Hi there, I hope you can help. My family and I have had two cats (brother and sister) for around 2 years now (who are probably around 3 years old now). We recently inherited another two cats (two sisters who are around 9 months) from our daughter who couldn't look after them anymore.

The problem is that when we inherited the other two cats, we found out they were both pregnant. We did originally look at getting them terminated but by the time we had booked them in, the vet told us they were heavily pregnant and as such we dediced to let them have the babies with the aim to finding new homes for the kittens when the time is right.

All good so far.

So now, each of the two younger girl cats had 4 kittens. One had them under my daughters bed (these are now 2 weeks old) and the other in the dining room (these are 1 week old). All appear to be healthy and happy.

The main problem now is that we really need to see if we can move the first set of kittens from under to bed to another location, perferably where the second cat had hers in the dining room. We attempted to move the kittens yesterday all to the same room, but the mum just picked them up and tried to take them upstairs again... so we moved them all back under the bed.

Is there any way we can move them into the same room? Or should we just leave them where they are? What techniques can we use to get the mum happy to move them? Naturally we'd like to move them for a couple of reasons - their current position is inconveniant; they are upstairs so when the want to start using a litter tray, we want that down stairs (and I guess little kittens can't make their way up and down stairs); and also because the bedroom and being upstairs isn't probably the safest place for them.

Also, I understand that at around 3 weeks they will start to want to feed themselves... is that correct? How does one actually get them to start eating food? Do you need to place food by the kittens, or will them make their own way to the food?

Oh and one final question, one of my daughters insists on picking up the kittens by the skin on the back of the necks like the mums do themselves... I hate this and consitant tell her not to, but is it safe? After all, the cats do it that way themselves?

Oh and one more final, final question... when we do find homes for the kittens once they are weaned, how will the mums react? Will they be very "upset" that their babies have gone? Is there a particular way that one should separate kittens from their mums? By that I mean, should they all be rehomed let's say at the same time to make it a short, sharp pain for the mum, or perhaps take a kitten away every day or so? Or doesn't it matter? Should we consider letting each mum keep at least one kitten (although that would mean we'd end up with 6 cats!), or doesn't it really matter too much?

Thanks.

Any advise you can give would be much appreciated.

Hi. The kits mum will want to keep them where she had them I'm afraid. Here's some usefull information for you:

Newborn Kittens

Assuming the mother cat is happy and settled with her new family and that each kitten is feeding from her, you can leave them to sleep. The kittens are born with their eyes closed and should be left were they were born as the mother will normally provide for all there needs until they reach three or four weeks of age.

Keep a regular check on the kittens progress, making sure that they are all getting their share of mother's milk. It is good to let the youngsters become accustomed to your smell and contact as it will help them to become socialized. A word of warning here! Try to limit the amount of visitors, this is sometimes hard to do especially if you have children, as they will be eager to look and touch the tiny kittens. When the kittens are around ten days old they will start to open their tiny eyes, and at about fourteen, will be moving around their box. At three weeks of age they will be wanting to explore their surroundings, and it may start to prove difficult to keep them safe from all the household dangers.

At about four weeks the kittens will be ready to start taking solid food, which also means they will need a litter tray. We do not have to worry about litter training as the mother cat will normally teach them all they need to know about toileting, and they usually learn very quickly. It should go without saying that it is very important to change the litter regularly.

It is very true to say, that from now until the kittens leave home they will keep you fairly busy! Weaning is the next step forward, and not all kittens will take to eating solid food as soon as we would like. If you have any that will not eat, you could try them on a very small amount of a strong smelling food, like tinned pilchard with the tomato sauce or oil washed off. These are too rich for young cats as a normal diet, but when the reluctant kitten responds to the food, you can then change back again to its normal food.


KITTEN'S PROGRESS CHART

Birth weight should be approximately 2 to 4 ounces.
By the end of the first week kitten should double in body weight.
The eyes should open at about 8 days.
The eyes will stay blue for about 2 weeks. The true eye colour will not appear until about 3 months.
The ears will start to stand up at 2 weeks.
The kitten will try to walk at about 3 weeks.
At 4 weeks teeth will start to develop, and kittens will start to play with each other.
A kitten at 6 months, is starting to show social traits of a fully grown cat, by the age of 12 months it will have attained the equivalent physical growth of a 15 year old human teenager. By the end of its first year, the kitten has become a cat, although some larger breeds such as the Main Coon may take a few more months to attain full adult size. The Manx takes five years to become fully grown.

Feeding Kittens

After weaning, your kittens can be fed any of the specially formulated kitten foods. They are available in many different flavours and textures. At three months of age, your kitten is still a baby and requires three or four small meals a day. To avoid finicky eating habits later, you should feed various flavours of foods during this time. If you switch between food types, you must always do so gradually, by mixing the original food with increasing quantities of the new food.

As it grows older, meals should become larger and be less frequent. At twelve months your kitten is considered an adult and should be fed only twice a day. It is good to feed your cat a variety of foods, using a mixture of canned, dried and fresh foods if possible not forgetting to always read the label on the food container, as some foods are only supplements and not complete diets.

You should feed your kitten with kitten/growth cat food until it is one year old. At that stage, gradually change the diet into regular cat food. The accelerated growth of kittenhood is usually complete and the cat should adjust to adult cat food and regular eating habits.

Ian F.

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"Always turn and look when your cat gazes behind you with that intent look in her eyes. Some day there might actually be something there." - T.S. Eliot

Thanks for that. I'd seen that info on various web sites already though and whilst very helpful, I'm not sure it answers my specific questions.

I do understand your comments about the kittens' mum wanting to keep them where she had them... but for how long will this last? Perhaps it's just a silly question as I guess when they are old enough to walk around, they will move anyway... but I guess she and they will keep the "under the bed area" as their home for a few weeks to come.

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I will try and help you here the best I can, I have 10 cats and have had cats all my life but only had one cat have a litter.

My cat wouldnt let me move the kittens until they were about 3 weeks old and then she seemed to just go where they went, once they start 'staggering' about they go all over the place anyway.

Regarding eating, we initially gave them things like ready brek made with evaporated milk and wheatabix made in the same way (not hot !), we used to put this on our fingers and feed let the kittens lick it off, after that we left some dry kitten food (soaked with water) down from about 3 weeks, the kittens just started to eat it when they wanted, one of the kittens ate at about 3 weeks another not until a good week later, we did also give them small pieces of fresh chicken, we tried to get them used to as many different types of kitten food as we could so they would be Ok at the new homes.

I know you can pick kittens up by the scruff of the neck and it doesnt hurt them if done in the right way, but it always looks so cruel to me.

Hopefully the Mum cat will train the kittens to use the cat litter but you need to have a few trays about the house for the first couple of weeks, there is no way they will get from downstairs from upstairs when they want to go !

By 8-10 weeks when they can be rehomed, (whatever you do dont re-home them before this) the Mum cat has very little interest in the kittens by this stage and if your cat is anything like mine was she will be glad to get rid of them, we kept two of the kittens and the mum cat is forever bashing them over the head or growling at them.

You will need to get advice from your Vet on worming and flea treatment as this is really important in the early stages.

Hope that helps a bit, as I said, I am not an expert by any means

That's very helpful. Basically your comments are:

They can just stay where they are until they are big enough to be mobile by themselves;

Put litter tray and food upstairs (oh well! );

Scruff of the next is OK if done nicely; and

The mum might be glad for the kittens to be gone.

Yep thats it and dont forget the worming (that will need to be done quite soon)