07/03/2024
Bottle Babies - When to Take and When to Leave
Sometimes the answer is easy. My first bottle baby was found on the Oregon coast at the base of boulder breakwater. At 2 to 3 weeks, she could crawl but wasn't getting anywhere in the loose sand. A semi-circle of sea gulls eyed her with interest or hunger. We weren't sure which, but with the tide coming in we didn't wait to find out and snatched her.
Fast forward to last week when we received a call about 2 tiny kittens under a mobile home that was being gutted. Their cozy home in the insulation was being replaced with gravel and plastic sheeting before the crawlspace was sealed up for good. The feral mom cat had fled with a kitten or two when the workmen arrived. Should the babies be reunited with mom cat "Florence" or taken into foster?
How do you decide if you should keep the babies or let mom cat raise them until they are old enough to wean? There is no "right" answer. Every situation is different. But here are some questions to consider before deciding.
>Return to Mom Cat to Nurse<
If you can answer YES to the following, consider returning them to the mom cat.
-Can the babies be placed on a heat disk in a safe place and supervised from a distance until the mom cat retrieves them? Mom cats do a better job than humans.
-Are you confident that you will be able to trap the babies soon after weaning so they can be socialized?
-Can you trap the mom cat and get her spayed before she has another litter?
>Take the Babies and Bottle Feed<
If you can answer YES to these, consider taking the kittens and bottle feeding.
- Are the kittens in a dangerous location or at higher risk of not surviving to weaning age?
- Do you have the time, knowledge and resources to bottle feed the babies? Is there a rescue willing to take them if you can't?
-Will trapping the kittens after weaning present a challenge due to the location or the lack of cooperation of neighbors in that area?
>Take Mom and Babies into Foster<
If you can answer YES to these, use the babies as bait to trap the mom cat and let her raise her babies in a foster home. Yes, feral mom cats can raise their babies inside and be spayed and released after the kittens are weaned. It is easier than bottle feeding!
-Are you certain you have ALL the kittens? If there could be more kittens avoid trapping the mom until you have all of them.
-Do you have a large cage or small cat-proof bathroom to house mom and babies?
What did we do with the two babies? We decided to take the kittens because it was a cold day and they had already spent at least 7 hours outside without their mom. Warming them up as soon as possible was critical. The mom cat was unlikely to come back soon with all the construction going on. Since we didn't know where she was and suspected there were more littermates with her, we didn't want to use to two we had as "bait" to trap the mom cat. If we trapped her now, the other kittens would die.
Raising bottle babies is hard, but it is easier to make a decision if you are prepared and consider the options logically instead of emotionally. Whether you raise them yourself or get them into a rescue, remember that there IS a mom cat out there and she will keep having babies if you don't get her spayed. Feral mom cats are masters at being unnoticed. So, unless you have evidence that she died, don't believe it when people tell you they are orphans or that mom cat is gone.
