Litter of kittens under my shed

Bulmers

Hi All

Just looking for some advice here what's best to do, came home from hols to find 3 kittens under our shed in the back garden, very small so reckon 3-4 weeks old.

Do people generally call RSPCA to take them? Mother is still around and feeding them, fed her tonite but not sure what's best to do, if RSPCA take them, will they be put down? Taking them in is not an option,we're away from home alot with work so be too much hassle.

On the other hand,. they're wild animals, we live near fields and countryside and have seen our fair share of mice and rats around, they could survive themselves. There is no cat problem in the area but on the other hand this is how they probably start?

What do people reckon is best to do?

cheers

MoonDancer256

Best bet would be to contact a local cat rescue and see about getting them trapped. If the mother is wild she would be spayed and released, but the kittens are most likely young enough to be made friendly and into pets.

If they're all left out, they'll grow up, get pregnant themselves young, and the feral cat colony will slowly but surely grow. For one thing mummy cat will keep breeding. Once any male kittens grow up, mummy cat might end up pregnant by her own offspring, and it's all downhill from there really.

If there's a rescue willing to help trap them, it's best. Worth enquiring about anyway!

star-pants

Well leaving her out some food and water is probably a good thing, as she will need her strength. Contact your local shelter / see if they would take them in, and if not would they know any local place that would. Moondancer has pretty much said it

Bulmers

I'll contact local cat and dog shelter and see what they say..hopefully they can take them..

fed them on the deck just now, so cute and the kittens coming closer now but hopefully if they can he taken in they can be homed.

In D15 aswell if anyone reading this is interested, or if anyone knows of someone looking for some young kittens!..

tks

The Sweeper

Re the wild animals / rats and mice thing

Feral kittens lead horrible lives. They are infested with worms and often fleas. These are not infestations they can rid themselves of. They will often suffer from terribly painful conjunctival infections, and eye ailments are highly contagious so they'll pass them back and forth repeatedly like an unwanted Christmas present.

The females will have their first heat from 16 weeks onwards and produce a litter around six to eight months of age. This litter will stunt their growth, as they do not have access to sufficient nutrition to feed themselves and the litter. (Cats do not reach their fully mature size until two years of age.) They will suckle the litter, but usually fall pregnant again by the time the kittens are between six and eight weeks of age.

The male kittens are destined to a life of roaming and fighting as intact tom cats. The fighting brings with it a high risk of open wounds, infection and abscesses; plus various other contagious cat diseases including feline aids.

Cat colonies also have problems with the coronavirus, and if unlucky the virus can mutate causing FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitis), which is 100% fatal all of the time, and leads to the cat dying a distressing and uncomfortable death. (There is nothing a vet can do for FIP except make the cat more comfortable and put it to sleep when the time comes.)

If that wasn't enough, all roaming cats are at a high risk of injury and death from vehicles on the roads and from people who do not like cats.

The upshot is this - no matter how cute a 10 week old feral kitten seems, he or she is suffering from uncomfortable bloat from worms and probably also annoying itching from fleas, along with a feeling of persistent hunger (lack of food plus worm infestation).

Most of them won't live past three years, some will get to five years, very, very few will get past that.

A well-cared-for domestic cat can live 18 years or more.

So the upshot is that even if the RSPCA or another organisation take on these kittens and put them to sleep, at least they've been humanely euthanised. The best case scenario is they'll take them on and neuter the mother and neuter and rehome the kittens.

If you leave them in your yard, they will simply breed and breed - because that's how you offset a short life expectancy: cats breed like rabbits.

Regarding the kittens' ages, check their eye colour. If it's blue, they're under five weeks. Their eyes change from blue to whatever green or yellow they'll carry in their adult life when they're about 4-5 weeks old.

Bulmers

called a cat shelter today so basically it costs eur25 to get rid of a kitten and 50 for a cat so to get these guys taken away looking at 125 and can only come in 10 days time.

No choice really, from the post above doesn't seem leaving them wild is a good option, so will feed them between now and then and see if i can find them a home before they're taken away to be put down.

Ref giving these type of wild kittens as pets, can them become good pets, or does it take a bit of time to tame them? They are very jumpy and will just about come to the door for food.

I might have someone who is looking for a kitten but they're an older person and just wondering would these type of pet be suitable?

joyce2009

tell me you are not handing them over to be put down..surly you can get them to a Cat Rescue where they will be socalised and rehomed,,they are quite young and will be easily tamed with a bit of handling and time...And their poor mother will be nutered saving her from attacks from tom cats and unnessasary pregnasies,,,please make a few more phone calls and save theses poor cats

Bulmers

i called 3 places who told me they were full and dont take any in. Called 2 in Dublin and got same reply, both told me to call cat home who said they will take them but they will be put down, what can i do, we will try to get homes for them, as i said i might have one.

We can keep an animal, jobs wont allow it at moment, both travel alot during week for a few days at a time.

If anyone has anyother recs, please let me know, i dont want them to be put down but the place is starting to fill up with cats, there is another kitten somewhere else in a field beside our house, can hear it in the evening.

Not nice i know but what can you do.

The Sweeper

Regarding whether they can be tamed, the simple upshot is that virtually ALL feral cats can be tamed and socialised to one degree or another - it just depends on the persistence of the tamer and the environment the cat is in.

Small kittens can very much be socialised - they're bound to be a little hissy at this age, and they may well be like tiny hissing, buzzing toilet brushes when you approach them. With handling and socialisation, they will indeed grow out of that. It's important that they are not separated from their mother too early though - and if they are, they must go to someone who has experience socialising young kittens. The problem with early separation at 5-6 weeks is that the kittens lose out on a lot of 'manners' training that they would get from their siblings and their mother, and they can, as a result, be quite free with claws and biting. This can lead to an 'unpleasant' cat - through no fault of its own - and owners can end up feeling less invested in their cat and may not be willing to spend money to have it neutered, wormed, vaccinated etc.

Other options rather than euthanasia in a controlled environment by a cat rescue organisation:

1) Establishing a neuter colony. This means you neuter every one of the cats and re-release them onto your property. The pros are that the neuter colony will establish a territory and keep other cats out. The colony will also not increase dramatically in size because they are neutered. The cons are that cats attract other cats, so you WILL get a couple of other cats that drop by because the news that's there's food travels. You will also have to neuter those. The largest con is, of course, that it's going to be extremely expensive to neuter this many cats. The idea is that you neuter and re-release, feed them but accept that they are a wild colony. You may also decide to bring them to the vet for euthanasia if they are injured, as opposed to taking on the expense of further veterinary care. You will also need to find a vet willing to take on early neutering - difficult in Ireland, where vets like to neuter at around six months (in spite of the fact that often a female cat will throw a first litter before this age).

2) Rehome them. You will need to form a fairly firm commitment to the cats from this point because you will need to capture them and start to socialise them before finding homes for them. It's also not really addressing the feral cat problem - thousands of "free to a good home" kittens are euthanised as adult cats every year, because the people who take them on may not neuter them, and it's going to be difficult for you to give a cat away with the condition that the new owner spends the money to neuter the cat asap.

3) Try every cat organisation, RSPCA rescue shelter and potential temporary home for them in your county and every adjoining county around you. Some of these shelters WILL PUT THE CATS TO SLEEP.

4) Go around every last one of your neighbours and see if anybody will guitily own up to owning the mother cat. This would be excellent, because you can then return the problem right back to the original owner.

Something that the poster joyce2009 may not realise is just how massive the unwanted, feral and roaming cat population is in Ireland.

Cats breed like rabbits. There are hundreds of kittens in shelters around Ireland and they're the lucky few, but even homing them is difficult. The Irish attitude to the cat is still very, very bad - they're outdoor, unfriendly, not really a pet; why would you spend that much money on vet bills, so on, so forth.

Cats are seriously hard done by and have a bad image - as anyone who owns a cat and has really invested time and effort in them will tell you. People buy a cat as a low-maintenance pet, when in fact it's a pet that will return precisely what you put into it.

Until that attitude changes, the "poor cats" living under your shed are just a drop in the ocean. Do you know, say, 100 people who want a kitten? Because that's what you're asking some of the shelters to find, every year - and on a deadline too, because some people just want a kitten, meaning 8-10 weeks and no older. Could you find 100 people in the next two weeks to take a kitten? And that you can be guaranteed to mind it properly, to have it neutered and vaccinated, to worm it appropriately based on its age and weight, to stop it from roaming at night?

"Take it to a shelter" is fine and dandy if you can find one that will take it. Sometimes the best bet is to go to your vet and say "Can you put these to sleep?" in the hope that the practice will be so scandalised by your callousness that they'll make an effort themselves to rehome the cats!

Jules

Bulmers, if you would agree to trap her and drop her to the vets i work in and then release her when you live and feed her and make sure she is ok, then i will spay her for you foc. Once she is spayed you wont have any problems with her. As for the kittens we always have people lookign for them, let them stay with her for another few weeks till they can eat by themselves and i will help you rehome them. But we will have to work together. If you get intouch with a vets in your local area or a resuce they shoudl lone you a trap if you cant get one, well i can arrange one but you would have to come to tallaght and get it. pm if you want help!

Kaldorn

Jules would you be able to spay a female cat i have coming to my house at present...i dont want kittens all over the place..she is under 6 months old and every tom in the neighbourhood is sniffing around her..she just started to hang around my house..she is VERY friendly..

Bulmers

put pics of these kittens in the rehoming thread if anyone wants one or knows of someone who might.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055626371&page=6

hadook

Bulmers - Jules has offered to spay the mother and help you rehome the kittens so you don't need to have them taken away to be put down.

If you bring the mother to be spayed she can be released here with my other not-so-tame cats. I'm already feeding a few of them, one more won't make a difference. :rolleyes:

Bulmers

I pm'd Jules but heard nothing back. I'm going to try to get the mother spayed anyway and she can stay around here, dont mind feeding her. I'll call local vets tomorrow and see what they say. Tks for the offer.