Stolen kittens. New update: Mama cat might need a home

We found four tiny kittens in the horse barn. There’s a feral female that we’ve been trying to trap for awhile. Caught our neutered barn cat twice and a feral tom a couple of months ago. The feral is a grey calico. The tom was orange (we took him to the pound). Well, it rained hard last night so she brought her kittens in and stashed them in the cat tree. We stole them. We’ll keep trying to catch the female.

They’ve been bathed (covered with fleas), warmed, bottle fed, and are now sleeping.

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What do kitty experts think? Four weeks? Three weeks? Claws are out, not moving around very much yet, and the ears are still floppy and to the sides.

Darn, they are adorable.

Are they urinating and defecating on their own yet or did you help them with that too?

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We’ve had them inside for only a few hours, but they did respond to stimulation after feeding (I held them over a garbage can and wiped their little bums). Very yellow urine, so they’re probably a little dehydrated. No poop yet. Maybe after the next feeding.

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Id say about 3 - 4 weeks. http://www.kittenlady.org/age

Congrats on your adorable new responsibilities! They are gorgeous. Hopefully you can trap that mama ASAP and put her with them so you don’t have to do round-the-clock bottle feeding. Kittens can make excellent trap bait (monitored of course!)

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BABIESSSSSS. Oh there is just nothing cuter than baby kittens :heart: :heart:

These guys look old enough to potty by themselves and eat 3-4 times a day. I vote for 4 ish weeks. Have fun!!!

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That first kittens face from the left ! Squeeeeeeeee! Makes my :heart: mushy.

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So cute!

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Don’t know nuthin’ about raisin’ kittens but I gotta say OH MY GOSH I WANT TO HUG THEM! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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I don’t know how old they are but damn are they cute! Nothing cuter than a baby kitten! I hope you get mom so you can get her fixed!

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Sound like they have stolen some hearts… :heart_eyes:

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Kitten updates…

Our vet gave us something else for the fleas. Mild spray with a flea comb. It did seem to help. First deworming next week. They do not get the bottle at all. We’ve been using a syringe very slowly to prevent aspiration. The vet also gave us wet food to try. Three out of four kittens are eating wet food off our fingers. We have a scale and weighed them today. They’re between 12 and 14 ounces. They received their allotted amount of food per feeding based on tunny capacity and how much they need to eat to gain properly. Going off to bed for the night, but we get up early. I’ll probably be up at midnight to check on them and feed if they’re awake enough. Peeing after each meal, but no poop, yet. Hasn’t even been 12 hours since we stole them, though.

More pictures…names, in order: Sierra, Smoky, Spike and Eric. Their new owners will change them, I’m sure, but we needed something to call them. They are terribly anemic from the fleas. Summer kittens do poorly down here. They’ll be okay now. No hissing anymore. Just mewing for food and grunting in hunger. They twitch in their sleep as kittens do. New nervous systems and good dreams, I suppose. They study our faces quite bit, which is charming, of course.

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Squeee!!! they are so cute. And the names are great.

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Adorbs!

One of my cats is ‘stolen’ too. Lady that lived next to my boarding barn asked me if I wanted a cat. I told her I had one. “Would you like another one?” Well, I admitted I had been thinking about getting another one. She said wait…I’ll be right back. Off she went in her car and came back with a 5 week old kitten. Well, who the heck could say no? She stole them from her haystack when they were 3-4 weeks.
He is now a 15 y.o. fat lazy house cat.

Susan

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Did you ask your vet about giving anything for anemia? ANYTHING lacking like that or a problem like fleas or parasites can kill a young kitten. I’ve raised a number on a bottle and I just melt over a kitten! There were two at the vet clinic barn when I took my mare yesterday to be bred. I wanted sooooo bad to take them home – so precious - but have a great home! Good luck!

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The kittens are doing well. Still pulling fleas off, but they are gaining weight daily. I’m still worried about anemia. The vet gave us a prescription wet food, Recovery, I think. I’ll ask again about the anemia.

They are much more active already. I’ll try to upload a video and a link. Meanwhile, our now three year old orphan that we raised from two weeks of age is horribly jealous. He’s been acting out all weekend.

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Any luck catching the mommy?

Can’t until Tuesday. They only spay on Wednesdays.

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We have a theory that the mama cat put those kittens there on purpose. She picked the most obvious place where the kittens would be noticed. She could have hid them anywhere in the barn and the kittens would have been safe from the storm. Many spots would have made them inaccessible. Instead she picked the cat bed on the table next to where we feed one of the barn cats and right by the entrance. The most visible place as you enter the barn. Did we steal her kittens? Or, did she dump them? Judging by how much more energetic they are now and how much dried blood and fleas went down the drain when we bathed them, they may not have made it.

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I love how they just fall asleep where they land and in whatever position they land in. Too cute!

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