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Hi, so here's the situation: We noticed a stray-ish cat belonging to a neighbor several houses down hanging around our stacks of firewood for a couple weeks, and just recently found out why; she's got a kitten with her. I'm not entirely sure if it was born there or if she brought it there in the last week or so. There's only one. From what I've read, I would estimate the kitten to be 5-6 weeks old. It plays around and it's capable of following its mother. They disappeared for a couple days after they were first spotted and I thought that they had left, but today she left the kitten in the firewood stacks again. She seems to leave it there in the morning, it hides there all day, and then she comes back in the evening. I've put out food and water for the kitten and it usually comes out to eat after about 15 minutes to an hour. It doesn't eat very much, maybe a tablespoon full every time. The mother gets fed down at the neighbor's house. The neighbor has at least five cats, and none of them are fixed. I'd like to adopt the kitten, but it and its mother are very, very skittish. The kitten in particular is extremely skittish when its mother isn't around, I can't get anywhere near it. However, we do not want the mother cat coming and having more kittens in there, so we've been trying not to feed her, just the kitten, in hopes that she won't come back and have more of them. I know you all are going to recommend that I get the mother cat fixed, but for one thing, I'm not sure I want to pay to have two cats fixed, and for another, it's not really a stray, it belongs to the neighbor. Right now my plan is just to keep feeding the kitten and hope that it gets used to me enough that I can touch it and have it fixed, vaccinated, etc. Is this realistically something that's likely to happen? Alternately I know that online guides recommend to catch feral kittens in a live trap, but I'm skeptical that I could get the kitten to ever go into a trap, and I'm not sure where I'd put it once I caught it. Anyone have any suggestions or experience with this type of situation?
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Jun 30, 2018 05:20
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 08:25 |
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You just kinda chuck the trap out there with food in it and hide it in some bushes so they can't see it's an enclosure
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Jun 30, 2018 13:15
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I've decided to feed the mother and the kitten. Do you think that if I feed them for long enough that they'll let me approach them?
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Jun 30, 2018 21:19
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Sucrose posted:I've decided to feed the mother and the kitten. Do you think that if I feed them for long enough that they'll let me approach them? Cats are assholes and it's fairly unlikely, but I've tamed a few that way. I hope you manage to get them dude.
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Jul 2, 2018 22:04
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