kitten doesn't appear to be in particular pain, but obviously we want to take it to the vet. I work with seniors cats so I don't have a lot of experience with kittens - but I also work with other injured and orphaned baby mammals, and if I had to guess, I'd say this kitten is probably around the 6 week mark.
I'm not positive on how to proceed. Is the kitten too young to be taken away from Momma? As in, would it be preferable to try to trap Momma and let her continue raising the kitten and keep them both indoors for a few weeks together (while also trying to socialize the kitten)?
We do realize that no matter what we do, we'll have to keep the kitten indoors, both due to its injury, and to protect it from wildlife (which includes the occasional fox and opossum too). I'm just not sure if it's best to try to trap Socks too or not with it. Socks is not normally here enough during the day so we've never been successful trying to trap her during daylight, but she's in protective momma mode right now and has been sticking around all day long so... maybe there's a chance?
We have made a lot of headway in gaining Sock's trust recently too - will taking her kitten away from her impact that? Will she understand it was us if we do it when she's not around? Obviously we're going to take the kitten regardless, I'd just rather be emotionally prepared if that's a possibility. We love Socks and are not looking forward to putting her through the stress of separating her from her kitten.
Any advice appreciated, sorry if this was long winded and disorganized.
We take care of some ferals and have had a hell of a time trapping two of them primarily because of wildlife - namely raccoons, who quickly learned they would be immediately released and now have no fear of the trap and will trap themselves every 10-15 minutes all night long on our trap nights (and there are probably about 10 regulars every night). Because these two ferals generally live in peace with the raccoons and often eat with them, they've on more than one occasion witnessed the trapping and became weary of the traps.
I won't go into all we've tried, but it looks as though one of our little guys apparently had kittens at some point. Some time in the last 12 hours she must have moved this kitten to one of the shelters on our porch, probably due to recent weather.
The kitten appears injured and is not using one of it's legs. No blood or wound is evident and the kitten doesn't appear to be in particular pain, but obviously we want to take it to the vet. I work with seniors cats so I don't have a lot of experience with kittens - but I also work with other injured and orphaned baby mammals, and if I had to guess, I'd say this kitten is probably around the 6 week mark.
I'm not positive on how to proceed. Is the kitten too young to be taken away from Momma? As in, would it be preferable to try to trap Momma and let her continue raising the kitten and keep them both indoors for a few weeks together (while also trying to socialize the kitten)?
We do realize that no matter what we do, we'll have to keep the kitten indoors, both due to its injury, and to protect it from wildlife (which includes the occasional fox and opossum too). I'm just not sure if it's best to try to trap Socks too or not with it. Socks is not normally here enough during the day so we've never been successful trying to trap her during daylight, but she's in protective momma mode right now and has been sticking around all day long so... maybe there's a chance?
We have made a lot of headway in gaining Sock's trust recently too - will taking her kitten away from her impact that? Will she understand it was us if we do it when she's not around? Obviously we're going to take the kitten regardless, I'd just rather be emotionally prepared if that's a possibility. We love Socks and are not looking forward to putting her through the stress of separating her from her kitten.
Any advice appreciated, sorry if this was long winded and disorganized.