Expert: Tina - 7/2/2007

Question
A feral mother had a litter of 5 kittens in my backyard. I was told by my vet when the kittens begin to eat soft food remove them from the mother. I did a few days ago they are about 4-5 weeks. I was afraid they would become feral and I would never get them. Was that the right thing to do? I am getting the mother spayed next week. 4 of the 5 kittens are doing really well. The 5th one wants to be left alone and is very tiny. Should I maybe put that one back with it's mother in the hopes of catching it to get fixed?

Answer
Hi Amy,

Good work catching the kittens and planning to spay the mother cat!

You've done the right thing - keep all the kittens with you but give some extra attention to the runt - the smallest one. There is often a runt of the litter and they sometimes do not grow as fast as their siblings but often end up just as large and healthy in the end, they just have some catching up to do!

Hold her a lot, close to your body, and hand feed her, supplement the canned food with some "KMR" sold at pet stores (kitten milk replacer) to make sure they get ebnough calcium and vitamins - especially the runt. I recommend Wellness or Nature's Variety canned food to feed the kittens.

Good luck!