Is this okay?

Here at my house, we have a few cats that live outside, including two feral females. A person cannot get closer than 6 feet to either cat because she runs away. Anyways, both of them are wild, so naturally they have both had a litter of kittens recently. About three weeks ago. I also have another female cat who is very tame and very lovable. She is currently pregnant with a litter of her own. I believe she is due to give birth in about a week's time.

Yes I know, three litters of kittens is a ton of cats. I am taking the tame female to be spayed after her kittens are rehomed. The other two wild cats, my family and I do not know what to do with them.

Anyways, my story: I found one of the wild cat's kittens earlier today. There were two of them and they are sooo adorable and sweet. I'd say that these two kittens have just opened their eyes, so they are still very young.

I have brought the tame pregnant cat inside to give birth to her kittens. She is staying in my bedroom. When I found the two little kittens outside, I brought them inside and showed them to her. She immediately adopted them as her own, even though she is still huge with her own kittens.

The thing I am wondering is these little kittens are trying to nurse on their adopted pregnant mom. She doesn't have any milk yet as her own kittens aren't born yet.

I know that I will have to feed these babies since they won't be getting any good out of nursing their adopted mom. I guess the good thing about her adopting them is that I won't have to bathroom them. ^^* She's already began bathing them and stimulating them to potty, so she's a wonderful mother.

I was just wondering if it was okay for these two little kittens to nurse on the pregnant mom even though she doesn't have milk?

I am aware that when she gives birth to her own kittens, the adopted kittens will have to be put seperate when they arrive and then I'll have to keep an eye on the newborns to make sure that the older, stronger ones aren't preventing the newborns from filling their own bellies when mom's milk arrives.

What do you all think? Should I let them be as they are, since they all three seem very happy, or should I seperate them at least until the kittens and milk arrive?

-Tara

How are they feeding now? It may be best to return them to their mother or else they may die of starvation.

I'm not sure how it will effect your cat's own pregnacy but I think the best thing would be to let their natural mother look after them... the longer you hold on to them the more likely she will reject them.

hi tara
sorry i dont know hoe to help but good on you for helling these little babies

Tara, if the natural mum isn't around, you may well have to hand rear them.

Although they're are nursing from the other cat, they're not getting anything from her. By all means keep them with her, but, you have to hand feed them yourself. As Azz has said, they'll starve otherwise.

sorry i am not a cat expert but wish you well with all those cute little kittens. Can the wild cats not be caught and spayed?

Lol, I said in my post several times that I am bottle feeding these kittens, since I know that the adoptive mom isn't producing any milk. I think anyways. Yes, I know they would starve otherwise, I have a little kitten bottle and a kitten formula. They don't like it much and haven't really eaten much of it, but out of instinct they still try to nurse off of their adoptive mom.

I was just concerned that it might either hurt the mother cat or cause her to be disinterested in her own kittens when they arrive. Surely her instincts would take over and she'll love her own kittens just as much as she did with these kittens. Especially since these kittens have their real mom's scent all over them.

No, the wild cats cannot be caught. We figured that they would be sooooooo scared of being put into a cage, ride in a car which they are afraid of as it is now, and also, how would the vet administer the medicine to make them sleep for a spay? He would probably sue for his own medical bills concerning cat bites and stratches. There really isn't anything we can do about these cats.

do you know why the mum wouldnt feed them? poor little mites good job they have you

If the wild mother cat is around you should return the kittens. Not only do they need her milk she will be full of milk and could well get mastitis if she has no nursing kittens.

I have looked after feral cats and the best thing to do is trap them & take them to be spayed. The vet will be perfectly competent to handle them.

Please do not leave them to keep having litters.

I don't believe I should return the kittens to the mother for a very good reason.

A couple of years ago, I brought home a little female kitten. My mom said that I could keep her only if I saved up the money to have her spayed. I tried my hardest, but I couldn't save enough money. My parents were unable to do it themselves because we were having some terrible financial troubles. There were more important things needing to be paid.

So this little kitten grew up and had kittens. I searched and searched for them but was never able to find where she had hid them. Eventually, they started coming out. I was never able to catch any of them, no matter what I tried. This whole litter of kittens grew up to be 4 wild adults, all of them female. The mother of them ran away from home, I was never able to find her.

Out of these four wild cats, one ran away and the other three stayed around and had litters of their own. I think I was able to find all of these litters and rehomed them. After some time, one more feral cat ran away. Now there are two. These cats were never caught, no matter what we tried. My parents even considered having them shot or something to be rid of them, but I obviously talked them out of it because that was a cruel and evil way to deal with cats.

These two cats stuck around and had another litter of kittens each. I never found these litters, the cats hid them too well. Yes, I followed them and tried to be sneaky, but it didn't work. Those kittens grew up into little teen cats.

I was lucky with most of those kittens because I was able to catch some of them and tame them up. Some were rehomed, some had to stay here because nobody wanted to adopt them.

So pretty much my point is, we had a terrible cat problem. We now have it under control, except for the two wild cats, obviously.

I do not want to return these two kittens to the mom because she will start the whole process over again. If I return them to her, she will move them someplace more hidden. I only found them today because they had crawled out of the hole in the ground where their nest was. *sigh*

Some of you might think these are silly reasons and that I am a terrible cat owner. I had a cat problem in the past. It was terrible. But luckily since then my family and I have managed and we have gained control of the reproduction rate. All except the two feral cats and the one tame cat that hasn't been spayed yet but will be after her kittens are born.

Sorry to go on and on, I'm just worried that the problem will reoccur. I really don't ever want that to happen again. We had too many cats.

If anyone is still reading and is interested in an update on the kittens, I got one of them to drink out of the bottle, finally. He drank a ton, he was so hungry. The other one hasn't yet figured out yet that the bottle is food and so still hasn't eaten. I'm sure he will soon, though, once he is hungry enough.

That's good news
Fingers crossed that the others start feeding soon.

Sorry, I don't know anything about cats but If you feel that the response to your query hasn't been answered here, have you thought of asking on catpages.co.uk?

I do wish you the best of luck with them all.