Talk to me about feral kittens...

[LilaTheTiger]

We have space for a couple of kittens, I've been keeping my eye out.

A friend who is an arch animal rescuer has a friend who rescues feral cats who are often pregnant. I can have some kittens from the next rescue. I've also offered to foster mum if needs doing.

I'm pretty experienced with animals. We have rescued dog, cat and chickens already. I once rescued a duckling, raised her and released her (miss her still!) and have raised chicks from the egg. We also have skinny hedgehogs overwintering in the shed most years.

Feral cats is new though. What do I need to think about? Possibly though less likely the pregnant mum, almost certainly two teeny wild kittens... Help!

Power is currently out due to a wind storm at TinyKittens HQ, but the livestream page has a video of the birth. There are four kittens (so far) two gingers, a tortie and a tabby - that may be all, but with no light or camera currently in the room, no one can tell...

Having rehomed a kitten born to a feral cat, I'm sorry to say it doesn't always turn out well.

The one I had was completely wild, and wouldn't respond to human contact at all.

I've had cats all my life, and am pretty experienced with felines, but this one wasn't having any of it. One day (after I'd had it a couple of weeks) it went completely mad, frothing at the mouth and literally climbing the walls, and I was bitten so badly I ended up in hospital for three days on an antibiotic drip and the doctors were worried I might lose a finger.

The rescue centre had the kitten back, and interestingly enough, it's litter mate was returned to them as well - it was untamable too. They went to live at some stables as 'outside' cats.

Another feral goves birth at TinykittensHQ...

livestream.com/tinykittens/savina

:::UPDATE:::

Our kittens will be coming home in 2 weeks!

Ooh exciting, as fosters or as pets?.

Exciting!

We have two cats born feral and socialised. The mum was spayed and released as too wild to be adopted.

I'm told the optimum window for socialising kittens is 0-12 weeks and after that it's much harder. In our case the kittens were 12 weeks ish when caught so are still very shy with strangers, despite being carefully and expertly brought out of their shell by a CPL mad cat lady nervous kitten fostering specialist. We still had to take it very slowly when we got them, and though they are soppy as anything with us now they regress very quickly if frightened.

Glad to hear your kittens are coming, OP! Please post pics when they get here!

As pets/mousers

They're feral/farm kittens, but have been getting used to human contact as the rescue lady has been going in to treat their eyes daily. We'll get them at 8.5 weeks.

How many are you to get, Lila?

Rusty

Forgive me that I didn't pick it up but is the Mommacat totally blind or just in one eye?

She's totally blind in one eye, due to scarring from a virus. The other eye has some scarring, but eyedrops 3 times a day have improved/stopped it deteriorating.

You can see her story here:

livestream.com/tinykittens/savina/videos/121790222

Skye had four kittens of her own, named on a 'sink' theme, because she spent so much of her later pregnancy in the sink - they are Kohler (US brand of sink) Belfast (UK type of sink) Farrah Faucet and Justin (after Justin Timberlake)

She is now also babysitting the mostly-weaned kittens of two other ferals who have not proved so receptive to socialisation - one has been spayed and returned to the forest colony, the other is recovering from her spay and is being kept for a while to see if she responds to socialisation when she's not having to defend her kittens.

A lovely girl - those pictures of her in the sink are compulsive viewing.

How many kits is she looking after now in total?

11 - four of her own, three from one litter and four from another.
If you're watching the livestream, Skye's are the fluffy ginger and white (Belfast), the little calico (Farrah), the very dark tabby and white (Kohler) and the tuxie with a nose stripe (Justin).
Then she has the Skaters (named after Canadian ice skaters) - the other tuxie Tessa and the two silver tabbies, Elvis and Petra.
The last litter are named for places in Fort Langley, where they are fostered - Brae is the torbie, Fraser the black, and the two ginger boys are Chas and Hudson. Chas is the one with the shorter stubby tail.

Is there to be a Rehoming Day for her?

Sorry - and/or the kits of course.

I think they already have at least one application for Skye - they are looking for a home that is prepared for Skye's particular socialisation and medical needs. The kittens will also be up for adoption after they are ready for spaying/neutering.

I'm sure she'll find a good home. She looks like a great cat.

The kittens also.

We've got feral kittens - trapped at 5 weeks and then hand reared by a volunteer for a rescue charity. They were quite shy when we got them at 13 weeks, so we sat on the floor and played with cat toys to entice them out for 2 days. They are sweet, affectionate, gentle and very intelligent cats, 5.5 months old now, who act as if we are their mother. Two of the nicest cats, I have ever known - and my parents always had 3 cats!