Advice On Wild Mother And Kittens

[samanthaddm]

I've done a lot of rescue work, but I have never been in this situation. I've had a wild mother cat recently show up. I've been trying to earn her trust, I can tell she's scared and not feral. Well, she brought her 3 kittens to my house Sunday morning. I set my traps and they outsmarted everything. Kittens look to between 4-6 weeks from how close I could get. They were chowing down on the solid food I put out.

Well, I set my traps once again yesterday, but have not seen them since Sunday night. I have seen mama cat even this morning. Most all of my rescues have been boys, and the very few females I've dealt with have been fairly tame. So I just am not familiar with mother cat behavior. My aunt who also does rescue thinks she could have moved them. I hope this is the case and she will bring them back, cause I want to get this little family vetted and fixed. What are other people's experiences with wild mother cats?

 

[surya]

Sounds like she moved them. She probably did not move them far away, since you are feeding her. So keep observing her and maybe you can see where she is going and find the nest.

 

[samanthaddm]

I suspect that is what happened - when I got home last night, they were back. I did manage to trap 2. The third hasn't shown back up since all the commotion of trapping the others last night. Mama is quite mad at me. I left them out in a large secure carrier where she can still see them and hopefully will lure number 3 back. I hope that is ok. She seemed to calm down when she saw them out there and that they were ok. Hopefully, we'll get number 3 and mama today and everyone will be off to the vet.

 

[surya]

I try to catch all the babies first and then use the babies as bait for the mom cat. Here is a video that shows how:

 

[samanthaddm]

That's what I'm hoping will work. After catching the first two, I'm leaning more towards 6-8 weeks old. They're eyes have already changed and they have no problem with the kitten dry food I gave them. Keep you fingers crossed for me!

Love Hannah and all her work by the way!

 

[surya]

Fingers crossed!