Neighbours kittens

[ShadowsShadowsEverywhere]

We've recently had new neighbours move in next door. Towards the end of last week two kittens appeared in their garden, I'm not sure whether they'd just got them or had been keeping them inside for a few days.
One of the kittens kept popping its head over our fence and watching DCs playing.

Yesterday when I went to take the bins out the same kitten was sat on my path mewing. As soon as she saw the open door she was in the house. I ushered her out the back door, but she spent the rest of yesterday coming back in, or playing with the DCs toys in the garden. Every time something made her jump she ran to me and hid under my long skirt! By about 6.30 she was clearly hungry, had jumped up and eaten some scraps in my kitchen and drank DSs milk, so I shooed her back out the front door where I'd found her as she just didn't seem to want to go over the fence back to her own garden.

She was v v thin and seemed confused about where home was. Yesterday she was coming in the windows from the garden and mewing a lot. What do I do if she comes back today? It's obviously more interesting here as neighbours are out most of the day and we are home from lunchtime onwards most days and have a garden full of toys and balls etc which she spent hours playing with yesterday. I'm worried about how thin she looked but don't know a lot about cats or kittens so don't know how normal that is. Any advice would be v much appreciated!

Thanks for that hugo, bit late now eh?

OP, beware though as some cats really don't get on with other cats. Cats mainly like human company, some are great with others, some not so much... I have 3 and they generally get on okay now, but when I brought her (cat hater) home, it was like a war.

I had got her from Gumtree when I was 19 and DP and I were living together for the first time (cat less at the time as my other 2 were at home), we just wanted a cat that would mind it's own business, so we weren't bothered when we were told about her personality (violent, unfriendly etc), they said they were rehoming as they were worried she was going to attack their 2yo. Got to the house and the victim toddler was running around chasing her, trying to grab her, she was terrified, they said after 2 years, she still didn't know her name. :(

She was very violent, would attack if you were in the same room, depressed, un neutered, skinny, missing teeth and most of her whiskers, big slit in her ear. It wasn't good.

She is now the fluffiest, lovey cat ever unless you are a cat she is a total lapcat and learned her new name in less than 2 weeks and out of my 3, is the best with my 2 toddlers! She is lovely.

I guess what I am trying to say is, taking on a cat from a not great background can be brilliant, but it can be a long hard road trying to get them back to their former self. If you take on a rescue that seems like a bad case, it might not be a good idea to try and introduce more kitties in very soon.

Anyway, good luck OP with whatever you do, I know whatever kitty/s you get will have a lovely home. :)

Here's mines here.

Shadows I would want to take the little brown kitten too, I would switch into "rescue" mode & think that if I could at least get one kitten out of there, it would be a good thing

However I don't have any knowledge of cat rescues/prolific breeding so thecatneuterer or issey6cats would have wiser thoughts on the practicalities of the situation I expect.

Main issues would be if she had any underlying health conditions either from inbreeding or from not being dewormed/defleaed but if the shelter has said their vet would check her, that would be very helpful.

If you don't take her they may breed from her I suppose or sadly they may dispose of her somehow if they think she is surplus to requirements & won't sell.

Reporting the "breeder" - if you do this I would definitely do it anonymously. Are they giving you the kitten for free? If any money is to change hands make sure it is cash (so not traceable back to you)

It can be quite fine to have little kids and a young kitten, I found & took in a tiny stray last year with some trepidation because of my small children - we had elderly cats at the time who were wise enough to keep well out of the way of the children - but in fact it has been ok (a very simplified survival guide is to make sure that the kitten has at least one bolthole to get away from children if it wants to, and never leave the kitten & children unsupervised together)

Lots for you to think about over the weekend I am sure

Keep us posted

I couldn't sleep at night knowing I was leaving that kitten there. I would take her. Then report them.

the kids are away this weekend so if I get her on Sunday I can have a good look at her. If she is riddled with fleas would I be able to tell and is there anything I could do until monday when I could get her to the vets? Its funny that most concern is about fleas and worms, my immediate concern was FIV.

Im with Pipbin, the more I think about that house the more I feel I cant leave her there. Half the cats in rescue probably come from backgrounds similar to this, theyve just been vetted, cleaned, treated and sorted out. I can get her all that care via the shelter and the vets up the road, she certainly wouldnt be flea and worm riddled forever.

Might be hard to spot actual fleas as she has dark fur but if you have a flea comb you could give her a comb with it and if there are any black specks like dirt, she probably has fleas (can put the flea dirt on a piece of damp kitchen roll & it will leave red stains as it is dried blood from bites)

You might catch actual fleas in the comb but they are very fast-moving & jump off! A bit of Vaseline smeared on the comb before you start will stick them to it and then you can kill them (I wiped them off the comb into a handful of loo roll & flushed them down the loo)

My little stray was absolutely crawling with them, I had to give him a bath in the end to get rid of the hangers-on.

Very young kittens are too small for the "spot-on" types of flea treatment, I had to take mine to the vet who sprayed him with Frontline spray (only available at vets as far as I know)

You can get a flea comb, and give her a bath just with baby shampoo. When you immerse her body, the fleas will go to her head as they are trying not to drown. All the fleas will be in her head area.

An assistant would be a help, one to hold the cat and one to get flea.

I wish I had a kitten to bathe.

Also remembered - From memory I think they have to be 1kg before they can have spot-on treatments (but it might be even heavier than that). My kit was 700g and about 7 wks old (although he was skin & bone and absolutely starving, so could have been a bit older) so the little brown kit may be well under 1kg if small for her age

ooh ok, flea comb sounds like a must buy, i assume pet shop will have them. what about a bed. The boys just curled up around the house but if shes timid and flea covered should I be buying/making a bed of sorts? box and blanket? big cushion and fleece blanket?

also how the fuck does one bath a cat? surely that leads to being scratched to death??

Ive also heard that a tealight in a bowl of washing up liquid is v good for catching fleas. You leave it overnight on the floor and the fleas are attracted to the warmth and dive in. In the morning you supposedly find loads floating in the bowl!

Fleece is fine, easy to wash too.

Fleas can be fatal to young kittens hence all the concern. Don't bother with any over the counter flea treatments. You need the stuff on prescription, but you can buy it cheaply online with a private prescription off a vet.

If she is a little undersized thing it should be ok to bath her, honestly. At 7 wks I could hold my kitten in one hand and wash him with the other, he protested but was too small to do me any damage. I didn't need anyone else to help, although it wasn't very nice seeing him scared of the water and desperate to get away. There's no way I could do it now though, he is a year old and a big strong cat. I used the bathroom sink (keep the door shut in case of escape bids, and have a big fluffy towel ready)

If she's bigger, a tip I was given was to put cat into pillowcase with head sticking out, hold pillowcase closed at the cat's neck & then bath the cat - it will be harder to escape from a pillow case (I have to say I never got round to trying this so I can't tell you if it works!)

I probably wouldn't bother with a special cat bed, the first few nights I put the kitten in the cat carrier with a fleece blanket, as I thought he might like to feel enclosed/secure, he now sleeps in quite a few spots including cardboard boxes, armchairs, my bed, the understairs cupboard...I think he would ignore anything else!

We have a real problem with shelters being full around here, I have 2 friends who foster and theyve had 40 kittens in the last 12 weeks.

How old should kittens be before they leave their mother?

Ok back up ... bathing the cat. how much water, how warm, how much baby shampoo in water or do you put that directly on cat? what do you do, stand them in water and wash or immerse them (obv keeping head clear). then what? Hair dryer/towel/washing line? Its baffling, I thought the only animal you could bath was a dog!

I dont know about how old to leave mothers. Ive tracked down some of the breeders ads and she lists them at 11/12 weeks. Doesnt charge much either, poor things. £20 for a cat, thats cheaper than some of my chickens!

Do you have a freestanding shower cubicle? On the rare occasions I've needed to thoroughly wash one of my cats, I've found the best way is to put the shower on (turn it down a little from what you'd be comfortable with) and sit in the cubicle with the cat, door closed and shower head next to you. You can gently wash the cat without having to hold on for fear of it escaping, rinse it thoroughly with the shower and I've found it seems to be the calmest, least scratchy way!!

unfortunately no, but shes small enough I could hold her with one hand. 14 weeks is around 3 months isnt it? She seemed so small compared to the boys who were 4 months. She would have to almost triple in size to be as big as them in a months time.

I am not hugely experienced with bathing cats but for little kittens - I put warm water (comfortably warm, not lukewarm and not hot) in the bathroom sink, not too deep (didn't want him to go right under the water). One old towel on floor by sink (to stop me slipping over in any spills!), one fluffy towel for drying kitten. I tried putting shampoo directly onto the cat but that ended up with a big gloop of foam in one place and it was hard to move it around so if there is ever a next time I would probably dilute a bit of shampoo down in some warm water beforehand and I think it would then be easier to massage in quickly. I held him in one hand and kind of scooped water over him with the other, rather than immersing him. Also scooped water up in a jug and rinsed him off. Trying to get it done quickly for all of our sakes! Once all the shampoo was well rinsed off I dried him with a towel, he was still a bit damp afterwards so I kept the house warm, sat with him on my lap to give him some body heat and he started to lick himself dry, I think a hairdryer would have scared him witless (he was found curled up under my car bonnet after I'd dropped it off for an MOT, so he was a bit sensitive to loud engine-type noises!)
Wouldn't recommend drying on washing lines

unfortunately no, but shes small enough I could hold her with one hand. 14 weeks is around 3 months isnt it? She seemed so small compared to the boys who were 4 months. She would have to almost triple in size to be as big as them in a months time.

www.ycspca.org/images/Kitten.jpg this is about the size she was, and these are ten week old kittens.

xposts, thanks for bath info timtam, that sounds vaguely doable!

Next question is food, if shes been underfed do I overfeed to compensate or stick to two pouches and dry food in between?

Cant stop thinking about that house tonight. All those tiny kittens milling about, they were so small they were all wobbly legged. Something he said had been going round my head too. The grandmother cat they got as a kitten. She was named after a character from a kids film which came out a few years ago. So for her to become a grandmother thats an awful lot of kittens in a very short space of time.

Does the breeder have any contact details for you? If you call the RSPCA would she know it was you.
You've got little to lose going back to get the kitten from her. Give him a loving home.

I've just seen the boys. Went to put bins away and did next doors as it was in the road where ex will need to park to pick up kids today. Turned around and they were sat in the kitchen window ears up miaowing at me and scrabbling at the window. They looked ok, maybe a tad thin, but hard to tell. They still recognise me though, and wanted to be able to get out. I didn't dare go up to the window incase neighbours were in there. Made me cry walking away with them miaowing and scrabbling. At least we now know they are still in there. That's something.

I think I would contact cats protection, just tell them about the holiday and that they are now at the window again and you don't know how they are being treated.

I'm having a major wobble about the kitten tomorrow having seen the boys. Think I need to sit down and have a real think about what I do about everything, from kittens at that house, to boys next door to all my other life problems ATM. Could really do with thecatneuterers input re the kitten - what potential problems could I have if I take her in terms of health or issues from inbreeding etc.

Brilliant that you've seen the boys! I agree... Quick call to cats protection, if nothing else they might be able to tell you that there's nothing wrong with them. That's something.