Kitten Searching

LOTTOWINNER

A little help please, about 5 months ago a stray cat started to frequent my garden looking for food, she was very nervous and she would just snatch the food and run off, as time went on she became alot tamer and at the moment she will allow you to pet her, she will invite herself into the house and is generally quite friendly, but she still is alittle nervous if she can't see an escape route when she comes into the house. I also built her a small house which she used to sleep in.
Well, 5 weeks and 5 days ago she had kitten(s) she hid them (she vacated her house at this point) and I only found her new "house" last week, it's a bit like a cave/burrow and very difficult to access (for a human not for a cat!) Using a torch I have only seen one black kittten.
Now to the problem, it was my understanding that 6 weeks after giving birth she could get pregnant again (which I don't want) so I was going to get her doctored, but I don't want her to leave the kitten on his/her own while she is under the knife, how long will it take her to recover from the OP? and how long will the kitten be OK on it's own.
The mother cat seems very protective of her family and has attacked my neighbours dog when he came to close, she spends alot of time with the kitten(s) so this is why I'm concerned. The only way I can get the kitten out would be to dig it out, which I would prefer not too.

Any suggestions?

are you serious

Have you gotten anywhere near the kitten at any point?? I would try when mother is not around to catch the kitten and bring it into your house... then when mother comes back catch her, get the job done and have her rested while the kitten gets socialised with humans(you)

You could improvise a catch stick, if you use a peice of rope make a loop through the end hole of your map/sweeping brush, lower it down the tunnell loop around little kittens neck to catch and pull it out to you safely without having to dig it out... (thats if you get what i'm saying)

other than that, dspca will prob be your only way around this problem!

LOTTOWINNER

Thank you for your reply garkane, I think I'll try and entice the kitten out with food, her lair is surrounded with nettles and thorn brushes and I just noticed today that there's a bee's nest a bit too close for comfort! If I manage to retreive this little black kitten, I'm going to call it Bin Laden.

Pebbie

Hi lottowinner, a female cat after having kittens should be spayed at about 7 to 8 weeks (this gives the kittens time to be weaned). If you can entice her in to the house and get her into a cat carrier and take her to the vets, then go and get the kittens, do not go near any of the kittens until you have her first, make sure you check to see if the kittens are in the same place as you last saw before getting the mammy cat, also if you touch the kittens before you have the mother cat, she could either reject them or if it's a thing you dont catch her and she gets scared she might run away and not come back and leave the kittens to fend for themselves. You say she takes the food and runs, chances are she is semi feral or maybe even feral, if so you will need to get someone who is experienced in humanely trapping cats and get her to a vets to be fixed and you could even bring the kittens for a check up also.

dan_d

Hi OP, I had a slightly similar problem just 2 days ago - we found 3 feral kittens around the side of our house. I won't go into the details, but we ended up contacting the SPCA, and they told us to leave the kittens with the mother as she will become very distressed if they are taken away (and vice versa).

They also said it's unlikely we'll able to catch the mother without help. So if I were you, I'd ring your vet and ask them do they have any numbers for a shelter or the SPCA, who will be able to advise your further. There's probably more than one kitten in there too. But I wouldn't try to do it by yourself - we did and it just didn't work.

serenacat

Good for you OP helping the cat, its not to hear and great that you are willing to pay to get her neutered after wards.