Is this madness

[PuddinAforeDinner]

Apologies in advance if I am posting this in the wrong place.

Bit of background.

We live in a rural area but do have neighbours. Our neighbour has 3 cats that were adopted as kittens from a feral cat that roams around. These kittens are now about a year old and have been neutered, vaccinated etc.

On Sunday my DH was in the garden and noticed a kitten with its mother on our neighbours shed roof. As I had some cat food available I gave it to the kitten and mother which was eaten at great speed. Two days passed and no sign of them but today they are back. I have given them more food which they have eaten again.

Both my DH and I have said we are happy to take both in as our own but the problem is we have two Springer Spaniels who have a fairly high prey drive and like to chase birds/small furies etc. Are we mad to even consider this?

I can't really comment on taking them on permanently with your dogs, as you know your dogs better than anyone else does.

However, whatever you decide to do, you really have to do something to get them both neutered. Is the mother friendly? Would you be able to pick her up? How old do you think the kitten is? If you are sure there is only one kitten, then try to catch them both and get them neutered. If the kitten isn't old enough to do then you will need to either keep feeding them until it's old enough, or find a rescue to take them in. And of course if you feel you can take them in yourself, then great. But doing nothing really isn't an option. Otherwise there will either soon be a colony of feral cats, or the cat will keep giving birth and the kittens will be eaten by foxes, which may have happened to the others from the litter.

If you can't catch them then contact your local rescue to come and trap them.

Thank you for your response thecatneuterer.

Don't worry we are not going to leave it like this.

Neighbour tried to catch mum cat last year so he could take her to be neutered but she is very feral and won't go near anyone. Unfortunately she ran away and wasn't seen again until she turned up with this new kitten (only one). He now has a cage/trap so he can catch her.

As for how old the kitten is, we don't know. He/she is eating solid food but still suckling from mum . Does anyone know how long a kitten will suckle for and when it is safe to separate them (so we can catch mum). Also, how long after a litter is it safe to leave her as we don't want her having more kittens.

Ooh that sounds encouraging Toughasoldboots, thanks.

It's safe to separate them probably at about six weeks, but of course normally later is better, but not in this case as you don't want mum getting pregnant again, which she can do more or less straight away. Normally the easiest way to catch a mother cat is to put the kitten in the trap, so she has to go in to get it.

She can get pregnant again straight away oh no. So really she needs to be caught ASAP, although we don't know how old the kitten is but I assume he/she is at least six weeks as he is eating solids. Is the fact that he/she is still suckling from Mum a problem?

Sorry for all the questions but its a long time since I had a kitten and even then it was at least eight weeks old.