Petunia Says

How and When to Care for and Socialize Feral Kittens

When you come across outdoor kittens, you may feel the need to immediately pick them up and bring them home with you, but that might not be the best thing for the kittens–or for you. Here are some guidelines on how to decide if kittens in a colony should be removed and socialized for adoption, and how to care for them should you choose to remove them and raise or socialize them yourself. You can find more in-depth information by ordering kitten care products from our online marketplace. These guidelines are just that, and they should not be used as a substitute for veterinary care.

In addition to the information below, consider looking into Feral Friends in your area. These are local individuals, organizations, and veterinarians or clinics that may be able to help with hands-on advice, information about borrowing equipment, and veterinarians or clinics that can spay and neuter feral cats. Request a list of Feral Friends in your area.

2. Kitten and Mom Scenarios and How to Trap

As national Trap-Neuter-Return experts with more than 20 years of experience, we often receive calls from caregivers wondering how to trap a mother cat and her kittens and what to do with them once they've been trapped.

In this section, you'll learn:

• The various scenarios you may encounter when planning to trap a mother cat and kittens;


• How to trap a family of mother and kittens; and


• Trapping safety tips for kittens.

In order to do what's best for kittens, you MUST know how old they are. Throughout this guide, refer to our kitten progression photos for help determining kittens' age. Here are a few guidelines to remember:

• The best place for kittens younger than eight weeks old is with their mother, if at all possible.


• The ideal window for socializing kittens is about between 6 weeks and 16 weeks. Older kittens can be trapped, neutered, and returned.

Here are some common scenarios you might encounter and how to deal with them:

1. If you find kittens who are alone, determine if the mother has abandoned them or if she is just off looking for food. The only way to find this out is to wait. Often times, she will return within a few hours. Observe from a distance or a hidden spot to be sure she is not returning before moving the kittens. Use common sense and be patient.


2. If the mother cat doesn't come back after several hours, and you think she has abandoned the kittens or they are in danger, you can choose to raise them yourself. Do not take this decision lightly. You will need to determine if the kittens require neonatal kitten care (one- to four-weeks-old), if the kittens are young enough to be socialized, fostered or adopted (six- to 16-weeks-old), or if they are at the age to be trapped, neutered, and returned (four months or older).


3. If the mother cat does return for her kittens, you have multiple options to consider:


• If the mother is feral and the kittens are too young to be separated from her, the best thing for the family is to leave them where they are for now as long as the location is safe. (Use your judgment and common sense - if you think the location is safe enough for the mother to survive, leave the kittens with her; if not, see next bullet point.) Remember, the mother is best able to care for her kittens. Provide food, water, and shelter. Monitor the family daily and make the environment as safe for them as you can. If you have decided you don't have the time or the resources to foster, socialize, and adopt out the kittens, then you can trap, neuter, and return the whole family when the kittens are 8-weeks-old or two pounds. If you can foster, socialize, and adopt out the kittens, the ideal window is when the kitten are between six weeks and 12 weeks old. The best thing for the mother cat is to be trapped, spayed, and returned to her outdoor home.


• If the kittens are too young to be separated, and you believe it is safer for the whole family to come indoors - you can trap the mom, trap or scoop up the kittens depending on their age, and bring the whole family inside to a quiet, small room like a bathroom, where they can live until the kittens are weaned and it is safe to get them all neutered. Learn more about how to care for an outdoor cat family indoors in the sidebar at left. From there you can decide what is best for the kittens and either return mom outside if she is feral or find her an adoptive home if she is fully socialized. Learn how to tell the difference between socialized (stray) cats and feral cats.


• If the mother is feral and the kittens are old enough to be separated from her, you have a decision to make: commit to foster, socialize, and adopt out the kittens, or trap, neuter, and return the kittens when they are 8 weeks or two pounds.


4. If you trap a cat and discover at the clinic that she is a nursing mother, get her spayed immediately and return her to the area where you trapped her as soon as she is clear-eyed that evening, with approval from the veterinarian. Many times, you only learn this after she is at the clinic - make sure the clinic knows your plans for returning nursing mothers as soon as possible; they may have an anesthesia protocol that will enable her to wake up from surgery more quickly. It may seem counterintuitive to separate her from her kittens, but it's difficult to trap her again - this may be your only real chance to spay her and prevent further litters. Try to find the kittens (following the mother after you return her) so that you can trap and neuter them when they are old enough. Note: Nursing mother cats continue to produce milk after being spayed, and can continue to nurse their kittens.


5. If you discover at the clinic that you have brought in a pregnant cat, have her spayed by an experienced veterinarian who has performed this surgery before. It may be necessary to allow an extra day for recovery and extended observation. For many people, this is a difficult aspect of Trap-Neuter-Return, but as with nursing mothers or any cat in a trap, it may be difficult to trap her again - this is your opportunity to protect her from the health risks and ongoing stresses of mating and pregnancy.

Once you have a plan and understand the different scenarios you may encounter, you are ready to start trapping.

How to Use Kittens to Trap a Mother Cat, and Vice Versa

For general information on how to trap cats, see our How to Conduct Trap-Neuter-Return Guide. Use this baseline information to inform the more complex process of trapping a mom and kittens.

On your first attempt at trapping a cat family, always set out at least one baited trap for every cat and kitten in the family (see our kitten safety tips below. )Note: These instructions are for moms with kittens who are old enough to walk. Younger kittens can be scooped up and used to attract mom, but not vice versa.

If you don't trap mom in the first round, she will soon hear, see, and smell her kittens in the trap and want to get close to them, providing the perfect incentive for her to enter a trap herself.

1. Once you have a kitten trapped, immediately set up a second trap of similar size end-to-end against the one holding the kitten, so that mom will have to walk into the open trap to reach her baby. Do not open the trap holding the kitten. The short ends of the traps should be touching and the two traps together should form a long rectangle. (See photo.)


2. To make sure mom goes inside the trap and not around the back or sides, cover the trap holding the kitten on three sides so that the kitten is only visible from the entrance of the open trap. Cover the area where the traps meet, so mom can't see the partition as easily. To her, it will appear as though the kitten is inside a tunnel.

If you trap the mother cat first, or if you are trapping other cats and you trap her by accident, keep her in the trap and set a second trap, following the same instructions outlined above with the traps used end-to-end, with one important addition: once you have trapped one kitten, you will have to set up a new trap for the next kitten. Kittens can also be used to trap their siblings in a similar fashion.

Trapping Tips: Kitten Safety

• When trapping kittens, make sure you are using an appropriately sized trap, like a Tru-Catch 24 or Tomahawk 104 trap, or any trap made specifically for kittens. Larger traps, like those used for raccoons or tomcats, are too powerful for kittens, can put them at risk, and kittens sometimes are not heavy enough to trip the plate.
• We suggest that you prop open the trap door with a water bottle or other similarly sized object (like a stick) attached to a string, so you can spring the trap manually when all kittens are safely clear of the door. Once the kitten is fully inside the trap and clear of the door, pull the string hard and fast to remove the water bottle.
• Make sure to set out at least one trap per kitten, to discourage kittens from following each other into the same trap. (They may still do this, but springing the trap manually will make sure no one gets caught in the trap door.) If you do catch two kittens in one trap, either use an isolator to transfer one into another trap, or bring an extra trap to the clinic and the clinic will separate the cats after surgery.

As cat experts, we understand your reservations about interfering with nursing mothers and their kittens, but the best thing you can do for the whole family in every situation is to trap and neuter them as soon as it is safe to do so. Where you place the kittens after trapping - either in adoptive homes or back with their colony - depends on many factors, including your own time and resources. No two situations are exactly alike, so be prepared to use your judgment.

Article Reprinted from Alley Cat Allies©