Help!! Stray Kittens!!

[mjaclyn]

A few hours ago I found two small kittens underneath my front steps. I was able to catch one of them, but the other one was too scared to come out. I haven't seen the mother at all so I'm not sure if she's completely gone or just out looking for food. I'm not sure how old the kitten is - the eyes are open and it's walking around so I think it's at least 3 weeks old. I'm scared though because it's been crying for awhile now and it won't eat anything. I think it may still be nursing. What should I do? I am not a cat person by any means and I have no experience with young kittens. I went to the store and bought some kitten food that I mixed with warm water but she's not interested in that at all. She's been meowing so much that her voice is hoarse and it's so sad! If she doesn't eat all night, will she die by the morning? I plan on bringing her to the animal shelter tomorrow and (hopefully) try to catch the other one as well.

I'm also worried because I have two small children and a dog in the house and I don't know if there are any possible diseases that we could catch from this kitten. Even though she is SO cute, she is still wild and could be carrying who knows what. DH and I are allergic to cats so I haven't picked her up at all - just gently grabbed her with a blanket to put her in the crate when I caught her an nothing else since. Is it okay for me to pick her up? I don't want to catch anything it could possibly have and I don't want to endanger my kids or my dog. Any help is greatly appreciated!!!

[Pastcastmemberdaughter]

To get the kitten throught the night here are some suggestions I've had to use on newborn puppies/kittens before.

1. Put a heating pad, on low or medium, underneath the crate, covering half the bottom of the crate. This will allow the kitten to move from warm to cool spots. This will help the kitten control it's body temp. Also place some blankets in there for the kitten to snuggle up in.

2. You might want to see about getting kitten milk if it's not too late. They will usually eat that pretty quickly. If the kitten won't eat it out of a bowl try wrapping the kitten in a blanket placing the milk in a syringe, w/o the needle of course, and feeding the kitten through that. Sometimes I find that they will eat better through licking the bottom of a syringe than anything. If all you have is the kitten food try placing the food in a food processor along with some water to make a very liquid food and using the syringe idea. If you don't have a syringe than try placing some in a straw and let the kitten lick the bottom of the straw.

3. Place a very little bit of water in the crate. Not too much or the kitten could drown itself and make sure it's a container a little 3 week old kitten can get over to get water. A little plate might work best.

4. Make sure that the kitten is using the bathroom ok. At that young of age they sometimes still need to have the "mom" stimulate them to use the bathroom. If a lot of time goes w/o the kitten using the potty you may need to wrap the kitten in a blanket and rub it's belly very gently with the blanket or I sometimes use baby wipes. This will help stimulate the muscles for the kitten.

Hope this helps.

[NotaGeek]

3 week old kittens do not drink water so please don't leave water in a crate even a small amount of water can be a bad move for a kitten. Petsmart has kitten formula and feeding syringes if you want, but since you haven't had a cat or a newborn kitten it might be easier to call your local no-kill animal shelter first thing in the morning and they will come pick up the kitten and get it the proper diet and care.

The mother might have just left the kittens there while she was out, but odds are now that the kitten is gone and has been so handled she won't be back ...

If you need help finding a shelter or organization to pick up the kitten please PM me and I will help ...

[thrillme]

They sound adorable the poor things...it's too late probably but Walmart is open 24 hours (at least down here it is) and they sell the "cat milk" for kittens...in fact...I think they sell a full nursing kit complete with a bottle.

I would consider putting food out for the mamma cat to tempt her to come back. Even the most ferrel of nursing mamma cats will appreciate food.

Everything "pastcastmemberdaughter" said. A friend of mine would rub the behind of his kitten with a warm washcloth about an hour or so after he ate.

Diseases...I really wouldn't worry much about that. When I got my Tiger...(a little older but still a wild kitten)...the vet said there really wasn't too much a kitten that young would have other than worms from fleas (we used to call them "rice worms"...EASILY curable) or fleas. My experience from my own kittens...Mamma keeps them pretty clean...she has a bigger chance of getting worms than they do because she picks off anything on them and keeps them really clean. If the kittens seem rather healthy at this point I really don't think you have much to worry about. Kittens are really pretty clean little animals.

If you can't keep them yourself (kittens that tiny take a lot of work for a couple of weeks...but they can turn out to be very wonderful family cats)...many vets offices will take them in for you...just check around. I don't know how bad your allegies are but sometimes regularly bathing a cat can REALLY cut back on allergens.

How are they doing today?

[mjaclyn]

Thanks so much for all the advice. Unfortunately it was too late last night to go out for kitten formula...DH was away in Texas and I had my 3 year old and 6 month old alseep. I had given it some kitten food moistened with warm water (didn't seem to eat any of it) and it was crying constantly. When DH got home he said he thought he had seen it's mother outside, so he put the kitty back under the steps with its sibling to see if the mom would come back and nurse it. When he went to check on them early this morning the kitten we put back was gone. :-( He was able to catch the other one but we can't find the original kitten anywhere. What could have happened to it? I really hope another animal didn't get it, but there really is nothing around here besides deer... Could the mother have moved it? But then why would she just leave the other one? Anyway, I found a home for one or both kittens (if I can find the other one) with a person who has experience with cats. I'm glad I don't have to send it to the animal shelter because I'm sure it's more difficult to find them a home.

[DVC2004]

Good- I am glad you found a place for them! My mother has lots of strays in her neighborhood and catches them whenever she can and gives them to good homes. Sometimes you can put a little bit of the wet, can style kitten food in thier mouth and they'll eat it. My mother has done this a few times then they start to eat on thier own. Also you can get a small disposable litter box and just put them in it- they know what to do. It was nice of you to rescue them- If you put a little food out I bet the mother will come back with the other one. Good luck.

[NJGIRL]

If the other kitten comes around again try to get in right away because the sooner it has human contact the better the chances of finding a home for it. If the mother cat comes around and if you can afford to do it get her spayed so she doesn't have any more kittens. They multiply very quickly and it usually is hard to find cats good homes after a while. If the mother is feral she can be trapped, spayed and released back outside. Most cities have low cost spay/neuter clinic for feral cats. If you need anymore advice you can also PM me I have alot of experience with stray cats.

[thrillme]

I don't know where you're from but here in San Antonio the Humane Society and several vets and shelters...often will "loan" you a cage to capture these animals.

A wonderfully successful program (probably out of money by now)..I "think" it was in Virginia for a little while. They had a "catch and release" program for stray cats. They'd catch them "fix" them give them a set of rabies shots and return them. They did a great job at keeping the rodent popluation and other vermin...their numbers went down dramatically. This was primarly for those ferrel cats that just could not be acclimated to humans. But I don't know if they're still doing that or not.

[garymacd]

What should you do? Send them up to me. Maybe they can keep the little orphaned mouse I found in my home company!