Every Dollar Counts

PLEASE CONTACT A RESCUE BEFORE TAKING THE KITTENS FROM MOM!  

The first step upon discovering kittens in your yard is to vacate the area unless they are in immediate danger.  Keep tabs on the situation from a distance,(inside the house) so the mom cat will feel comfortable returning to them. 

If you have been feeding the mom, continue to do so.  If not, check with your neighbors to see if they have been feeding cats. Offer her some nutritious food and provide her with clean water.  Nursing moms need a lot more food than they did before giving birth. Imagine how hungry you would be if you were eating for 6. 

Pregnant females will give birth in locations that they think are safe.  Inexperienced first-timers, may have to make a hasty selection.  That is how kittens end up in bushes, flower beds, window wells, wood piles.    Moms move their kittens several times while caring for them as the kittens grow, weather changes, and people start coming around.  The important thing is to keep an eye on them and be aware of where the kittens are being moved to.  If you offer her a safe alternative, she might move them into that cat house, storage tub, or covered porch.  

PLEASE CONTACT A RESCUE BEFORE TAKING THE KITTENS FROM MOM!  

The ideal age to intake kittens into rescue is 5 weeks.  That is usually when you start seeing them wandering around the yard.  The mom has done all of the hard work.  Thee kittens are ready to be weaned.  

Don't wait!  If you see them, let us know right away.  After 8 weeks, it becomes drastically harder to socialize feral-born kittens and they will most likely end up back outside. That gives us a three week window to catch them.  Three weeks goes by FAST, don't delay or it will be too late. 

If you have already captured the kittens before reading this, there are some important procedures:

• Get them warm. Use a heating pad, hot water bottle, wrap them in a warm towel.
• Do NOT attempt to feed cold kittens.  Feeding before warming could be fatal.
• The best food is KMR (Kitten Replacement Milk) which can be purchased at pet stores, grocery stores, Walmart, etc... They usually also offer pet nursing kits with small bottles.
• Do not cut the hole in the nipple too large.
• NEVER give them cows milk.  NEVER give them human baby cereal.  Goats milk is OK.
• Contact your local rescue immediately.  If they do not have room to take the kittens right away, they may be able to help you find a placement or offer training/coaching on what to do to care for them until a placement can be found.  

Feral Feline Project is a small organization and we do not have enough foster homes to take every kitten found BUT if you are willing to provide the foster home, we will provide everything else (food, litter, toys, medical, adoption assistance and training).

Once the kittens have been addressed please work with your local TNR group to have the mom caught, spayed, and vaccinated.  If you are in NW Cook County , Feral Feline Project is your group.   TNR costs $100 per cat.