So, a cousin and I caught 2 six week old kittens today. They were born at my cousin’s tow yard, there are 3 litters born this spring and we’ve been trying to figure out how to catch and tame the kittens then trap and S/N the adults. These 2 babies made it easy today by climbing in the engine of their car. They aren’t hurt, and we took them in, I know they’re younger than what a lot of people say to take but we took advantage and have them. Now we have them crated and in a quiet room of their house. But I’m needing to know what all we need to do to set them up for success. We have the large crate, kitten food (soft and crunchy), litter and box. What else will help us? Any tips? I’ve worked in a shelter but it was years ago and we really didn’t have time to play and socialize babies.
I’d appreciate any tips.
Thanks
I took in a 5-week old feral kitten this year. It sounds like you have the right things. A small amount of kitten milk replacement could be mixed in with their feed for the next 2 weeks. My kitten hissed at me the first day or 2 but quickly became a cuddly little lovebug. She had diarrhea at first from being weaned.
Purrito them, and carry around. Just sit in their space and talk. Try to engage them in play.
Agree with other poster, mix KMR up for them. Make soft food a slurry with it. Add unflavored pedialite to their water or use to mix the kmr.
Once a bit bigger, kitty meat tubes work great, but may be too rich now.
Sounds silly, but I’ve bathed them, then wrapped up & held to keep warm and dry. It’s almost like they see you saved them from the evil faucet.
Lucky kittens!
If they won’t/can’t eat solid food yet, you may still need to do some bottle feeding with KMR. It can be tricky to convince kittens at that age to eat anything so let us know if you have trouble getting them to eat or drink. There’s a lot of collective kitten-rearing knowledge at COTH!
They’ll need deworming and flea control so you might want to check with your vet about that. It looks like they have an upper respiratory tract infection- that’s usually viral but eye ointment may be needed. Again, I’m no vet so you’ll want to check with yours.
Have fun with them! Kittens are so much fun.
They’ve been eating a little cat food with their mom’s, and we saw them taste the wet kitten food we put in the crate. I’m getting kitten milk and lysine tomorrow morning for them. No fleas, I was surprised at that. I did purrito the little grey one and carry her around. No hissing or spitting so far. Their breathing was fine today, I’ll see how it is tomorrow.
I’ll update tomorrow afternoon, and probably have more questions
Thanks for the ideas so far
They’re itty bitty!! Feed them, hold them and play with them. They should be good with you in a very short time.
They do need a check up from the vet though. Kittens can go down quickly and if they do have a uri or need eye ointment need to get it started quickly.
Precious babies 
Bless you for helping them!!! They look young enough to tame. In my experience, a lot of the ferals learn fear from their Mom. Good luck & let us know how it’s going.
Back in the day, 6 weeks was considered the right time to rehome kittens. Of course these were already quite socialized, mom would be a house cat. I would say just cuddle and carry them as much as possible, let them really bond to you. I think for ferals getting them a bit young is OK as they have had less socialization to be feral.
Since unlike dogs and horses, you can’t train cats to have boundaries anyhow 
there’s no downside to getting them to really bond or imprint with you. Get them to ride on your shoulder.
The 2 kittens are now 4. They caught 2 more this morning. We know these are all litter mates.
, and have the date they were born, today is their 6 week birthday. We got wormer and eye cleaner for them. Today they are more active, but only a little spicy. They are going to be fun. They are eating soft food, a little bit of kibble, and we got milk replacer just to supplement. My biggest concern is no evidence of them going potty yet. Should we try to stimulate them?
Here’s all 4, the yellowish one in back is really cream colored. We are pretty sure one cream and the dark one are female and then the boys.
It might not hurt to stimulate them, although my 6-week olds are going to the litterbox on their own just fine (and everywhere else when they’re out of the crate. . .) If Mum was still doing that for them, they might need a few days to adjust.
If using the powdered KMR, be sure to mix it with a little more water than the instructions say - mine had constipation within 24 hours from it. I put them back on the canned and it resolved itself.
Thanks for the heads up on powdered KMR. That’s what we have. I’ll shoot a text to my cousin tonight, so if she mixes some in the morning she can make it thinner.
Good news is we think we have homes for the males. We will not let them go until neutered though.
Don’t believe for a second that they don’t have fleas!
I took in 2 feral kittens, found no evidence of fleas. Took them to the vet within a week of capture, vet found no evidence of fleas.
Within another week, the room they were in was crawling with fleas! Evidently, there were flea eggs on them which fell off and hatched.
It was a nightmare getting rid of them. So much spraying, sweeping, carpet cleaning, etc.
I’d give each of them a warm sink bath with a little Dawn dish soap.
They’re so cute!
We’re checking them everywhere and not a hint of fleas. Even watching the outside cats for scratching and nothing. I’m surprised, but will take what you said under advisement and now that they are a bit more comfortable being handled a bath will be suggested. If they were here at my house I’d do it today.
They were supposed to be at my house, but 3 weeks ago I adopted a dog and my house is too small for 2 crates and to keep them apart.
Thanks for that heads up and hopefully we will avoid the flea issues
Super cute kitties! Good job catching them and working on getting them healthy and socialized. And I’m so glad to hear that you already have some adopters!
Please keep us updated! I’m looking forward to seeing how they bloom in your care.
Kittens are doing great so far. Half hearted hisses when picked up, and squirming while being held, but it’s only been since Sunday/Monday. They are eat, drinking, peeing, and pooping fine. They use their box and cuddle in their blanket to groom each other. Today was bath day. We are taking all the suggestions from you guys and it’s helped. Their eyes are not gunky anymore either, so I think we are doing a decent job so far. Here’s a picture of them after bath and one of my new dog meeting one.
Something that I have seen our COTHers doing is weighing them every few days to make sure they are doing ok. (Says the one who has never rescued kittens herself…) @moonlitoaksranch has a great thread on her chaos with 3 (?) litters of kittens at once.
(Thanks for picking these nuggets up!)
They should be weighed at least every day. Staying the same is not good, especially over several days. Should gain 1/2 oz + per day.
We talked about weighing them and forgot. Thank you guys for the reminder. I will text my cousin tonight. There are two more small litters on the property but we haven’t been able to get them. We feel bad that they will most likely end up outside feral, but once they are big enough to spring a trap we are going to try to get them fixed too along with the other adults.
Ah yes…Welcome to Kittenland. Where the fun - and the kittens - never stops.
Thank you for caring for these little ones and any future littlers.
Our kittens are doing great. Eating like little pigs, playing and getting fat and sassy. They are being weighed now, 1 1/2 pounds mostly. A couple are a little smaller but all in all pretty close to the same weights. Eyes are clear, but still can have a bit of gunk some mornings, not stuck shut though just in corners. They are spicy and very squirmy, but haven’t tried to bite at all. Here’s the newest pictures of a couple of them.
