In-home Pregnant Feral

[CharlotteK]

I recently trapped and brought in four cats that were living under a covered loveseat on my patio. I originally thought that I had a mom and kitten under there and my intention was to get them both fixed and vaccinated, return the mom to my yard and keep or adopt out the kitten. Well, I ended trapping mom, kitten and two other cats - lynx point siamese that appear to be siblings which may or may not be from mom. After closer inspection we noticed that mom has a bulging belly and we suspect that she's pregnant. We have a large enclosure set up for them in my home office (closed off for just them right now as I have three cats of my own). They have been indoors for about three weeks now and all but the mom are slowly warming up to us. The kitten and the lynx points have an appointment this week to be spayed/neutered. I'm thinking that if mom is visibly pregnant then she must be pretty far along. Is that a reasonable assumption? If that is the case, I don't feel comfortable having the kittens aborted that late in the pregnancy and we intend to keep her and the new kittens until they are old enough to be adopted out. Mom is pretty feral and I don't see her warming up to us so we would let her go back outside and continue to care for her if she hangs around. My question is, should I separate mom and the new kittens (when they arrive) away from the other three cats or would it be okay to keep them together in one room? They have clearly been living together as a family. We intend to continue working on socializing the other three so that they can have a permanent indoor home with either us or someone else. I'm wondering if it would be more stressful for mom for us to be continuously coming into the room to interact with the other cats or for her to be separated from the three cats that are her family? Is there a danger to the kittens to be in a room with the three other cats? Do cats raise kittens as a community? Thanks for any advice. I've had cats most of my life (most of them rescues), but have never dealt with kittens.

 

[nurseangel]

That's a tough one. We had two feral cats that had kittens in our neighborhood at the same time. Everyone assumed they were ours, since they know we love cats. The cats did eventually bring the kittens to us. One mom was totally feral and unable to be tamed. The other warmed up to us, so she was probably a stray. Anyway, the feral mom's kittens were larger, so I think they were about two-three weeks older. Sadly, she disappeared, leaving the stray mom to take care of ten kittens. (They had been switching off with kitten care, which I learned from my aunt who bred Persians was fairly common.) We were fortunate to have a non-kill rescue to help us out, and we ended up keeping the stray mom and four of the kittens.

The kittens that look Siamese may very well be part of the litter. We had only two boys in the litter, one who looked like a snowshoe and the other who looked like a Siamese. Both with beautiful blue eyes. They may have had different fathers (they were the largest of the group) or there may have been a recessive gene.

I would do what the mom cat seems most comfortable with. If she is okay keeping her kittens with the others, that might be best, since she is used to them. The others won't really raise the kittens as a community, but they might accept them. Mom will likely be very protective of her newborn kittens. If she seems stressed out by the arrangement, then you can always change the living quarters for one group.

Bless you for taking this cat and kittens in. You don't know how much I admire you.

 

[Margot Lane]

You might be inspired by the recent thread “pregnant stray, mucas plug.” Sounds as if you are going through similar issues. Were it me, I’d definitely give mom and the kittens initial space if you can, esp. if you don’t know if they have fleas, FIP, worms, or whatever (perhaps you know that already).

 

[Norachan]

I think the mother cat will need her own space while she has very young kittens. Colony cats do all live together, but the mothers keep their kittens well hidden for the first 4 to 6 weeks. If you don't have a lot of space a large crate would do. Have you seen any of Kitten Lady's videos? This one might be a good one to watch.

 

[CharlotteK]

I think the mother cat will need her own space while she has very young kittens. Colony cats do all live together, but the mothers keep their kittens well hidden for the first 4 to 6 weeks. If you don't have a lot of space a large crate would do. Have you seen any of Kitten Lady's videos? This one might be a good one to watch.

Thanks! I didn't know that they kept them hidden. That's great information to know.
Yes, I did watch that video and it was very helpful. I'll be taking some of her tips to set up a space for mom. One of the challenges that I have is that she has set herself up on the third level of the cat enclosure and only comes out at night - we have a camera set up to monitor them. We're going to try a couple of different "nesting" setups in the room - one as a sort of annex on the ground level of the enclosure and the other in a large dog crate in the room - and see if she will choose one of those. Last night she was very grumpy towards the two young adult cats, striking out at them when they would come near her. The three go to vet on Thursday to get fixed and such, that might be the ideal time to separate them.

 

[CharlotteK]

That's a tough one. We had two feral cats that had kittens in our neighborhood at the same time. Everyone assumed they were ours, since they know we love cats. The cats did eventually bring the kittens to us. One mom was totally feral and unable to be tamed. The other warmed up to us, so she was probably a stray. Anyway, the feral mom's kittens were larger, so I think they were about two-three weeks older. Sadly, she disappeared, leaving the stray mom to take care of ten kittens. (They had been switching off with kitten care, which I learned from my aunt who bred Persians was fairly common.) We were fortunate to have a non-kill rescue to help us out, and we ended up keeping the stray mom and four of the kittens.

The kittens that look Siamese may very well be part of the litter. We had only two boys in the litter, one who looked like a snowshoe and the other who looked like a Siamese. Both with beautiful blue eyes. They may have had different fathers (they were the largest of the group) or there may have been a recessive gene.

I would do what the mom cat seems most comfortable with. If she is okay keeping her kittens with the others, that might be best, since she is used to them. The others won't really raise the kittens as a community, but they might accept them. Mom will likely be very protective of her newborn kittens. If she seems stressed out by the arrangement, then you can always change the living quarters for one group.

Bless you for taking this cat and kittens in. You don't know how much I admire you.

Thank you! Yes, I took on a bit more than I planned on and there are times that I wish that they hadn't decided to take up residence on my patio, but I'm glad that I'm able to help them out. Thankfully, I have my 18 year old son helping me out (he's like a cat whisperer) and it's been a good learning and bonding experience for us both.

 

[nurseangel]

I agree with the advice above. Moms do like to have their spaces alone with the kittens, even if they just have a nice box with soft bedding. If they are kept in the house, a plain carboard box will do. I totally forgot that my cats (both stray and feral) didn't bring their kittens up until they had their eyes open. Marble had smaller kittens, but maybe by some mutual cat agreement both litters arrived on our carport the same day. My biggest concerns were foxes and coyotes. I am glad you have options with yours to consider. DH went all out building sturdy wooden crates on our carport, places that had escape spaces cut in the sides if the need arose.

 

[Norachan]

Last night she was very grumpy towards the two young adult cats, striking out at them when they would come near her. The three go to vet on Thursday to get fixed and such, that might be the ideal time to separate them.

That sounds like a good plan. They do get very grumpy when they are pregnant. Their instincts tell them to drive off their older kittens as they may be a threat to the newborns. The mother cats I've had usually go back to being friendly with their former buddies once their kittens are weaned and they've been spayed.

Keep us posted, hope everything goes well.