I just returned from a short vacation during which I went to different parts of Arizona to view wonderful spring wild flowers. Before that, my life was a treadmill because on top of my normally busy schedule, I spent time trapping a trap-wise feral momma and her three kittens. This is the first time I needed to separate kittens from the mother. It would not have been difficult except for getting conflicting advice from my fellow rescuers. Some said I should separate the kittens right away (they were about 3 wks old then) for bottle feeding. Others, including a vet tech, said it was better to let kittens nurse from momma until ready to be weaned. So I went with the vet tech's advice (also felt right intuitively). However, a few days after I had momma trapped and transferred into a holding cage with her kittens, the other faction was saying I would end up with kittens at 6-8 weeks old who would be difficult to socialize. Part of the point of this rescue was to keep the kittens from having to live the hard life of a feral. And those advising me had tons more experience than me. So I got out my thickest gloves and a few harmless kitchen utensils for grabbing the babies, and I reached into the holding cage where momma was determined to scratch my eyes out. After quite a bit of maneuvering, I finally separated the kittens from momma. All three are happily bottle feeding with the foster kitty mom now. (photo of one is above). And momma feral got spayed and returned to her home territory. Now the kittens have the best chance of having forever homes as domesticated sweeties. And momma feral won't have to struggle with more litters. Yippee!
By the way, I used my drop trap to catch momma who had been eluding capture by the pro volunteers here for quite some time. If any of you want to learn about drop traps, here is a link to the demo video - see on the panel to the left "build your own" for directions to do so.
10 comments:
Hurrah and congratulations! Fabulous--just fabulous. Kudos! I'm so glad the mom is spayed now, no more unwanted babies. And the little ones, even though taken away young, will be able to be well-socialized with humans. Good job; well done!
BTW, all my cats are shelter adoptees. One, Nicki, was found as a feral kitten when he was between 8 to 10 weeks (approx.). He was fostered and is the biggest purr boy, *very* affectionate (though not a lap cat). So he turned out just fine, even though he was older when found. Mind you, he does try to escape my "cat-proof" back yard, which apparently isn't Nicki-proof. So he has a bit of the wildness in him, I think. :-)
Thank you for looking out for them, you're one of my favorite special humans!
Another bit of classy work there Deb! Well done! It's always a hard call to make when kittens are so young, but I think you did brilliantly getting them over to bottle feeding (love the picture too - sweet kitten trousers spread out aww!) They will have each other so cat socialisation won't be an issue either. We're a fan of the Drop trap Design Bank!
WW
PS: Pilchards are another name for big sardines!
I greatly admire the work you do. It must have been a hard choice to make. I would have been feeling forry for the mama kitty grieving for her babies. It was the right thing to do I guess. The three babies will be socialized now. I hope they find forever homes.
Iris
great job with the trapping!! and please don't feel too bad about the mama cat.. she will be fine and her babies are in good hands with you. mama cat would eventually have told her babies to go away anyway.. :(
We are so thankful that these animals have you watching over them! :)
Yay! Great work!
We're glad that the babies are okay and will have good lives!
Charlemagne and Tamar
Okay, so I'm still reading backwards but I got to run. Just wanted to say, I'm pretty certain, after tons of research I've done, that this was the right thing to do. I DO NOT like separating any animals from their mom either, but I also know that kittens mainly get socialized between weeks 2-7 therefore, according to your goal, you did the right thing. Plus they're all thriving by now and that proves it.
Twinkie
Against most advice, I socialized about a 4 month old cat. Once I caught it, I immediately took it to the Humane Society in PGH. to be neutered or spayed...didn't know what sex it was. The Humane Society has a ferel clinic and charge $25 or $45 depending on the sex. They also checked for feline lukemia and gave it a rabies shot.
I built a 3W X 6L X 4H pen for it that day in my garage. It was just a wild animal hissing and in its self-protection mode.
I began to talk to it and spend more time in my garage than I wanted to. Fortunately, I have an antique car in the garage, so the car got a lot of attention too. My wife and other 2 cats complained.
I introduced toys immediately. I was most successful with a tail-like thing on a long stick. I could start touching it with the stick when I did not dare to get that close. The day I began to think there was hope was the day it swatted at the tail...that was about 2 weeks into the socialization process.
I easily spent 2 hours a night with it and more on weekends for the next 4 weeks. I never forced it to do anything, not eat, not play & I never tried to touch it with my hand...it was on it's own timetable.
Long story short...7 weeks into the socialization process and it comes to me and rolls-over to be brushed. I let my cats come into the garage and check it out for a couple of weeks recently & then this past weekend, I let them all be together in the basement. After some initial hissing and growling by MY cats, they are peacefully co-existing. The cat is still tentative, but it will be able to live with us.
I don't think this would have worked without a huge time committment. Had I just left it in the pen and fed it, I think I'd still just have a wild animal. So, I guess I'd encourage those who have the time and committment to take-on a ferel cat.
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