Kitten fostering

[ATailofTwoKitties]

Gulp. Encouraged by a thread last autumn, we've applied to the local cat rescue to foster pregnant cats and their kittens before rehoming. What do I need to get in place (apart for a major clear-out of student DD's bedroom in order to have a place to put them)?

Cp provide stuff when you foster, check what they will give you. You will need a warm bed for mum, a cardboard box or a low plastic storage box will do. A few blankets to put in the box to make a bed, old towels to use when she gives birth and to line the bed, a litter tray, scooper and nappy bags, pet friendly spray cleaner, food and water bowl, mat to put the bowls on, soft brush, for the kittens you should have a supply of cotton wool, maybe a bottle feeder but she will hopefully be able to look after the kittens herself. Cats like boxes, soft things to lie on like blankets, jumpers, fluffies. I think cp provide food and litter. You will need the local vets phone nbr and a camera that works so you can post us all your pics.

Thank you! Does the mother cat essentially need free run of the room but the kittens stay in the pen or box?

We have our own cat and dog, brought up together. The rescue know this and I assume we'll need to keep them firmly separated from any fosters. I can put a(nother) stair gate up to stop the dog going near, but have slight worries about the mother cat making a break for it every time I open the door to the room - our cat was a complete Houdini as a kitten.

It's not CP but a different local rescue, so I'm not sure what they provide. I don't know whether the kitten season has started in earnest yet but I'll charge up the camera .

Yes the mum can do what she wants, she needs all her own things but it will be tempting to let her out around the house. She will need a quiet area with a separate box to give birth in where she will keep the kittens and somewhere for herself to rest when she's had enough. If she's going to be confined to one room then you might be better off with a lidded litter tray and put her food and water bowls as far away from the litter tray as you can. How close to birthing will she be, how exciting, I'd be in their all the time cuddling them all. Will you be socialising them too, I wonder how many you will end up keeping.

At least at our rescue, we see very few pregnant cats and most mums and kittens are strays who have given birth in someone's garden etc. and come to us that way.

The room should be easy to keep clean (ideally no carpets but if it has them, think about covering them up) and not cluttered, and obviously kitten proof for when they grow up (they will start to walk around from about 4 weeks and by 6 weeks they will try to get into everything!). No small gaps between things, chimney breast blocked, ideally no electrical cords. Windows will need to be either kept closed or very safe to open (i.e. mine have a ventilation setting that opens them a tiny bit).

Kittens are hard work! Lots of cleaning of the room required... A lot of stray mums are shy/potentially aggressive so you need to be prepared for her to not be like the friendly family cats you may be used to. You will need to monitor the kittens closely to make sure everyone is eating and pooping normally, and for any other signs of illness (i.e. eye infections are very common). They'll need lots of gentle handling to socialise them.

Every charity has different rules about resident pets, vet visits, whether prospective adopters will visit them at your house etc. etc. so wait and see what they advice.

Thanks, that's great. One more question: would you expect to have the kittens with their mother till adoption age, so maybe 8-10 weeks in total, or to separate them earlier?

Small gaps are a very good point. There's no fireplace in that room, luckily, but there is a cupboard built into the attic space which might need some checking.

Yes absolutely, that's why adoption age is 8-10, they need their mum until that point to learn to be cats.

Please don't separate them until they are ready to be adopted, they will probably also need flee, worm and vacinnation before they leave. Are potential owners going to be seeing them at your house, they will need to be used to being handled by humans and be seen with mum kitty.

I'll talk to the rescue in more detail then and make sure we won't be away across those 10 weeks or so.

Our current dimwit cat was abandoned by its own mother as quite a small kitten (could explain a lot about how bad it is at catting).

I'll need to think about timings in general, as the spare room is only spare during university term time. Much as DD thinks it would be fun to revise in a room full of kittens, I think the reality might be harder!

What happens to,the kittens when they are old enough to leave, do the rescue take them, you may not find homes for them all immediately, how,are,they going to get rehomed.

They'll be rehomed from the rescue centre (I know that bit as that's how we got DimwitKitty), but I'm not sure about the mother cats.

I think you'll need a two story extension to house all the ones you can't bear to hand back

Shhh! DP has had to be assured that it'll only be for a few weeks at a time.

On the other hand, my MN nickname is currently inappropriate as we lack a second cat.

You could change it to threemouseketeers or even thefurmousfive? Give yourself a bit of scope....

Ooh, now you're talking...

Octopussy?

thepurrtydozen ?