I’m hoping there is a vet or a knowledgable cat lover here on the boards that can answer a couple questions for me - here it goes:
My wife and I have recently adopted a stray cat that just had kittens in our garage. The kittens are about 10 days old. The past few days I noticed the mother cat has been, I believe, attempting to bring the kittens into our home. I noticed she has been carrying one of the kittens by the neck and has attempted to sneak it into our home. I have seen this being done at least three times - every time I just put the kitten back with the rest in her ‘nest’.
Is this normal? Should I move the kittens inside my home with the mother?
Just a note - the garage is very comfortable for her (I would think). I keep her fed, her bed has newspapers I change every other day for her, the garage is even carpeted in the area her nest is.
Mother cats like to hide their kittens. If the mother has been in your house, she may have found a closet or some other enclosed space where she wants to put her kittens.
Is there a reason you don’t want the cat and kittens in your house? It seems kinder to let the mother do what she wants. Also, if you intend to give up the kittens for adoption, they should be exposed to people at an early age. Kittens who are not handled when young will not bond to people when they get older.
My only concern with letting her and the kittens in the house is that I have 2 year old twin boys. I’m just afraid they would terrorize the mother and kittens. They already pull the mother cat’s tail and try to pick her up, etc. They don’t know about the kittens yet, but if they did…oh boy!
Seems we got two of these threads in some board hiccup I’ll move my reply here too.
This is normal. Cats will often move their litters in response to dangers they percieve. If your garage is a noisy high traffic area then she will want to get them out of there. You imply you’ve moved the mother into your house… she probably wants the kittens nearer to her and where she feels safer. When one of our cats had kittens when I was a kid … my little brother would always seek them out and every time he found them mother cat would move them. You moving the kittens will prompt her to move them again. See where she wants to put them and if you can live with the arrangement.
Oh and the mother cat I mentioned also decided my room was best for her kittens. Then she litter trained them in an old puzzle box under my bed! So be aware that this aspect of their training is forthcoming and have a proper receptacle ready. You can get small litter boxes or use cardboard shirt boxes (you need ones low enough for kittens to climb into)
Agree with Paul. The more contact these kittens have with people, the sweeter and more cuddly they will be. (Obviously you should not be handling them ALL the time - they are too young yet, and shouldn’t be taken from their mother for long periods.)
There could be something in the garage that is bothering her. A thing, a certain sound, a smell . . . mother’s usually move their kittens if they feel danger or if they feel they are being disturbed too much.
Not wanting to seem like I’m jumping on you, but if this isn’t a purebred that you are breeding, please consider having her spayed. It’s better for her and better for the cat population as a whole.
Sorry, I mean I agree with Jeff! Don’t know where “Paul” came from.
You haven’t moved the mother in and left the kittens in the garage, right? The mother is WITH them but keeps trying to bring them in? Because it’s a terrible idea to separate them at this stage.
If you’ve got the two boys, it’s probably better to try and either leave the kittens in the garage (with mom) or put them in a room where the kids can’t get to them. They could easily hurt or kill the kittens accidentally - children just aren’t aware of how fragile baby animals are. If you are unable to keep them in the house AND keep them away from the kids, I’d say to leave them in the garage but perhaps try to see what it is that’s bothering the mom? It might be something easily corrected, like a breeze or a waving curtain or something.
Agreeing with above, I’d like to add to not worry about the kittens and the twins … she’ll move them again to a room you wouldn’t have the twins in, if she can. If there’s a room she picks that you can lock off from the twins, that is, put up a barrier and put food and water in there for her, it will help and keep up the segregation.
Another reason she might be moving is because she doesn’t want to keep her litter in the same place she gave birth. A lot of cats do that, especially if one has died.
Are you still parking the car in the garage? 'Cause I’m thinking, if I were a mama cat (and as the owner of two cats and two dogs, I am not all that far off from being exactly that), I would be pretty protective every time that giant, smelly, loud machine thing with wheels was parked in my nursery.
No cars in this garage - there were 2 kittens in the litter that died though, and her nest is where she gave birth.
I think I’ll just let her carry the kittens in the house and see where she goes with them. If it’s out of the way I may be ableto keep my little monsters (the twins) away from them.Thanks forthe advice!
Oh, yes, please then, let her move. Or set up another nest in the garage and put her in there, see if she likes it? Then get rid of the first nest for her.
Thanks for taking them in. I hope you gentle her and the babies enough to get them fixed before you distribute them (look into low cost clinics that might give a discount).
With all due respect to Guin, I wouldn’t recommend starting two-year-olds out on tiny kittens (nor on protective cat mothers, for that matter). My children were brought up with cats from infancy, but those were very calm, understanding adult cats. I didn’t even consider having a kitten in the house until the youngest child was four. Our local humane society won’t even adopt out kittens younger than six months to families with children under the age of six years.
<<I think I’ll just let her carry the kittens in the house and see where she goes with them. If it’s out of the way I may be ableto keep my little monsters (the twins) away from them.Thanks forthe advice!>>
BINGO! If she’s like our little mama cat, she’ll trot them into a dark closet. You can set up a tupperware/rubbermaid pan there with a towel in it and watch the glory of nature unfold.
According to my cat manual, you should handle and love on the kittens EVERY CHANCE YOU GET and you won’t have skittish or antisocial cats. Our new arrival (8 months old, the only survivor of the litter) is a CAT now, and not a kitten. These things grow up fast. She is completely unafraid of humans and welcomes any people-attention.
I’m not sure if this advice stands if your kids get their hands on them before they are 100% OK with people.
Our experience over about 15 years of being servants to a lineage of felines is that mother cats will usually move their kittens twice: they will have them in a fairly secluded place, move them once fairly soon after birth (one to four days) to another secluded place with a bit more room and obstacles to restrain the kittens within the “nest” and immediate area, then move them again after their eyes open to a more open area where the kittens can explore and exercise safely.
I understand they need to be handled often so they get used to people so they will make good pets but I believe this shouldn’t be done until after their eyes open. At 10 days old if you disturb her nest and handle them too much she will either move them again or abandon them. I doubt you really want to be bottle feeding a litter of kittens.
Boy oh boy, when a momma cat decides where she wants to put her babies, you can’t change her mind. Best go with the flow.
We had lots of cats when I was a kid. There was one who decided that her babies belonged in my sister’s bunk bed, and that was that. Every day my mom would move them back to the closet, and every morning my sister would wake up and they (and their messes) would all be snuggled in with her.
I think that was her second litter; her first was memorable to me because she produced it in the middle of the night in MY bed.
I’ll move my reply here too.
