Orphaned Kitten

August 5, 2005 2:20 PM

So I recently found an orphan kitten in the backyard that is about 5 weeks old and i just saw the mother looking for her kitten a little while ago. i'm not sure if she is feral or just a neighborhood cat, and i feel terrible about keeping the kitten from her. but at the same time. if she is feral, i'd feel bad about contributing another feral cat to the community, or worse the kitten wouldn't survive. any advice is more then welcome!
posted by rabbitmoon to pets & animals (14 comments total)

Going on the assumption that you want to keep the kitten or bring it to the Animal Rescue League:

Don't release the kitten. You're right to keep it captive. Have it spayed or give it to people who will. Preventing this kitten from being feral is probably going to prevent the birth of still more feral cats whose lives will be nasty, brutish and short.

That little kitten will be much happier warm, clean, safe and innoculated in someone's home. Even if it hurts her momma a little bit right now. But momma will get over it-- feral cats lose lots of babies and not in the good way that you're contributing.

Thank you for doing this.
posted by Mayor Curley at 2:30 PM on August 5, 2005

If the kitten indeed belongs to the mother cat you have seen ... it is likely she has other kittens. I'd suggest canvassing the neighborhood, if possible, to determine if the mother cat belongs to someone. If so, they are likely up-in-arms with worry, seeking the kitten.

If, however, the cat and kitten are feral, you might consider keeping the kitten. I was faced with this choice last year after a kitten had fallen off of the roof of a friend's building onto his second-floor deck. We considered reuniting the kitten with her mother, but realized that she had a better future in being a house cat. She's been a darling every since.

BTW - after this past winter's thaw, what my friend believes to be the mother cat was found dead in the snow drift on his back deck.
posted by ericb at 2:31 PM on August 5, 2005

Keep the kitten. If you reunited her with the mother cat, it would just mean one more stray cat making babies within a few months.

I took in an abandoned mother cat. She had gotten pregnant in her first heat cycle (around 4 months), had the kittens and then gotten pregnant again. This cat was less than one year old and she had already created at least eight more cats.

Also, I'm not sure what happened to her kittens, because the jerks who owned her just left her on our porch, but she never showed any kind of neurosis because she had been parted from them.

The only issue problem I can see from this is that your kitten may have socialization issues because she effectively had no littermates. Cats learn boundaries through rough-housing with their sibs. Cats that don't may have boundary issues (excessive biting and/or scratching) with their owners. I know because I have a cat who has this problem. Related discussion here.
posted by Sully6 at 2:38 PM on August 5, 2005

Last summer we took in one kitten, then its two siblings when they showed up a week later. Last winter momcat showed up living in our garage, so in -10F weather we took her in too. With the two we already had, it has been crowded but fun.

None of these cats, however, are having any more kittens.

I would NOT put the kitten out, but don't take in the mom unless you're sure she doesn't have other kittens out there. If you do end up taking her in, you can take both to the animal rescue people if necessary.
posted by words1 at 2:45 PM on August 5, 2005

A kitten separated from its mother at five weeks is a bit early but if you can feed it ok then it should survive; it may have some separation issues as an adult though. Our cat (which was also separated too soon) is fixated on small pink dots, and at eight years old still tries to suckle them.
posted by anadem at 3:05 PM on August 5, 2005

Feeding tip, if she's too young for dry cat food: mash dry kitten kibble up with some warm water and let her lick it off your fingers. She'll love you forever.
posted by salad spork at 4:29 PM on August 5, 2005

Try to trap momma or call a local agency to look for other kittens and trap them as well. Sometimes the SPCA does this, or knows of other private agencies ot solo people who do it. A firend of mine traps moms and kitties and gets them adopted by hook or by crook. I would call her but she is away-- either way, contact 10th Lives or look on the web.
If you remind me, say email me this week, I will ask her my friend how to go about looking for the kitties and trapping momma.
posted by oflinkey at 8:38 PM on August 5, 2005

ditto on "trap neuter return" approach - it's a way to only minorly interrupt a cat's life but keep it from reproducing and adding to the feral cat problem.
posted by radioamy at 9:30 PM on August 5, 2005

Right, as radioamy said, she does neuter/release some of the older moms and the males she gets. She herself has 8 or 10 cats, ome with FIV, and an intensely complicated system for letting the positive ones out in the house while keeping the neg kitties in another room. Sainted woman.
posted by oflinkey at 9:32 PM on August 5, 2005

hello and thanks for your feedback! i tried to get the mother to bring her for the free spay/neuter program at the local spca, but she wouldn't let me get within 10 ft of her. i haven't seen her since this morning, and even then it had been a week before i saw her last.

i decided to keep the kitten and will make sure it gets its vaccines, dewormer and flea/lice checkup.

again, thanks!
posted by rabbitmoon at 10:21 PM on August 5, 2005

Rabbitmoon, may you have extra parking karma for the rest of the kitten's life.
posted by rdc at 11:28 PM on August 5, 2005

Post Pix!
posted by By The Grace of God at 7:20 AM on August 6, 2005

>i decided to keep the kitten

Five weeks can be a big young to be fully weaned -- if it's not eating solid food well, an excellent supplement (better than store-bought kitten formula in my experience) is canned goat's milk from the grocery store, slightly diluted (1 part water to 4 parts goat's milk).

Check with your vet to be sure, but you should be looking at vaccinating soon, and again at 16 weeks...

Good luck!
posted by nonliteral at 12:26 PM on August 6, 2005

ack... 'big young' should be 'bit young"
posted by nonliteral at 12:27 PM on August 6, 2005