OMG! Kittens! Kittens in the bushes in our front lawn! What do we do?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Here’s a list with approved ages. I’ll note that while Program lists a minimum age of 4 weeks on that chart, the actual page on lufenuron says six weeks. Regardless I think that one can be obtained only through vets, as with most of these ( it has a few caveats on use ). In general store-bought stuff is crap, sometimes actively malignant ( never buy anything made by Hartz ).

It looks like you might be stuck with the manual method, i.e. a flea comb. There seems be some dispute over whether bathing with dilute Dawn detergent is a good idea or not. I think in general this is another question you might want to run by run by a vet ( or two ).

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Yeah, but you might not like it. We had a flea-ridden kitten once, and I held her on my lap, searched out the fleas and killed as many as I could find with tweezers. Then we bathed her in the kitchen sink, under the faucet. I don’t think we used a flea soap – just regular soap (probably baby shampoo). I did this regularly until she was old enough for a real flea treatment, but by then, she had no more fleas. It helped that she was mostly white and that her hair was silky – it was easy to see the fleas.

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Hmm. Well, all the local vet clinics are now closed, but I called the emergency vet clinic (where we took MijaKitty when she decided to snack on SOMEthing that caused her to go into acute kidney failure). They recommended the flea comb. At first, she thought a kitten shampoo might be okay, but after checking with the vet, the flea comb was the recommendation.

Hubby has created quite the nest for them in our late-dog’s extra large crate. They have bedding, a mini-litterbox, a shelf to climb on, and the cat crate they’d been in is now inside as a warm shelter to cuddle in. Since we have two of our own cats, a preschooler, and MamaRuff here is preggo, the kittens are staying in the garage. Thankfully SoCal does not get too chilly at night this time of year, and being in a completely enclosed structure ought to help. We are of course scrubbing down after handling them.

They are chowing down on the milk replacer, and already that’s seemed to help bridge the “OMG what are you?” worry they had of us initially. Just after feeding them a half teaspoon each from the dropper, the attempts at hissing stopped and the curiosity started. Now, after three similar small feeds (with us pausing inbetween just to make sure they’re keeping it down), they follow us around. :slight_smile: The little seal-point marked one is less curious, but more interested in being next to us. He was curled up next to hubby, and when he moved, seal point kitty followed. Blue point kitty, meanwhile, was all over the place–including climbing on top of hubby’s shoe and perching there. Heh. All four seem like they will tame quickly.

Fetchund, I think that’s basically our plan for now–keep them until they are adoptable. That, and once kittens are taken care of, trapping and neutering mom (and/or dad–whoever we manage to catch).

MoodIndigo, I understand your ambivalence. I feel bad these guys are separated from mom, but a feral future would not bode well for them. :frowning: We do hope to catch mom and get her spayed–I don’t mind having her around, but we don’t want a biannual kitten crop, either.

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And now, more pics:

Blue point is king of the shoe.

A little sibling rivalry over dinner. Hubby was just trying to feed the seal-point, when the grey moved in on the meal.

RuffLlama was playing with his “new” garage sale car–ugh, Barbie, but I pinched my nose and let it go–and the kittehs were very curious. They’re in the dog crate here pre-complete set up. It’s much more the kitten condo now.

Only the grey was interested in eating the KMR/wet kitten food gruel the vet had recommended.The others were either too busy exploring or too full from the meals from the eye dropper.

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Ah, see - you have already figured out which one is the greedy little piggy of the group ;).

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Very cute kittehs. Good for you for taking care of them.

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Last year I had ended up with custody of two kittens when a friend found them under her trailer. It was a Sunday, but the local PetSmart had a vet on duty and we took them there to be checked out before bringing them into my place. They were pest free, and the vet said they were probably three or four weeks old. I bought some kitten formula and canned kitten food, and had no trouble bottle feeding them; after a few days they started nibbling at the canned food mixed with formula, and within a few weeks they were helping themselves to my adult cat’s food after finishing the kitten food I put out for them. It didn’t take long for them to take over the household, either.

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You’re doing a wonderful thing for some seriously adorable kittens. Thank you!

With a little Googling, I found this no-kill shelter that seems to be in your general area (I’m pretty clueless about California, though). Since you’re planning to keep them until they’re adoptable, it might be a good idea to call this place and see if they could set you up as a foster caregiver. That way you’d have some financial support (all rescues differ, but the organization I foster with here in MN and covers all veterinary expenses and food) as well as someone to go to with questions. They may also be able to lend you a live trap to catch the mama so she can be fixed.

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Just bathing kittens with baby shampoo will remove a lot of the fleas, and combing the kittens out will remove more fleas. Of course, you will have to endure more attempts at hisses, and you will find that the kittens are not nearly as cute when they’re sopping wet.

Now I have the incredible urge to take in a kitten and bottle feed it. I’ve done it before, and I’ll probably do it again. If I did it right now, though, Sapphire the Siamese Drama Queen would just about die of outrage.

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YAY for you taking the heart and time and money to help out these kitties!
I wants the grey one. Could you move closer to Michigan, please?

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My vet told me that any shampoo, medicated or not, will effectively smother the fleas if left on/massaged into the fur for at least 5 minutes. (I had a sensitive fleabitten kitteh as a kid before Advantage was all the rage.)

IME she was correct.

Of course check with your vet first, b/c they are so young…not to mention if they are being kept outside, even in the garage, it’s a bit pointless to get rid of fleas just to have a billion new ones take a ride before the kittehs are even dry.

still squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

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They are terribly cute. And you’re wonderful to take them in.

This. Only you should just go ahead and move to Columbus, Ohio. :slight_smile:

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Okay–day two (kind of) our plans are something like this:

  • I found a local no-kill shelter (recommended by a nearby shelter) called Cats in Need. I called them yesterday, but got no answer. It sounds like they serve the area jussssssst east of us, so I didn’t leave a message. But, today I’m going to try them again. It looks like they do adoption shows at the local Petcos–we’re going to call the Petco they go to that is closest to us (maybe 15min or so) and see if they’re there today. We’d be going to get advice.

(Chum, thanks for your link–you’re in our vicinity, but Sherman Oaks is a good 40min away. Still, you gave me an idea–maybe Cats in Need can help set us up as a foster home.)

  • Nice thing about Cats in Need–for a deposit, they will loan us a humane trap so we can catch Mama. Once she’s caught, they will put us in contact with area vets who offer no-cost spay and neuter services.

  • I asked hubby if he’s okay spending the money involved to get proper vet care for these kitties (I think that’s a flashback to my upbringing, where pets were great until they started costing money), and he was fine with it. Considering he’s already naming some of them (Slinky is the grey, Frank is the Siamese-marked one since his eyes are the most strikingly blue), and he’s the one who was up at 6:30am to feed and check on them…I don’t know why I asked. :slight_smile: I love that I married an animal lover!

  • …So, I’ll also be calling local vets to see if anyone’s open. Doubtful on a Sunday, but I’ll try. I want to see if the vet at Petco may be in. If nothing else, we just want them looked over–I think they’re too young for any shots, and certainly too young for spaying/neutering. And since I’m preggo and we have a very excited 3yro “kitten” of our own, I want to know they’re safe to handle (especially since I want to cuddle the crud out of them).

So tell me–having two cats is one thing. Is three something else entirely? I think RuffLlama could use a pet. (Yeah, that’s my excuse.) :wink:
Edited to add: My 11yro all-black kitty Inigo Montoya is currently meowing and rubbing all over me. I think kitty sense is tingling! “My human! Mine!”

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This just in: At least one of the kittens can purr. :slight_smile:

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I totally do not mean to be a kitten killjoy, but please… please be careful about keeping them carefully quarantined from your adult housecats, at least until they’re screened by a vet. Feline Leukemia Virus is no joke and in some areas is rampant in the feral kitten population. A lethargic, goopy-eyed baby sets my red flags wavin’ :frowning:
Adult cats are significantly less susceptible to FeLV (and presumably have been vaccinated) but still if you can avoid exposing them…

Here’s hoping there’s no cooties around… those little colorpoint kitties are awfully friggen’ cute :slight_smile:

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We are being careful,NajaNivea, I promise. The kittens are completely removed from the house, and everything that comes in contact with them is either staying with them (blankets and toys) or getting thoroughly washed when brought back in the house (bowls, eye dropper, towels, etc.). My hands are super-dry and a bit chapped from washing them so much.

We went through something like this before with MijaKitty–she was a starving stray in a friends backyard that we took in when she was about 6mos old. We kept her completely isolated until we got word she passed all of her bloodtests.

Nine years later, she’s still in our house. A sign of things to come?

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Squee!!!
Good on you for taking such good care of them, not too many feral-born kittens are anything like so lucky… and in a couple weeks you can box that little blue-point bit o’ fluff up and send him right to meeeee!!! :wink:

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Your kitties have brightened my day! I’m so jealous- I want kittie babies. But I have a crabby 15 year old male cat who would not approve. I’m going to go snuggle him (which he also won’t approve of).

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Kittens have an appointment with the vet in PetSmart today at 3pm. :slight_smile: I was slack-jawed how cheap it was–they’re charging us the “litter” rate for the exam, which is just $6 a kitten. :eek: Any treatment of course will be added on to that, of course.

I’m just happy they’re being seen.

Heh, hubby is already saying (when I discuss finding homes), “I don’t want to get rid of our kitties.” “Yes, but kitties grow up into cats, and become our furry overlords.” Heh. I’m still okay with keeping at least one. (OH NO! I said “At least”!)

BTW, they asked for names. I gave them hubby’s nicknames: Slinky (grey), Frank (seal point), Formal Kitty (I said “Tuxedo,” hubby was offended and corrected me), and then the one I’ve been calling Intrepid–the bold exploring blue point.

Kitties were all over us when we visited this morning–gone is the hissing, present is the mewing that’s more squeak than mew. We’ve noticed at least one has used the littler box, so it’s good to know that end is working, too.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

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I’ve never seen kittens hiss, but then I’ve never been the first human contact for four-week-old ferals, either.

It’s probably cute, too.