Rescuing Feral Kitten In Bangkok

[BangkokKittens]

A lot of us have indoor/outdoor cats. If you think they would be happier with some outdoor access you could keep the safe room as your cat room, where they can come back for food and to sleep, and let them go out. It's usually safer to let the out in the morning and keep them in at night.

They can be spayed and neutered at 3 months, if your vet is willing to do it at that age. If your vet wants to wait until 6 months then they should be kept indoors until then.

Tom cats don't usually bother with spayed and neutered cats. The best thing you could do is get neutered too. Do you think you have any chance of trapping him?

He looks like he would break out of the trap in a rage and come after me!

Interestingly, I watched him walk by a few times, including last night when I was trying to trap the final kitten and had food all over the trap room. He will never go in there as far as I can tell. Which is fine because I wouldn't trap him in the room. The trap is big.

But I could just leave the trap out on the porch and put food in it to see if he would go in and take it. I bet he would eventually. The mother and kittens all go in happily. I have put food in there many times and disabled the latch, so they now think nothing of it. I never have had to use that trap on them, but did want to get them used to it in case I did. Below are a few photos of her eating in a trap that I set last night when I thought I had only caught three of the four kittens.

He is reasonably overt in his approach and must come through frequently. I don't think I could try to watch the trap and use the bottle approach, so would have to set it. Actually by tomcat standards, he isn't huge, but he is ugly.

I'd have to give him a couple thousand dollars in plastic surgery before he could reasonably serve as a pet. His entire neck seems to be exposed scar tissue.

Once I get the kittens dealt with I will consider working on him. Has anyone else ever neutered a big old street wise tom cat? What do they do when they are neutered. It seems that their entire existence is pursuing females and terrorizing other males. I guess they just sit around get fat and reflect.

I would be happy to keep the kitten gang as indoor outdoor cats. My neighborhood is safe and I would be OK leaving a window open if it wasn't for mosquitos. Maybe I need to find a cat door.

 

[dahli6]

Our big daddy cat is a big surly fellow. I haven't seen him hurt any kittens but he does fight with rivals and chases off "undesirable" females. He has left the neuters alone.

 

[BangkokKittens]

Here is a quick but positive update.

The kittens and Mom seemed to have completely rebuilt the maternal bond, I suspect partially supported by her breaking them out and leading them all over town a few days ago.

Since they have been back I have notice that the relationship seemed to look more like it did before I trapped them, with her seeming like the leader and center of attention as well as actions such as mock-biting them and pushing them down with her paws (no claws).

I also observed that although they often hide when I am around, but when I looked through the KittyCam, I started to see them all run back to her when I left the room.

But then this morning, for the first time in a month, I saw the two smaller ones nursing. They had been spending a lot of time close to her, so I suspect this is not the first time. Although I have no evidence, I am guessing that when they were all out of the house and they got hungry, she reintroduced milk. So far, I have only seen the two smaller ones nursing although the others stick close by.

I don't know if this says anything about age. I have been thinking they are three months plus. They were all nursing pretty solidly a month ago when I trapped them, but them stopped as they no longer recognized her. They have been eating solid food for 6-7 weeks.

Below are photos of the two nursing, while two others sit nearby and the pose she has adopted to let them know she is in business.

In general, I suspect that she is an ally in socialization as she shows no fear of me and still enjoyed serious petting, which they witness. However, they are still general stand-offish. There is one that we call bold, who frequently gets close, allows petting and completely accepts being picked top by the nape of its neck and moved around. He (it is a he) will crawl all over me with no fear and will eat food comfortably from a spoon or my hand. One other will eat from a spoon and I can occasionally touch it, but it hasn't showed any joy from petting. The others are more skittish and I can't really touch them.

They will all eagerly play (if the mood is right) with toys and things.

 

[Norachan]

Once I get the kittens dealt with I will consider working on him. Has anyone else ever neutered a big old street wise tom cat? What do they do when they are neutered. It seems that their entire existence is pursuing females and terrorizing other males. I guess they just sit around get fat and reflect.

Yes! Gin Kun, the one in my banner below, had lived as a feral cat for at least ten years before I had him neutered. When he first showed up he was a skinny, battle torn tom who used to beat the snot out of the younger un-neutered males in the colony. One of his ears had been torn half off and was stuck to the top of his head in a big scab and he had infected cat bites on his hips and back legs. He was a real mess!

I started feeding him and managed to trap him after while. I think he must have been someone else's feral before mine because he was quite friendly towards me. I got him neutered, had his ear sewn up and some essential dental work done and was given antibiotics to mix in his food to deal with his infections. It took a few months for him to calm down and heal up, but once he was healthy he seemed much happier.

It took over a year before I could get him to stay indoors, but he was worth the effort. He was the sweetest natured cat ever. He never once sprayed indoors and had endless patience with the younger rescue kittens I took in after him. Here he is hugging Toby, a very rambunctious young male.

Sadly Gin isn't with us any more. He went out one day and never came back. I don't know what happened to him, but he was about 15 years old and FIV positive, as most older tom cats seem to be, so I guess he must have passed away.

I still miss that old boy.

If you can get your tom cat neutered you'll be making his life a lot easier. All intact toms seem to do is fight and father more kittens. That's why they're always so battered and skinny. There's a lot to be said for spending your later years getting fat and reflecting.

 

[dahli6]

I have cats over a year old who will nurse if another cat is willing to let them.

 

[BangkokKittens]

I have one more question for everyone. The kittens (and Mom) seem to be doing super well in every regard, but one: they seem to have developed a lasting collective case of diarrhea.

For the last two or three days every deposit that I find in the litter seems to be soft and gooey. In every other regard they seem fine.

I don't really want to trap them all and ship them off to the vet if this is typical and temporary, but at the same time don't want to ignore a problem that could hurt them.

Their behavior seems to be normal, they eat, sleep and play normally and everything else seems fine. If I didn't see the evidence in the litter, I would think nothing was wrong.

Any ideas on what I should do?

Thanks

 

[Norachan]

Have they been treated for worms? That's the most obvious cause of runny poop. You can buy little squeeze bottles of liquid to apply to the back of their necks to treat worms. Profender is a good one.

Try mixing some plain canned pumpkin in with their wet food to settle their stomachs. You need about one tablespoon of pumpkin per cat. Most cats really like the taste of pumpkin and eat the food mixed with it without any trouble.

 

[dahli6]

I agree, probably parasites.