With kitten season underway, the San Diego County Department of Animal Services is advising individuals not to be a “kitnapper.” That suggests if you experience an ignored kitten litter in your neighborhood, don’t be so fast to scoop them up and bring them to a shelter.
But why wouldn’t you hurry to comfort them and get them food and heat? The mom cat might simply be out hunting for her meal prior to going back to nurse her neonatal kittens. Neonatal kittens are 4 weeks and under and are still nursing; they cannot make it through by themselves and require unique care.
Mother cats generally leave litters alone for stretchs of time. And unfortunately, in some cases go back to discover their kittens are gone since a well-meaning individual wished to rescue them.
From this time through October every year, unchanged outside cats bring to life litters of kittens.
Kittens are typically much better off sticking with their moms till they are 8 weeks old, if possible.
When to action in quicker:
- If the kittens remain in instant threat from such things as traffic or predators
- If the kittens are noticeably ill or hurt
- If you don’t see a mom cat return after 6 hours and feel the kittens require care
If you are going to help, think about looking after them yourself, or contacting a next-door neighbor or friend to see if they can help. Many regional family pet shops bring kitten milk replacers and the correct bottles (please don’t utilize an eyedropper). Bottle-feeding kittens can be gratifying however is extremely time extensive considering that day-and-night feedings are required till the kittens are old adequate to consume strong food.
A kitten’s age is an important consider its capability to grow (learn how to estimate a kitten’s age). Contact your vet for information on looking after neonates.
As a last option, you can bring them to your jurisdictional animal shelter. If kittens are healthy and strong, shelter staff strive to instantly discover a partner shelter, foster caretaker, or rescue organization to effectively look after neonatal kittens that are given a shelter. This is done since the County shelters do not have over night staff to look after them. Underage kittens likewise cannot be immunized yet and are prone to diseases in a shelter environment.
For these factors, it’s so crucial to help in reducing the variety of undesirable kittens by making sterile and sterilizing your cats, the free-roaming cats you see in your community, and by motivating your next-door neighbors to modify their cats.
And obviously, if you’d like to adopt, please watch on our adoptable pets page as brand-new animals are included daily, who will be purified or neutered, to contribute to your family.
