Found a litter in hotel grounds

[laineylou]

I work in a small hotel in the country - we seem to have a litter of kittens in our back garden (where guests don't go).

Mum is with them - so what do we do? Apart from adopt all of them...

Get them all inside somewhere safe if you can and then phone CPL or a local rescue.

Unless the hotel is minded to adopt them?

Where in the country are you? Anywhere near Essex, Sussex or Hastings? Or Liverpool?

If not then call Cats Protection or indeed your local rescue.

Feed the mum and try to work out if she's friendly. If she is can you take them all somewhere to keep them safe until a rescue can take them? The kittens are at risk from foxes while they're outside. And there is also the risk the Mum will move them on and you won't find them.

I'd leave them, and try and socialise them?
Then get them neutered.

Maybe there is a grain store nearby, or rodents because of the hotel waste disposals.

Why call in the troops to sort it.
Are there not enough cats without space to roam, in shelters?

Feed the mother, catch the kittens and socialise them, and have them all neutered. But why involve the shelters? Or am I missing something?

I know my aunty always has barn cats to keep mice and rats down - having kittens where there is food and space for them isn't a disaster.

venus its probably better for this poster to find out first iof mom is friendly she may not be a feral cat she may be a dumped cos shes pregnant cat which means she wouldnt have the skills to fend for herself and a foster home and rehoming would be better for her than being at the mercy of her kittens being killed by a fox, and if she is a feral then trapping her neutering her and releasing her back and taming up and rehoming the kittens would still be kinder than her having litter after litter of kittens, please laineylou call the cpl they are the people who know what to do with stray cats outside with kittens but dont ring the RSPCA they are crap

Venus, a lot of females are dumped when they get pregnant and don't have the skills to raise a litter in the wild. It's how my old girl came to us, she had kittens in a nearby shed and I was feeding her. After a few weeks she moved herself and the kittens in, she had no ability to care for them alone as she was obviously used to regular meals and people to mind her.

Feeding mom so she had the energy to care for the kittens is a good first step. If she's friendly and the hotel is willing to keep them on you should move them somewhere more secure, if not then ring a cat charity to help.

Venus - leaving them, whether tame or feral, absolutely is a disaster. If left then the kittens (if they managed to survive and didn't die from flea anaemia or being killed by foxes) would be feral. Then the only way to stop a colony forming would be to call in a specialist rescue skilled in trapping. Trapping a colony is a very, very difficult and time-consuming business. Much, much better all round to get the kittens while they are still little so they can be socialised and not go on to breed themselves.

And in case you're wondering if that itself would be so bad - cats can have two litters of around four or five kittens a year. Once the kittens are five months old they two can have kittens. If a female cat was to mate every time she came into season, and all her kittens were to survive and breed, then there could be up to 21,000 extra cats in just 7 years.

The dog and cat population can either be humanely controlled by neutering or left to nature. Nature is cruel, however, and the population will be controlled by starvation and disease since there are no natural predators of the cat or dog in the UK. The most likely scenario however would be a situation seen by many holidaymakers in some countries - starving colonies of sick animals which are killed by the authorities to contain numbers - a situation most people in this country would find intolerable.

So OP, please ignore what Venus said and try to help this mother and kittens.

Any update laineylou?

Please, dont go all crazy on me!!!
I wasn't suggesting leaving them unnuetered! Just to socialise them, neuter them and leave them where they are.

I was saying that there may well be a source of food, ie of rodents, for these cats to eat. The OP is in the countryside.

Ok if the mother is an abandoned cat, then by all means rehouse her, but who would dump a pregnant cat - that's just terrible. Do people do that?

My experience of feral / barn cats is that they are necessary if there is a grain store nearby to keep the rodent pop down. They aren't pets, but are fed and neutered, and some are socialised (ie they will tolerate some contact).

Yes Venus, unfortunately its very common for people not to realise a cat can get pregnant at 4/5/6 months old so they don't neuter in time. Then when the cat is visibly pregnant they dump it in the countryside somewhere. So a young female who has lived in a house all her life and has no hunting skills or basic self preservation ends up trying to survive in the wild whilst heavily pregnant.

One of my girls was one such. Luckily for her she was dumped near my garden and I took her in but many don't find safe places, give birth in entirely unsuitable locations, can't feed themselves well enough to sustain a litter, the litter dies and a few weeks later they're pregnant again. Next time round they may be better providers if they survive long enough and some kittens will survive, they can keep having litters up to 3 times a year. The life expectancy of a breeding feral female is about 3 years, in which time she can produce over 30 offspring who all go on the breed as well.

Unfortunately being crazy is in my job description (crazy cat lady:) ). And yes, pregnant cats are dumped all the time.

And it doesn't work like that. You can't socialise kittens while they are living wild. They would become feral and then incredibly difficult to trap and neuter. Also the mothers rarely stay in the same place for long as they normally routinely move their kittens when small. So unless you act immediately the chances are you won't be able to find them anyway.

I really hope the OP has done something ...