Anyone know how long a kitten can be kept away from a colony before returning?

[moxiewild]

We trapped two feral kittens around 6 weeks old. It took us another two weeks to trap their two other siblings, so they were about 8 weeks old then.

The first two socialized wonderfully, and we already have homes lined up for both once we have them spayed/vaccinated/chipped.

But the two we caught last are simply not coming around AT ALL.

Many of you will know that this is not my first rodeo. But with that experience has come the knowledge that even some kittens simply don’t have good predispositions for becoming adoptable.

This wasn’t much of an issue for us before because we had room in our home to take in the ones who didn’t come around well enough, but we are now beyond maxed out. If we fail to make them adoptable, we are completely screwed.

And they are too old and unsocialized for local rescues to take them. They absolutely will not do it, I’ve been through this countless times before when I didn’t have the time or space to socialize older kittens.

I have done everything I can for these two. One still will not even eat within 3 feet of me after nearly 3 weeks now and is just completely terrified (I wouldn’t be concerned if this happened with an adult, but it’s concerning for a kitten).

The other one is better, but she has still been failing to progress nonetheless. I can rarely pet her when she eats, but we can’t seem to get past that. I also can’t contain either in a burrito to be a bit more forceful with interactions.

We just trapped two kittens from another litter who are 12 weeks old, and I’ve literally already made more progress with those two in less than a week than this other pair from the first litter - and we even had much less contact with this second litter than the first litter prior to trapping. This is definitely a genetic predisposition thing in my opinion.

They are about 11 weeks old now. We can get them in for spays this Thursday and give them a few days of recovery before returning them, but at that point, they will have been away from the colony for 4 weeks, and I have no clue how good the memory of kittens this age are.

Will they remember the colony if we return them? Or is returning them too risky for their safety? Anyone have any input here?

 

[Norachan]

Hi moxiewild Are the kittens all kept together? You might have more luck socializing the wilder two if you can separate them from their other siblings. I know space and tine are an issue for you, but very spicy kittens sometimes do better if they are alone and only have their care-givers to interact with.

What is the situation with the colony? Are they in a relatively safe area? Do you feed them regularly?

 

[moxiewild]

Yeah, we can’t sufficiently separate them due to lack of space, though I’m going to try something new tomorrow and see if it works to help better separate them on the space we fo

The colony is somewhat safe.

There is a busy road and highway nearby, but the cats don’t tend to leave the woods they’re in and venture out to the busy road unless I’ve withheld food for trapping (we only have one more cat to trap in this colony and he’s pretty well trap trained, so we won’t even need to withhold food for him). I’ve never seen any of them out by the highway.

There are no coyotes, bobcats, etc. There are neighbors with dogs who are occasionally out in their yards though. And I’ve never noticed any, but there could be birds of prey around - however, most of the area has tree cover, and areas that don’t have tree cover still have grass that is knee to hip high, so they aren’t completely exposed. There are also raccoons, which will be a potential (if relatively unlikely) threat to them for a few more months.

But there are no other predators around aside from that.

That said… we usually take two weeks to work with kittens to decide whether they are a good candidate for socialization or not, and the morning after I decided to return these two after their surgeries, a kitten from another litter (a week older than this one) suddenly disappeared. That’s essentially why I held off and decided to try to keep working with them.

I am hoping that was a fluke, because we’ve never lost a kitten there before. The other kittens in the litter were still safe too. We just trapped them a few days ago.

Otherwise, yes, the colony is well managed. Food and water provided daily, and shelters are around for them. The colony also gets along well, and their mom will be returned to the colony about a week before they would be. She’s recovering from her spay with us right now.

 

[Norachan]

I haven't had any experience of returning feral kittens to a colony, but I do know that adult cats have a remarkable long memory when it comes to returning to a place they've lived before. I had a cat when I was a kid that would come to my grandparents house with us every summer, and I had a college cat that came home with me several times a year too. They both seemed to know exactly where they were as soon as they got back.

How do they get along with their mother? Is she still interested in mothering them, or does she hiss at them now? If they get along well and could all be released together it might make it a bit easier on the kittens.

If you're going to the colony to feed daily you could start taking along a bit of their used cat litter and sprinkling it around so the kittens smell gets established in the area before they are released.

Fingers crossed that the last chance to socialize them works out, but if it doesn't it sounds like you've done everything possible to give them the best chance in life.