Help: Newbie With 2 Kittens

[feral123]

Over the past week, I have discovered that our crawl space is home to a mother and her two kittens. I've known our neighborhood had stray cats, but this is the first time I've dealt with a litter under my house.
I want to find homes for the kittens as there are a lot of cat aggressive dogs in our neighborhood and there are already so many feral/stray cats. I'd also like to look at getting mom spayed, especially since there is a local organization that helps cover the cost of spaying strays.
Now, the only problem is, mom is in no way approachable. I've given her some food because she looked quite skinny and she scarfed it down but only once I was far out of sight. She'll watch me from underneath the porch, but that is it.
Now, the kittens I can access, but I'm not sure of how to humanely catch them. Mom will leave them alone for a bit and they will come out to play. I've only seen two kittens.
Based on some research, I'm assuming they are 3-4 weeks old because I've watched them play about.

Basically, I'd love some advice on how to catch them, how to handle them once I do, and everything in between.
I've been around cats my whole life, but I've never dealt with rehabilitating feral cats/kittens.

Thanks to everyone in advance.

 

[ondine]

If they are 3-4 weeks old, they are too small to take right now, unless you want to bottle feed them. On the other hand, waiting means taking a chance they will get away or mom will get pregnant again.

You could work with the rescue and trap mom now, spaying her ASAP and getting her vaccinated. That means getting the kittens now and bottle feeding them. They will not be feral at this point, although they may not relish being handled. Bottle feeding them will guarantee they will be socialized, too. It is a lot of work - they need to be fed every 2 hours or so, around the clock.

Waiting to trap mom until the kittens are 6-7 weeks old will mean less work, although socializing them might take a bit more. I guess it depends on how much time you have and how much help you have.

Kudos to you for stepping forward here!

 

[akaLuann]

Be very careful when dealing with feral cats. They can be vicious, even as kittens. I would wait until they are at least 6 weeks old before trying to approach any of them. Let them get a little time under their belt with mom. As sad as it is, this happens everyday in every neighbor hood. If you want to do what you can, feed her a well nutrition kitten food and make sure she has plenty of fresh water every day. My nursing cat is eating at least two cups a day. See if you can shelter her and the kittens from predators. This may be difficult because she may move them several times. That's about the best advice I can give. Again, do not try to engage a feral cat with kittens. No safe.

 

[StefanZ]

Right, if momma thinks you are threatening the kittens, she may become quite vicious. Not for being unpleasant, but sheer defensively. So if you take her kittens do it when she isnt there...

Continue to feed her. Exactly what you do depends in part, if you plan to release her after the spaying (sort of TNR), or if you want to foster and socialize her IF she warms up to you.

If you are decently sure you can scoope her kittens - perhaps by wrapping them in a towel - you CAN take them now. Although it will be quite some work handraising it. Not fully as much as Ondine hints - every 2 hours is necessary with weak, sickly kittens. But healthy kittens of 3 week you can easily afford to sleep some during the night, perhaps even a full 6 hours. But better to wait till they are 5-6 weeks, easier to take care. And the fostering part is still easy. It becomes more difficult at 6 weeks, and even more difficult after 8 weeks. 8 weeks seems to be a sort of magical treshold. Socializing after it is still fully possible, but takes way more effort and time... And its probable they will remain shy to strangers. While socialized before that, they will be as any home raised cat.

Another thing is of course, while its ususlly no problem with scooping them when they are 3-4 weeks, it becomes difficult when they are 6 weeks... They become simply much more movable, and begin to be scared of humans.

OK, momma. You will probably need to catch her in a human trap. for example a Havahart trap - but there are other brands too...

If you dont do nothing, save feeding her and doing some friendly talk to her, she will probably come forward with the kittens to you when they are perhaps 6 weeks... You are after all her main food source.
At that time you will have anew next chance to find up something...

The risk is of course, she may move the whole litter, all two kittens. Scared by some predator, or scared by a clumsy try to catch her by you, or the nest got flea infested...

So its lotsa of pro and contras, and you must take a calculated risk based on your possibilities, and do what you think is best and most wise - and yet practically doable.

 

[StefanZ]

ps. There is one extra variation: to trap her and spay, and return to her babies in 24 hours. Its sometimes done. Successful ferales has a much better healing meat than home girls - the weak ones perish already as kittens, no?

This way you will safeguard there will not become more litters from her. But there are other risks with it too...

The danger you must look up with, is if you do something with her, but the kittens scared hide under the house, and you cant scope them forward. And they will not come out even driven by hunger. In that situation you will feel sorry!

 

[tabbytom]

Thank you so much for trying to save the kittens and having momma cat spayed.

Good advises from the above members.

 

[feral123]

Thank you to everyone for all of your advice! It has been very helpful.

I'm going to try and get a picture or two and maybe some video of the kittens for you all to see because, honestly, I have no experience with accurately determining a kitten's age so maybe you all could help me out there!

As far as interacting with mom, I've made sure to give her her space when she is with the babies. She'll leave the babies at times during the day and that has been when I've interacted with her the most. The babies will come out to play while she is gone, so I can watch them from a distance as well. That is how I found them in the first place.

I want to get the kittens because I want them to have a true home, so the question now is just when and how. For momma, I want to TNR. She's a gorgeous cat (solid black with a short tail, not quite a bob but not full length, and striking green eyes), but I'm nearly 100% positive she's been a stray all her life. She's super flighty and we don't have any rescue programs within a practical distance that will take such a flighty adult. I have, however, reached out to them about the kittens and, when the time is right, they are going to help me search for homes and place the kittens.

Based on what I've heard, if my guess on their age is correct, I think I'll leave them with mom for another week or two. As much as I'd love to bottle feed a kitten, I'm don't think I'm comfortable doing that as this is my first attempt at this.

I'm going to the store today to pick up some food for her (I've been giving her tuna and borrowed some food from a friend since I couldn't go the past two days). Is there any formula or brand you guys suggest?

Also, will the kittens have to have any special food when I do catch them if I wait? Or will soft kitten food be okay?

 

[feral123]

It's not the best video, but it was all I could manage today. Here is one of the babies walking.

Above is an image of the two babies. Again, not the greatest quality! Sorry about that!

I'm not sure if you'll be able to tell from the bad quality of the image and video, but if you could help me guess an age, that would be great!

 

[ondine]

They look older - I'd say between six and seven weeks. Just venturing out, so they should be starting to eat solid food soon. I'd say it was safe to trap mom now and have her spayed. Getting the kittens at this age means they will be easier to socialize,as well. And the fact that they are tipped (darker ears and tail than their bodies) is a good sign. Those types of kittens usually get adopted quickly.

I couldn't tell from the video whether they are Siamese or Snowshoe but either way, they have a good chance of being adopted. I would contact a Siamese rescue to see if they were interested.

BTW does mom have blue eyes? Many Siamese rescues will take blue-eyed cats, regardless of their markings, as blue eyes into adulthood is a Siamese trait.

 

[feral123]

They look older - I'd say between six and seven weeks. Just venturing out, so they should be starting to eat solid food soon. I'd say it was safe to trap mom now and have her spayed. Getting the kittens at this age means they will be easier to socialize,as well. And the fact that they are tipped (darker ears and tail than their bodies) is a good sign. Those types of kittens usually get adopted quickly.

I couldn't tell from the video whether they are Siamese or Snowshoe but either way, they have a good chance of being adopted. I would contact a Siamese rescue to see if they were interested.

BTW does mom have blue eyes? Many Siamese rescues will take blue-eyed cats, regardless of their markings, as blue eyes into adulthood is a Siamese trait.

Glad I asked! Thank you!

We will probably attempt to trap at some point this week, then. I'm still not sure how I will access the kittens. For the most part, they stay back in the bushes up against our house or underneath it. Any ideas there?

I don't think they are snowshoe as that baby doesn't have any white as far as I can see. I'll look into Siamese rescues, but I'm not sure I'll find any around me. Cat rescues seem to be in short supply around here.

No. Mom is solid black and has gorgeous striking green eyes.