I have been feeding this stray cat for a few months now and for the past few weeks she has a growing belly. Yesterday morning when I went to feed her I noticed that there were 2 other strays that went for her plate and she walked away following me. I went and split the meal in two and walked away with (Pinky's) portion. I stood there and waited for her to finish while also keeping the others away. She watched me to make sure I wasn't leaving too... lol. This concerns me and Im thinking about taking her in.. Well allowing here to live on my 2nd floor patio. I have 2 cats of my own and Im not comfortable with introducing the stray into the house. Im sure shes not vaccinated. My questions are... Is hat ok? Will she try to jump off the patio? Or should I leave her outside until shes farther along? Shes clearly attached to me. I find her by my stairs waiting on me when I get home every day around 8am and if im late I can meow a bit and she will find me
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Pregnant stray cat.. take in or not?
- Thread starter sugafoot
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Welcome to TCS! Thank you for caring for those kitties. Miss Pinky sounds like she is a lost or discarded kitty - frequently, unspayed females get chased out of familiar territory by overaggressive males & dogs and find themselves permanently lost.Would your patio offer adequate climate control? Would you be able to screen off the balcony? It is possible to makeshift a cat-proof barrier using flag holders, doweling and bird-proof netting.
If you can prevent weather exposure and falls, the kitty is definitely better off with you. For starters, she needs high quality kitten food which has more calcium (hypocalcemia is a grave danger to pregnant & nursing cats. Hypocalcemic cats can die during birthing or shortly after the kittens are born).
Is there a TNR group in your area who might help you to TNR the other cats in the yard? It is easier when you have support and it definitely "turns off the faucet" for the overflow of cat population (70%+ of ferals don't make it to 1yo).
Thanks again for helping that kitty!
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Thank you Catsknowme for replying. Well I thought I had it all figured out. I have Mosquito type nets up on my patio that came from Home Depot but for awhile its had a small sized gap at the bottom. My personal 2 cats have never tried to jump from there but I under estimated a new guest. We caught her around 8am this morning in the cat carrying tray and brought her up to the patio after we cleaned and rearranged things. As we watched her eat on the patio and explore she did jump off after she ate. We did go after her and watched her for awhile and she seemed her normal self. Of course no idea about her growing kittens inside her. So I did do some extra barricading after that and will try again this morning. Around 10pm today when my son took out the trash he spotted her at the bottom of my stairs just waiting there, so we gave her the normal feeding, hard food and ice water that she can come back to after the ice melted. We watched her eat a bit and then she just sat there with us. I headed off to work.
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My concern is they need testing and vetting before bringing them around your cats.
This is reminding of my past adventure. Cat I was taking care of outside was very friendly and had kittens. I couldn't take her in and could not find a rescue to adopt her. At 5 weeks old someone unknown took one of her kittens. I suggest taking her in and getting the other cats fixed. Soon after she had another litter. I feel so bad about it but it's hard when you don't have much money and cannot drive much
