I swear, every time I think I’m getting into the groove of caring for ferals/TNR I get a new challenge. We had one female feral that we had been unable to trap and I knew she was pregnant but didn’t think she was super close to her due date. Last Tuesday morning I went out to feed the other ferals (her bro and sisters who I have TNR) and I heard a loud newborn mewling. We have a carrier on our deck, as well as several
Warmed houses and an insulated house. The carrier was on our deck couch. I look down and there is a newborn kitten right outside the carrier screeching. I was so shocked. No experience with newborns here! Before, the mamas would go off and have their litters in the woods and then come back for food, and ultimately bring their kittens around too-and we’d try to TNR (or we kept a few…). I gently placed the kitten back in the carrier (I immediately saw mama in there) and zipped it up and took it inside. Staying outside in that spot would’ve been a disaster—grad central station for all of the other ferals, plus opossums and raccoons roll thru at night, plus if my kids are out playing…I knew it wasn’t good. And of course I was thinking if I can get her and babies now…then I already have them when it’s spay time! I will not have to do 6 more trapping attempts (which I am really really bad at). Brought her upstairs to our top floor bathroom, which is quiet and I can keep my other house cats off of the whole floor. Put the carrier in bathtub layered with towels, quickly set up some food/water and litter for mama, grabbed one of our nest cameras and put it up so I can see them, and then left and freaked out about my having 5 newborns and a feral unexpectedly. Mama is remarkably calm and loving with us. She trusted me enough before to get petted and played with when she came up to our house for food,
but was always the more ‘feral’ and skittish of her litter, so I was worried she would freak out once inside. So far she loves getting attention and wants our affection. She ate some food and used the litter the first day. I’ve been offering her mother/baby cat wet food, kitten wet and dry food, and some non-kitten wet food that I know she liked from outdoors. Second day she wasn’t coming out to eat so I put a dish right next to her in the carrier. She scarfed it up. Now she wants that all the time—she’ll eat fairly well if I put it right next to her, but the food I leave outside the carrier gets ignored. That’s frustrating as it means I'm spending a decent amount of time up in the bathroom. But, so be it. I turned the A/c off to that floor, so room temp is around 70-75. She was spending much of her time with the kittens in the carrier, so I felt like they had her body heat. In the past 2 days though she leaves them fairly often and hangs out in other parts of the bathroom. She does go back in to
nurse, but im worried about their body temps. They sleep all piled together. I bought one of those microwaveable pet heating discs and have put that in the carrier but the kittens don’t tend to stay on it. I also have one of those k&h brand pet electric warming pads — it’s big enough that it would fill up the whole carrier and I know you want to leave some ‘unwarmed space’ so I would have to rig it half hanging out. Should I do that at this point since she’s leaving them — often for an hour at a time?
And finally a question about kitten weight and feeding—I ordered a newborn kitten scale online so I could weigh them. I can see them nursing, but I know gaining enough weight is vital. I got the scale Sat, weighed them yesterday and today, and the smallest only gained 7 grams. The other 4 gained only 1 or 2 grams-they were already ahead of the smallest by 10-15 grams. I don’t know their birth weights as I didn’t have the scale until day 4. I did purchase KMR and a hand-feeding kit just in case. Do I need to supplement these babies starting now? Their weights are between 170-186 grams today and they are 6 days old. Will supplementing mean they start to refuse mamas breast? I’m having flashbacks to my nicu son who had to be bottle supplemented and never got back on the breast…
mama has been eating a little less the past day and a half. She had been eating 1.5-2 cans 3x/day for a couple
of days, but yesterday and so far today has been eating less—maybe 1/2 can 3 times a day plus some small amount of dry food/treats. She is drinking water and using the litterbox—but maybe 1-2 poops a day max.
definitely most concerned with whether or not I need to pull out that KMR and learn how to bottle feed today!
Thank you for reading all of this—this is not how I thought I’d be spending the next couple of months but I know I’m her best chance right now and I’m certainly not going to let her down!
Warmed houses and an insulated house. The carrier was on our deck couch. I look down and there is a newborn kitten right outside the carrier screeching. I was so shocked. No experience with newborns here! Before, the mamas would go off and have their litters in the woods and then come back for food, and ultimately bring their kittens around too-and we’d try to TNR (or we kept a few…). I gently placed the kitten back in the carrier (I immediately saw mama in there) and zipped it up and took it inside. Staying outside in that spot would’ve been a disaster—grad central station for all of the other ferals, plus opossums and raccoons roll thru at night, plus if my kids are out playing…I knew it wasn’t good. And of course I was thinking if I can get her and babies now…then I already have them when it’s spay time! I will not have to do 6 more trapping attempts (which I am really really bad at). Brought her upstairs to our top floor bathroom, which is quiet and I can keep my other house cats off of the whole floor. Put the carrier in bathtub layered with towels, quickly set up some food/water and litter for mama, grabbed one of our nest cameras and put it up so I can see them, and then left and freaked out about my having 5 newborns and a feral unexpectedly. Mama is remarkably calm and loving with us. She trusted me enough before to get petted and played with when she came up to our house for food,
but was always the more ‘feral’ and skittish of her litter, so I was worried she would freak out once inside. So far she loves getting attention and wants our affection. She ate some food and used the litter the first day. I’ve been offering her mother/baby cat wet food, kitten wet and dry food, and some non-kitten wet food that I know she liked from outdoors. Second day she wasn’t coming out to eat so I put a dish right next to her in the carrier. She scarfed it up. Now she wants that all the time—she’ll eat fairly well if I put it right next to her, but the food I leave outside the carrier gets ignored. That’s frustrating as it means I'm spending a decent amount of time up in the bathroom. But, so be it. I turned the A/c off to that floor, so room temp is around 70-75. She was spending much of her time with the kittens in the carrier, so I felt like they had her body heat. In the past 2 days though she leaves them fairly often and hangs out in other parts of the bathroom. She does go back in to
nurse, but im worried about their body temps. They sleep all piled together. I bought one of those microwaveable pet heating discs and have put that in the carrier but the kittens don’t tend to stay on it. I also have one of those k&h brand pet electric warming pads — it’s big enough that it would fill up the whole carrier and I know you want to leave some ‘unwarmed space’ so I would have to rig it half hanging out. Should I do that at this point since she’s leaving them — often for an hour at a time?
And finally a question about kitten weight and feeding—I ordered a newborn kitten scale online so I could weigh them. I can see them nursing, but I know gaining enough weight is vital. I got the scale Sat, weighed them yesterday and today, and the smallest only gained 7 grams. The other 4 gained only 1 or 2 grams-they were already ahead of the smallest by 10-15 grams. I don’t know their birth weights as I didn’t have the scale until day 4. I did purchase KMR and a hand-feeding kit just in case. Do I need to supplement these babies starting now? Their weights are between 170-186 grams today and they are 6 days old. Will supplementing mean they start to refuse mamas breast? I’m having flashbacks to my nicu son who had to be bottle supplemented and never got back on the breast…
mama has been eating a little less the past day and a half. She had been eating 1.5-2 cans 3x/day for a couple
of days, but yesterday and so far today has been eating less—maybe 1/2 can 3 times a day plus some small amount of dry food/treats. She is drinking water and using the litterbox—but maybe 1-2 poops a day max.
definitely most concerned with whether or not I need to pull out that KMR and learn how to bottle feed today!
Thank you for reading all of this—this is not how I thought I’d be spending the next couple of months but I know I’m her best chance right now and I’m certainly not going to let her down!