# How to track a nursing female?



## librarychick (May 25, 2008)

I'm caring for a colony in my condo complex and the main female has had another litter. I currently have a litter of approx the same age upstairs, and I'd love to take the babies from her.

I'm not just mean, or planning badly, this mum is extremely feral. From her last litter I caught 4 of the 6, but I'm sure the 2 i missed are females and are helping mum raise the new litter.

I have a foster mum, she has fostered before and her kittens are about the same age as the lead female's. Is there a good way for me to track her to find the nest?
I'd love to paint her feet or something, lol...

She won't get within 10 feet of me, and she's so nervous of people that me actually following her isn't working. I've tried a few times, but she's quick and she manages to hide before I can see her.

I've tried asking around to see if anyone knows where they are, but the people here would generally be ok with them dying. Needless to say I'm not ok with that.

Basically I want to catch the whole litter before they're too mobile in hopes that I can socialize them better at that age.

Any ideas???


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## Jeanie (Jun 18, 2003)

I had to look up this one! It's a new question. The obvious way to do it would be to watch the movements of the feral cat, listen for little crying sounds, and take the kittens when mother cats is eating the food you have put out for her.

However, there are other, more subtle ways, and one of them has to do with scratch marks on nearby trees, and the other is looking for their feces. Here's a link that I think will be helpful. Good luck! 

Perhaps some of our other members have additional ideas. 

I hope you can trap the mother for TNR also.

Keep us informed, please.


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## librarychick (May 25, 2008)

I do plan on TNRing her, i need fund first though. The hard part.

She generally doesn't come to my feeding station when i feed. If she comes at all she waits until dark. She was here today picking through our garbage *sighs* I did walk around trying to listen for kittens, but no luck. The problem is that there's so many places to hide around here that they could be almost anywhere!

Thanks for the reply!

*note* you missed adding the link


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## Jeanie (Jun 18, 2003)

Whoops!  Here you go! 

http://amby.com/cat_site/carter_4.html

And here's a link for low cost spaying and neutering:

http://www.lovethatcat.com/spayneuter.html

Good luck!


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## librarychick (May 25, 2008)

I've found the lowest cost in my area, I'm in Alberta, Canada so the lowest anywhere goes is $130 for females and $60 for males. 

In the Edmonton area I'm pretty well the first person trying to do something about ferals; and with working full time, my three cats, the foster and 4 kits i have...i haven't got tons of time left over. It's hard, and it's harder due to a lack of interest from everyone around pretty much. Hopefully I can get going soon. Right now the adoption fees from the kits is going to help cover their mum, and hopefully this dominant queen of the colony. We'll see from there.


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## librarychick (May 25, 2008)

Any suggestions for tracking her? I've cheked the entire complex...Unless she leads me to them I'm not going to find them until it's too late. She's just so wild!


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## Jeanie (Jun 18, 2003)

The article also mentioned looking for her feces. This is not an easy chore. The only two concrete methods in the article were watching for scratched trees and feces. I wish I could help more. I have always found kittens from their cries or from watching mother cat's movements. Sorry. 

However, feral kittens can be tamed much more easily than feral cats. Eventually, mother cat will bring them for food. Then you can try to trap all of them. Mother can be sent for t/n/r, and you can work with the kittens. I wish you luck, and thank you for caring.


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