Spaying Mother of Kittens

lmahoney79

Not sure if anyone can offer any advice on this but ill throw it out anyway. Bascially, there is a feral cat (kind of semi-feral) that we have been feeding the last year, then she had kittens. She moved away from our house with them then came back with them about a month ago. Now, kittens are 10 weeks old and we have the Mum booked in to be spayed on Thursday. The thing is, what do we do with the kittens when we bring Mum to get done as Mum will need to be kept inside for a few nights to recover. Also, we had planned on trapping the kittens in our bathroom for a few nights to try and socialise them with the view to re-homing them, otherwise we will have 3 more cats on our hands which we dont want....So...bascially, we are trying to catch the kittens to get them used to humans and at the same time, catch the mum to get her neutered but need to keep mum and kittens seperate after her operation! phew......hope this makes sense!

MsFifers

First - well done to you for taking on all that responsibility! Its very kind of you to look after all those little animals!

I think you could probably keep the kittens & Mum altogether after the first day. I'm sure they're not suckling any more at 10 weeks. I was surprised at how quickly my girl cat recovered from her op - she was leaping about no problem after a few hours so hopefully your cat will be fine with her kittens nearby. Your vet may have the cat in a collar - but I found there was no need for one. My cat gave her wound a few licks but didn't keep going at the stitches. You'll have see how your cat reacts and make a judgement.

Are the kittens completely feral? I'm just afraid that a few days in your bathroom isn't going to tame them completely if thats the case! You may need to plan for a longer term socialisation - although at 10 weeks they are probably still have that cute "adoptable" look. You would probably find it easier to get them adopted now before they get much bigger. Get photos up on irishanimals & in your local vets etc asap, I'd say.

I think what I'd do is keep them all together in a room like the kitchen where they will have plenty of interaction with people - put down loads of newspapers and set out a few litter boxes (you can improvise a few if you don't want to buy a box).

Best of luck with it!

nalorac

Hi, don't know if you have already found a solution but I work for a cat shelter and may be able to help. You prob know this but the mother cat can only be spayed once the kittens are weened and not before or they more than likely wont survive. If it is the case that the kittens are weened then they no longer need the mother so you don't have to keep them all together anymore, infact the mother cat will probably be happy to recuperate on her own and once she is not feeding them she will be quick with pushing them away anyhow. The sooner you catch the kittens the easier it is to tame them - depends greatly on the age of the kittens though sometimes it can take a few weeks. If you are having probs catching them, we find cooked chicken is a miracle worker.
Don't know if this helps, really great to hear your spaying the Mum, we have had over 50 kittens at the shelter this year and counting...

*oh just saw that the kittens are 10 weeks, perfectly fine to be away from the mum from 8 weeks old. Best to tame them now or bring to a friendly shelter that will rehome them. In our case if kittens definately can't be tamed we keep them till their old enough - neuter them, then release them on a nice farm for someone who wants less mice lol. Let me know if you need a local cat shelter number