There is a young feral momma cat and her 3 baby kittens living in the woods behind my house...

Question

They are extremely skittish, and I have a reasonable idea where in the woods they are, but I haven't bothered them. For the past few days I've been putting out a bowl of kitten chow, and they've been coming up into my yard and eating it. As soon as they see me, though, they run back in the woods.

If I call animal control to capture them, they'll be kept about two weeks before being put down, if they're not adopted.

Should I just keep occasionally putting out bowls of food and letting them live their lives in the woods as free animals, or should I call animal control, or something else?

Answer 1

If they aren't hurting anyone, I would leave them alone just like a clutch of rabbits or other wild animal.

Answer 2

Are you sure the animal care and control will only give the animals two weeks to be adopted before euthanizing them? I would call animal care and control and ask how long they will be given first.

I know where I do work at, we give animals an infinite amount of time to be adopted, but people still get the impression from the media that all shelters kill animals after two weeks if they aren't adopted yet. But in a lot of places- that isn't the case. So I would double check on that first.

If it is true that that give only a limited amount of time, than I would probably keep doing what your doing.

Answer 3

I've been working a kitten dump for about a week now. There are about 100 kittens there and they are all sick with various stages of eye infection. Some have lost eyes already. If you leave the kittens out there like that, the ones who survive and don't get eaten or plagued with disease will reproduce. This time next year you could have over 100 kittens out there. You must catch them and have them spayed/neutered. You can do this or you can call a feral rescue if there is one where you live. They will be trapped, fixed, and released to a suitable area. You can even release them back where you live. You can get live traps from the Humane Society to catch them.  We caught a bunch by placing food and using fishing nets. Continue to feed them but make sure you catch them and have them fixed. Cats reproduce like lightning. A female can have her 1st heat at four months old and can have up to 4 litters a year at 1-14 kittens per litter.

Answer 4

Hi

Thanks for caring. Don't call animal control. Please keep feeding them.

mMaybe you can get a trap in the future to try and catch and tame the kittens or spay and release

Answer 5

Honestly, I usually do not like cats being outside animals but If they have enough room and are not near any main roads I dont see what harm it could do. Also with them being skittish most likely no one will adopt them and they will be put down. Maybe try finding a no kill shelter in the area. They might make you trap them but they usually have traps you can use. If they are outside in the woods then in about a year you may start seeing many kittens around. Please try anything you can before calling animal control. Cats love living outdoors!

Answer 6

i have a great love and respect for cats, i have a feeling what I'm about to say won't be popular , but i live in an ecologically sensitive area and feral cats do a lot of damage to our native fauna. if all of these cat don't at least get spayed, they will keep populating. their food sources will in time dry up ., and so on. i agree if you call animal control they will get put down. you could try and domesticate the kittens ,but it's too late for mum. i don't envy you and the decision you need to make .

Answer 7

I probably wouldn't call animal control, since they're not being a nuisance to others and since that would probably result in at least the mama cat being put down.

The best thing to do, if you can afford it, would be to trap the cats, take them to a vet or clinic to be spayed or neutered, and then release them back into the wild.  That would keep them all from having more babies and contributing to the overpopulation of feral cats.

If you take the kittens to a shelter or foster program, they have a fairly good chance of being adopted.  The mama should definitely be released back into the wild, though, as there aren't many people who would want to adopt an adult feral cat.

Answer 8

For feral cats there are several programs where they will capture, spay, and then release the kitties. They already know how to survive in the wild, so I guess that's why they let them go back out again, and this way the cats get to live out their nature lives without bringing more cats into the world who might be cold or not have enough to eat. This is just what I've heard through the grapevine from spending time at my local SPCA, but I'm not an expert. I'm sure your SPCA could tell you. If they tell you no, check for no-kill shelters in your area, because I'm sure there are programs to spay and release feral cats. Thanks for looking out for these kitties! (my friends adopted two feral cats, and they would come inside to eat and sleep when it was cold, but otherwise essentially steered clear of all human contact, so apparently there is some kind of compromise possible with some of them, I guess?)