HELP! I found a stray kitten!

[♥Princess of Lions♥]

Hi everyone!! I was coming home today when I found a stray kitten outside and tried to rescue her. People who live in the area where I found her had said she's been there for a few days now and hides up on the inside of a car, so this indicated to me that she doesn't have a mom cat taking care of her. It took me about two hours to lure her out of the car and to a position where I was able to catch her, but I got her and brought her home in a dog carrier I have! She seems to be about six weeks old. I'm planning to take her to a vet in the morning, and I want to keep and care for her. If anyone has any advice, I would absolutely love to hear! I know keeping her warm is important, giving her soft/watery food, and avoiding cow milk.

Thank you so much!

[arcadia.]

aw, good luck on your journey with her <33

[Lemon Bark]

I'm glad youve got a vet trip asap!


I dont know too much about kittens but would like to offer the general tips of keeping her in a small space away from other animals (bathrooms work great), avoiding getting scratched or bitten both due to infections and negative lessons about hands/holding, and making sure that she is drinking and using the restroom!

ShelterMedicine . com has a pretty good article on kitten care that should help until the vet can give you personalized advice!

[nhi]

Hello, first off, I just want to say thank you, for helping this kitten out because otherwise I don't think anyone else would have helped if other people noticed her after a few days and still didn't do much...

Grateful to hear that you are taking it to the vet in the morning, that is a great idea to make sure she's healthy and isn't sick, maybe can help with vaccinations or not when the time comes. usually a kitten doesnt ween off the mother until 8 weeks but clearly the mother is not around, you may have to bottle feed the kitten with formula milk. i think there is a formula/milk replacer formula you can make to feed your kitten. the vet will probably give you a more in-depth care routine for the kitten, if it has any health problems there may be special care.

Cats love boxes! I gave my roommate's kittens a box to lay in and a bunch of blankets and they loved it. keep in mind they are kitten, so may get messy and get litter everywhere. use catnip on things you wanna train the cat to do - treats after using litter, catnip with scratch post and toys, etc.

and lots of love and patience... you got this!

[♥Princess of Lions♥]

I'm glad youve got a vet trip asap!


I dont know too much about kittens but would like to offer the general tips of keeping her in a small space away from other animals (bathrooms work great), avoiding getting scratched or bitten both due to infections and negative lessons about hands/holding, and making sure that she is drinking and using the restroom!

ShelterMedicine . com has a pretty good article on kitten care that should help until the vet can give you personalized advice!

Thank you so much! She's in a crate meant for a 25 lb dog and she's really tiny, like the size of my hand, so she has a lot of room in there. I have two large towels in there for warmth and a little bowl of water. She doesn't bite; when I was trying to catch her she would run away, but now that she's in the crate and I've fed her bits of turkey she lets me pet her without trying to run. She doesn't bite or scratch at me or anything.

Hello, first off, I just want to say thank you, for helping this kitten out because otherwise I don't think anyone else would have helped if other people noticed her after a few days and still didn't do much...

Grateful to hear that you are taking it to the vet in the morning, that is a great idea to make sure she's healthy and isn't sick, maybe can help with vaccinations or not when the time comes. usually a kitten doesnt ween off the mother until 8 weeks but clearly the mother is not around, you may have to bottle feed the kitten with formula milk. i think there is a formula/milk replacer formula you can make to feed your kitten. the vet will probably give you a more in-depth care routine for the kitten, if it has any health problems there may be special care.

Cats love boxes! I gave my roommate's kittens a box to lay in and a bunch of blankets and they loved it. keep in mind they are kitten, so may get messy and get litter everywhere. use catnip on things you wanna train the cat to do - treats after using litter, catnip with scratch post and toys, etc.

and lots of love and patience... you got this!

Thank you so much! They said they had tried to catch her and lure her with dog food and stuff, but no such luck. I lured her out over a 2 hour process of giving her turkey underneath the car and slowly moving the turkey closer to me until she was close enough to catch her. It took me a couple times to get her, she dodged me a few times at first lol

[RosieGem15]

I have no advice just a GOOD LUCK!!!Wishing all luck to you and your kitty!

[captxin]

Ive had this happen only a few months ago!! What I did with the kitten I found is to slowly get them used to you. I quarantined him in my room (because I have other cats and a dog thats somehow just as small as him), and got him slowly used to me.

You should never let them free-feed, but dont starve them! My bed is in the corner of my room and he would always hide under my bed. I put the food right next to the back of my bed, so I would always watch him when he ate his food. Eventually, I started moving my hand down. He would hiss once in a while, but eventually after about a month or two I managed to pet him for the first time.

A good thing to do for strays to get them to trust you is put wet food on your finger, and let them lick it off. Make sure to be very gentle with them, and when you are feeding them from your hands, try to move as less as possible, or if you want, you can also take this opportunity to try and pet them! Remember though, these take patience.

Im also curious, what did you name them? (I named mine turbulence. . but we call him turbo as an actual name ^_^)

[uta1911]

Hi everyone!! I was coming home today when I found a stray kitten outside and tried to rescue her. People who live in the area where I found her had said she's been there for a few days now and hides up on the inside of a car, so this indicated to me that she doesn't have a mom cat taking care of her. It took me about two hours to lure her out of the car and to a position where I was able to catch her, but I got her and brought her home in a dog carrier I have! She seems to be about six weeks old. I'm planning to take her to a vet in the morning, and I want to keep and care for her. If anyone has any advice, I would absolutely love to hear! I know keeping her warm is important, giving her soft/watery food, and avoiding cow milk.

Thank you so much!

hi! i work in vet med, thank you for adopting a stray! check for any fleas, dirty ears, and a pot-bellied appearance. these are some common symptoms of parasites street cats have. if you find any of those issues, make sure to bring them up to the vet! if you see a lot of fleas, do a quick warm bath with dish soap. fleas can be fatal in young kittens.

if she's around 6 weeks, feeding kitten (not all life stages) food. if she's feral, make sure she feels comfortable around you before hand feeding. this is an important time to socialize feral kittens for companionship.

if you have any other cats in the house, separate them until this kitten gets FeLV/FIV testing.

monitor for any sneezing, eye discharge, drooling, and inappatence. these are common signs of URI and street/shelter cats are very susceptible to them.

this is a lot of information the vet will go over, but these are things to be aware of

edit:

i wanted to discuss vacciations.

typically we start vaccinating kittens/puppies at 8 weeks and then every 4 weeks until 16 weeks because the antibodies provided by the mother's milk begins to wear off when weaning begins (around 4-6 weeks). sometimes they are vaccinated at 6 weeks and this kitty may need to get vaccines earlier since we don't know exactly when he/she was weaned off. your veterinarian will know how to best assess the vaccination schedule.