Catching "wild" kittens?

Question

A stray mother cat had 4 kittens under our porch. They are about 6 weeks old. We fed them every day for 3 days before attempting to catch them. We successfully caught 3 of them (I got the 4th one too, but didn't realize it could jump out of the box!!)

If we continue leaving food out, what are the chances the 4th baby will return? We haven't seen it since it jumped out and darted off about 6 hours ago. The mother has returned several times, and cried out for her babies. But no sign of the 4th kitten anywhere.

Will it come back?

Or did we freak out this little 6 week old enough to become a feral cat too??

The last thing we need is more stray cats in our neighborhood.

And for those of you wondering what we did with the other 3 kittens...we took them to a no-kill animal shelter, they got immediate veterinarian visits & all of them are on anti-biotics for goopy eyes. The foster family already has them & are waiting for the 4th kitten to raise them together...

Answer 1

You need to try to catch the mother too so it can be sent to the shelter/humane society and be spayed and possibly adopted.  Just catching the babies does not solve the problem.  

Answer 2

Contact your local shelter about borrowing a humane trap for the kitten.  These traps can be set with food, and safely trap the kitten so that you may transport her to the vet.  Do not feed her for 12 hours then leave food out on the trap - guaranteed to work.  Your shelter should be able to direct you to someone that can loan a trap if they do not have one.  

Answer 3

Try doing absolutely nothing.  It is possible that the kitten will for no discernable reason end up on the wheel well of your car and will meow at you as you prepare to get in to drive away.  We have stray cats in the area, and I have had a total of 6 kittens end up there.  I don't know why, but they are just attracted to that spot.

Answer 4

you should keep food out, if it wants to go back it will want the food. With my experience it came back the next day.

Answer 5

Keep leaving food out, and use a catch-and-release trap.  

Trap link: http://www.tractorsupply.com/webapp/wcs/...