02/21/2023
Kitten season is upon us, here’s some very useful info. Although we are working hard to fix the strays and ferals around us, it’s almost guaranteed that one of our team members will get tagged in a post asking for help with kittens.
Please don’t kitten-nap!
As we enter kitten season, we want to share best practices with you if you encounter kittens. The best way to prevent this is to spay and neuter before it becomes a “problem”. But we do know sometimes a cat you have never seen before chooses around your home as their location to safely give birth.
First thing you want to do is determine the kittens age. Kittens rely on their mothers for the first 8 weeks of life — their best chance of survival is with their mom.
If you are unable to determine their age, take photos and reach out to local rescues to be advised on what you should do next. Do not touch or move the kittens. Just take photos. Make sure to get photos quickly and discreetly as mom will often move her kittens if she knows they have been discovered.
By about 5 weeks of age, mom will start to bring the kittens out to play, hunt for food and learn to be a cat. This is the best time to socialize kittens and start them on solid kitten food for their little bodies to continue to grow. This is also a great time to start the next steps in finding them a rescue or forever homes. At 8 weeks and 2lbs kittens can be spayed, neutered and vaccinated then you can seek responsible homes. But don’t forget mom or this cycle will continue in an already overpopulated area.
There’s a few circumstance where unweaned kittens need human intervention such as:
• Mom is deceased (hit by car, predator, passed during labor, etc.)
• Kittens are in an unsafe location such as machinery, electrical box, storm drain, etc.
• Kittens appear malnourished, uncleaned, or covered in ants.
During kitten season, rescues are inundated with hundreds, if not thousands, of requests for help here in Oklahoma alone. Theres simply not enough experienced bottle-feeders and even fosters. The best chance for a kittens survival is with their mom until it’s time for them to be weaned.
PLEASE DON’T KITTEN-NAP.
