Expert: Tina - 12/5/2007

Question
I have a 7-month-old neutered male kitten trapped feral but now totally domesticated. I just added his 9-week-old full brother, trapped feral also. (Mom has eluded traps for 3 years now.) The older kitten plays awfully rough with the younger. No real aggression involved, but pretty rough play. I have been keeping the little guy in a wire dog kennel unless supervised closely, for his own safety and until he's completely socialized. The two kittens play constantly through the wires. It's when they're both loose that the really rough play starts. Suggestions? Also, any suggestions for trapping the very trap-wise mother? We'd like to get her spayed if at all possible.

Answer
Hi Pat,

Kittens can play very rough sometimes but severe injuries are rare. it's a good way for them to learn what hurts and what is OK... the most likely injury to be concerned about is scratches to eyes, so if you can keep their claws trimmed a bit you can prevent damage to eyes.

Since the younger one is still small and may not be able to escape unwanted rough play, it's good to supervise them for now, but I think once he is 12 weeks you can start allowing them to be together more and more, unsupervised.

As for the mother, thank you for trying to trap and spay her! For trap-wise kitties, a drop trap works best, here are some suggestions:

http://catinfo.org/Remotecontrol-droptrap.htm

http://alleycat.org/resources_care.html#3

Good luck and GREAT WORK!