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The litter tray

Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

Original poster

Kitten fosterers needed

81 replies

thecatneuterer · 18/10/2017 14:42

As I mentioned on Eachandeveryone's thread all cat rescues are desperate for kitten fosterers at the moment. You would need either a spare room, or a kitten pen could be put in any room really as long as there are no escape routes in it. You would then need to spend time playing with and socialising the kittens for a few weeks.

If anyone is in East or North London or Essex and is interested please pm me. Or if you're anywhere else then contact your local rescue.

I caught these three yesterday. They need someone to spend time with them and we have completely run out of fosterers. And there are probably many hundreds more that need to come in.

Kitten fosterers needed
OP posts:
tygr · 19/10/2017 12:16

I’d love to do this too. Am in Wales. Here they seem to require secure outdoor areas for pens, presumably because a lot of their rescues are semi-feral farm cats and kittens.

Original poster
thecatneuterer · 19/10/2017 12:16

Fab. Let me know when you would like to take delivery Grin

OP posts:
Original poster
thecatneuterer · 19/10/2017 12:17

tygr - that can't be right. Most fostering is indoors. I would give a few charities a call to discuss.

OP posts:
LoverOfCake · 19/10/2017 12:22

I am in the london area, have a spare room, lots of time on my hands, but I don't have a driving licence which I believe would disqualify me as a otential fosterer.

BertieBotts · 19/10/2017 12:24

I have had a look actually. Am in Germany so took me a while to find the right phrasing to search. And probably the language would be a barrier but it might be something we can do for now. We've been refused cats as actual pets because we're in a flat so they wouldn't have easy access to the outside. Though none of the rescues have mentioned fostering.

Original poster
thecatneuterer · 19/10/2017 12:41

Loverofcake. No you don't need a car at all. We deliver the kittens and collect again.

Please pm me if you would like to discuss further.

OP posts:
Original poster
thecatneuterer · 19/10/2017 12:43

Bertie - As long as you can manage to communicate to the charity what you're offering I can't imagine that language would be a problem. Interestingly though Germany is the one country in the world that has more or less won the cat over population battle apparently.

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Lancelottie · 19/10/2017 12:52

I'll see if we can clear student son's bedroom enough for a kitten pen this weekend (we're a bit far from London, but it sounds like the need will be nationwide).

Skim-reading here, but how long is 'a few weeks', as I suppose we'll need to let the boy move back in at Christmas?

Worriedobsessive · 19/10/2017 12:57

Hi, I've pm'd you, meant to say in my pm, I'm a SAHM so around the house most of the day.

Original poster
thecatneuterer · 19/10/2017 13:02

Lancelottie - that's great. Normally you'd be looking at about 6 to 10 weeks depending on what you take on. Fosterers are need for mums and newborn kittens until the kittens are old enough to home - so around ten weeks.

Or, as in the case of the ones in my photos, they are small feral kittens that are young enough to tame with a lot of handling. So the ones I have are around 7 weeks old I think - and they will probably need another four weeks of socialising before they can go for homing.

OP posts:
TopBitchoftheWitches · 19/10/2017 13:02

I’m in Essex with a utility room. Where can I get kitten pen?

I have two cats and one dog. Should be three cats but one is awol atm.

Original poster
thecatneuterer · 19/10/2017 13:04

Oh dear TopBitch. I hope the wandering cat returns.

A kitten pen would be provided by the charity. A utility room would be perfect as long as it has a door.

OP posts:
TopBitchoftheWitches · 19/10/2017 13:07

She’ll be back when she feels like it (or it gets too cold outside) Hmm

There is a door between the utility and the kitchen. The dog has to go through there to get to the garden but there is another door to shut her out. That’s why I thought a kitten pen would be a good idea. The dog loves cats though !

Original poster
thecatneuterer · 19/10/2017 13:16

Well that sounds great. Can you pm me with where in Essex you are?

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TopBitchoftheWitches · 19/10/2017 13:18

All done !

Lancelottie · 19/10/2017 13:28

OK, definitely interested, so I'll see what we can do. Most of our pets have come from rescues but I'd somehow never thought of doing this (duh!).

Do charities also provide plenty of advice on how to socialize the kittens (and what not to do)? When adopting, we were advised to go slowly, leaving the cat plenty of time and space to get away by itself, but it sounds like this would be the opposite idea.

I think the teenagers are big enough to be able to part with kittens at the end of 6 weeks. Hope so...

LBOCS2 · 19/10/2017 13:30

Hi thecatneuterer, does having young children preclude you from fostering? I’ve got a 5yo and 1yo - both of whom are enthusiastic animal lovers but can be loud and, you know, enthusiastic. We’ve made a conscious decision not to have any more cats as we live on a main road but I’m missing snuggly cat cuddles.

Original poster
thecatneuterer · 19/10/2017 13:33

Lancelottie they should give plenty of advice yes. Basically the advice is completely different for adults than it is for kittens. For nervous/feral adults you need to give them space and allow them to come round in their own time. For small kittens you need to force contact on them. The feral kitten I've had down my jumper for the last hour or so has calmed down remarkably in just that time and is actually looking quite relaxed now. Just an hour ago he was hissing and trembling and trying to escape. Small kittens can be tamed fairly easily.

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Original poster
thecatneuterer · 19/10/2017 13:36

LBO - having children wouldn't normally be a problem, but children that young probably would be. It would certainly preclude taming ferals. You could still take on a mum and newborns, but the one year old would have to be kept away from them completely and the five year old would need to be supervised. So, as I imagine you need to be with your one year old most of the time, that would effectively make it impossible, unless there are lots of adults doing childcare in your household.

OP posts:
Soupoftheday1975 · 19/10/2017 13:38

I pmed you.

wtffgs · 19/10/2017 13:41

God I'd love to do this! I'm sure the kids would help with the socialisation. Life is a big old bag of dirty cat litter right now but I'll definitely put this on the to-do list for when things improve!

LBOCS2 · 19/10/2017 13:50

Yeah, that’s pretty much what I thought. Bum. Ah well.

LazySusan11 · 19/10/2017 14:40

I’d love to help foster, we have 2 cats already so we don’t want any more full timers but we would be happy to foster. I’m in the southwest, who can I contact to ask?

Original poster
thecatneuterer · 19/10/2017 14:46

LazySusan That's very kind of you. You can find your nearest rescues on www.catchat.org

OP posts:
LazySusan11 · 19/10/2017 14:57

All done, we have a spare room downstairs perfect for fostering as our cats are mainly upstairs. Have emailed our local shelter. Not sure I’ll be able to give them up though Hmm

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