Advice on momma cat with kittens?

jenn1984

Hi Folks

We have been feeding a stray (we think) female cat regularly and had a feeling that she was pregnant. Last weekend (9 days ago) she decided to have her 3 kittens in our kitchen so we have been looking after momma/kittens ever since. Since yesterday she has started to hide the kittens and is making motions like she wants outside for a wander. Any advice on what to do? We only have a neutered male cat so have never been through this before.

Thanks,
Jennifer

intheclouds

What are your plans for her and the kittens going forward?

I would not let her out with the kittens in case she hides them somewhere outside and then just disappears off again. Its not safe outside for kittens regardless - they are babies and wouldnt know to hide from a dog or a person etc..

If you are planning on taking care of her (and rehoming the kittens) try to keep them all in for the next few weeks and speak to your vet about getting mammy neutered and then see about rehoming the kittens - generally when they start taking solid food they are good to be taken away from mammy (about 8 weeks usually) - and this is a good time to get her neutered also. She will need a couple of weeks recovery (away from the kittens) after it.

jenn1984

Our plan is to hold onto momma/kittens until they are old enough to be separated. We'll then get momma cat neutered and let her back outside and have kittens re-homed. She's not actually trying to take the kittens outside, she hides the kittens in a corner of the kitchen and then tries to get outside on her own.

intheclouds

jenn1984 wrote: »

Our plan is to hold onto momma/kittens until they are old enough to be separated. We'll then get momma cat neutered and let her back outside and have kittens re-homed. She's not actually trying to take the kittens outside, she hides the kittens in a corner of the kitchen and then tries to get outside on her own.

Oh ok, so she is just hiding them so she can go off for a bit. They generally do that when they are looking for food (I mean in the case of a cat who has kittens outdoors), so it could be there is some nutrient she needs missing - I would ask the vet whats best to feed a nursing mammy cat?

Are you going to release Mammy cat back outside to fend for herself or will you continue to feed her?

jenn1984

We'll keep her with the kittens until they're old enough to be seperated. Then we'll get mammy cat fixed and probably go back to feeding her everyday but keeping her as an outdoor cat (we live in a rural area). Decided against letting her out for a wander as apparently they can get pregnant again a week after giving birth.

jenn1984

intheclouds wrote: »

Oh ok, so she is just hiding them so she can go off for a bit. They generally do that when they are looking for food (I mean in the case of a cat who has kittens outdoors), so it could be there is some nutrient she needs missing - I would ask the vet whats best to feed a nursing mammy cat?

Are you going to release Mammy cat back outside to fend for herself or will you continue to feed her?

We're feeding mammy cat wet cat food along with bits of chicken and a regular supply of milk. Just looked it up and apparently you're supposed to feed the mammy cat kitten food so I'll give that a shot.

intheclouds

A week!!! I thought it was within a week of weaning! Yikes - best to keep her in alright!

Oh yes, kitten food - we fed our girl kitten food when we found her in the bin sheds with kittens and she WOLFED it down!!

You know that now she has experience of indoors she will be in for cuddles and comfort and you will be her slave

jenn1984

intheclouds wrote: »

A week!!! I thought it was within a week of weaning! Yikes - best to keep her in alright!

Oh yes, kitten food - we fed our girl kitten food when we found her in the bin sheds with kittens and she WOLFED it down!!

You know that now she has experience of indoors she will be in for cuddles and comfort and you will be her slave

I know!! She's definitely going to get used to being treated like a 'Queen'. She has a wee friend that hangs around with her who we think is her grown up daughter (our male cat possibly fathered her before he was neutered), the poor thing is having a hard time being separated from Mum - even though we let her in to see her every day. Kittens are 9 days old now, getting really big - ears opened but eyes still closed. We're guessing 6 weeks for weaning the kittens?

intheclouds

jenn1984 wrote: »

We're guessing 6 weeks for weaning the kittens?

When we found our girl the kittens eyes were still blue but changed over the next week so we reckoned they were about 6 weeks when we first came across them.

She had already started weaning them and when we produced bags of kitten food she would eat and if they put their heads in alongside she would growl at them and make them wait til she was done. But they could and would eat the kitten food.

The "capture and neuter" operation took us about 10 days to get organised, and another week to get all the kittens off the street. But when she went in for neutering she did still have milk, so they werent fully weaned by 8 weeks or so - but enough to be separated from her and survive.