Hi all!
Last weekend (evening of Memorial Day) we found five kittens near my mother-in-law’s hot tub. The hot tub is set in the ground and surrounded by fake fiberglass “boulders” that hide the pipes and give it that “lagoon” feeling and what not. Mama cat made one of these fake boulders her den and had her babies there. When we found them, they were just beginning to explore and wander out of the den.
I knew they were young but not sure how young, so we left them there since mama cat was taking care of them. We continued to check on them though. All the info I found online told me they were probably about 2.5-3 weeks old.
Fast forward to today. My mother-in-law came home and went to check on them, and caught one literally as it was ready to fall into the hot tub. They are getting a little too adventurous! The kitty had slipped down the fake rock and couldn’t get back up on its own. MIL was able to catch it in the pool skimmer. Had she gotten there ten minutes later, kitty likely would have drowned. I doubt it would have survived even if it fell in the water and we caught it in time, it was so cold.
Anyway because of the danger, we decided to go ahead and take them. The weather here is unseasonably cold (55 and rainy for two days) and the kittens were all chilled. We haven’t seen mama cat in a couple days. I don’t know if she would abandon them this late, perhaps it was just the weather, but either way we didn’t want to risk all the kittens drowning. I’ve also read that you are supposed to separate feral kittens by 4-5 weeks if you want any hope of socializing them, so it seemed like the opportune time.
I’ve weighed them all with a food scale and they all come in between 9-12 oz, which puts them in that 3-4 week range. I also got a look in a couple mouths and a few of them have their canine teeth poking through. I was able to stimulate all five to urinate, so that’s another indicator to me that they are closer to three weeks than four. None of them defecated.
Right now, the five kittens are in a giant plastic container in my living room. They have a shelter with a heating pad, plenty of non-heated space in between and a litterbox. They are all FREAKING OUT. Meowing like crazy and trying to climb out (it’s too tall for them to be able to). Some of them sound less like meows and more like birds chirping. One of them is way louder than the rest–practically screeching.
Because I’m not sure of the age, I don’t know how to feed them. Some of them will nibble wet canned food out of a bowl, but they’re competitive so I’m not sure who all has had a chance to eat. None of them will lap formula from a saucer or lick it off my fingertips or anything. I tried a baby bottle but obviously that did not work. Pet stores were closed when I brought them in tonight so I had to make do with Walmart. They only had one brand of formula and I don’t know how good it is, and no bottles. They also did not have wet canned food formulated for kittens. Only one variety of non-clumping litter, too.
I guess I’m just looking for guidance to make sure I’m doing this right. I’ve never owned kittens this young. I can’t get into a vet until Thursday. They all look healthy, no fleas or eye gunk or anything that would overtly indicate an infection. Is the meowing just separation anxiety? Would they meow if they were hungry or constipated or otherwise in some sort of discomfort? What do I do if they won’t take a bottle or lap formula? Should they be able to lap water at this age? How often do we need to feed them?
We plan on keeping two, and two of my coworkers and one of my husband’s friend have claimed the other three. The local shelter will loan me a trap so mama can be trapped if she returns to the area, then spayed and released. She is feral and cannot be tamed.