Summary
You’ve considered all the factors to help make your decision to intervene or not. There is a lot to think about; some situations may make it easy to decide and others may make it difficult. Reach out to organizations in your area that may be able to help.
Finding Kittens Outdoors: Making the Decision Whether to Intervene
If you come upon kittens, especially young kittens who appear to be on their own, you may be tempted to remove them from their nest. However, that may not be in their best interest. Kittens’ best chance of survival is being with their mother through their weaning process, and it’s best to leave them in place with their mother whenever possible. So, before removing kittens you encounter outdoors, it’s important to consider several factors to determine how to provide the best outcome for the kittens.
Making Your Decision About What’s Best for the Kittens
Making the decision that results in the best outcome for kittens found outdoors is challenging. It depends on assessing and weighing each of five factors:
- Kittens’ age
- Kittens’ health condition
- Presence or absence of the mother cat
- Quality and suitability of the kittens’ location and environment
- Resources that are available to you for helping and supporting the kittens.
See the Finding a Kitten Outdoors: Factors to Consider Before Intervening article.
Sometimes the kittens’ age, health condition and location make the decision clear-cut. For example:
- Kittens who are visibly sick or injured or in a condition that indicates there is not a mother cat present or she is unable to care for them adequately need to be removed and provided with care.
- Kittens who are healthy, below five weeks of age, in a relatively safe environment with a dependable food supply and the mother cat is present are best left in place until it’s time to remove the kittens for socialization, if necessary, and adoption, and make arrangements for the mother cat’s spay and placement options.
However, most situations are more nuanced, with a mixture of positive and negative factors to be weighed against each other, and each situation will be different.
Know you are helping the kittens by making your best judgment call, using the information you have gathered about the kitten’s situation (see five factors above) whether that process results in leaving the kittens in place, removing them for adoption or spaying or neutering them and returning them to their outside home.
The final way you can help is to contact an animal shelter or rescue organization with a trap-neuter-return (TNR) program, a TNR organization, or low-cost spay/neuter clinic for assistance in spaying the mother cat. If these options aren’t available, please contact a private practice veterinarian for assistance.
Tip: Please don’t “Kitten or Cat-Nap.” Make sure the mother cat and kittens don’t have a home or caregiver before removing them, and file a found report with your local animal shelter and animal care/control agency. If you remove the kittens and mother in an emergency situation, be sure to file the reports as soon as you can. If possible, have the mother cat scanned for a microchip. Animal shelters and veterinary practices usually have the ability to scan for microchips.
