Street kitten. Life and behavior of street cats

What to do if you pick up a kitten on the street

If you want to adopt a cat from the street, but you are afraid for his health or the health of other pets, you are right. Simply bringing an outdoor cat home can have consequences. For example, a new cat will bring fleas and infection to the household inhabitants. This does not mean that you should be afraid of stray animals. Street kittens become the most loyal pets if done correctly.

In this article we will tell you how to bring a cat from the street so that everyone has a good time

Bring it home

The cat on the street lives in constant stress. It won't be surprising if he doesn't let you catch him and hisses. Be careful, even a small kitten can be dangerous and scared. It is better to wrap the cat in something warm, such as a blanket or hat, or place it in a carrier.

Do not wash

Usually cats from the street are immediately washed with flea shampoo, but this should not be done. Most likely, an outdoor cat will have shingles, and if you wash it, the infection will spread throughout the body. Then it will be much more difficult to treat. In addition, the shampoo is quite toxic, and for a weakened cat or kitten this can be dangerous.

If there are so many fleas that the cat is suffering, use a spray or drops. If it is a kitten, be sure to ask for kitten spray, it will have a special dosage. If the kitten is generally feeling well and is not itching every minute, wait for a veterinarian's appointment.

Take it to the vet

Even if a kitten is outwardly healthy, it can be infected with dangerous infections. Most often these are dermatophytoses - lichens. They can become infected by humans, children and other pets. And treating lichen is long and tedious.

Keep in quarantine

Stray animals can have infections, and in some cases, infections that can be fatal to other animals. If you already have animals at home, an untested cat or dog is a big risk for them.

If you adopted a kitten from the street, it must be kept in quarantine for the first time. Just a separate room in an apartment or a balcony will do if it’s warm outside. It is important that the animals do not intersect with each other in any way. There should be no common space, bowls, beds or toys. The incubation period for most infections is two weeks. If after this time everything is fine with the new cat, you can release it from quarantine.

Vaccinate

A vaccine is a responsibility for every decent owner. If you pick up a kitten from the street, the vaccine will not cure existing kittens, but in the future the vaccinated animal will tolerate diseases more easily. This is important for outdoor cats, who often run outside again and then return after walking around basements.

It is not possible to vaccinate a puppy right away. Vaccinations are given only to completely healthy animals. First, the cat must be removed from the fleas and given anthelmintic. Ten days after this, the cat can be vaccinated if everything is in good health.

Feed carefully

The easiest way to feed food is for small kittens. This is a balanced diet with precise dosage. Low-fat cream, cottage cheese, fermented baked milk are suitable. Do not feed your cat table food or canned fish. A cat accustomed to starving will eat everything that is given to him, but then problems will begin: constipation, diarrhea, vomiting, loss of appetite. It is best if the diet is prescribed by a doctor.

Hwhat to do with the selected kitten

Let's repeat the most important thing:

1. We picked up a kitten and went straight to the vet. Even if outwardly everything is fine with the kitten.
2. Clean from worms and fleas, as the veterinarian says.
3. Keep in quarantine for two weeks. There should be no shared belongings with other pets
4. Vaccinate
5. Feed carefully

Every day, when we go outside, we notice stray dogs and cats. Having glanced at them furtively, we immediately forget about their existence and plunge into the bustle of everyday life. Days, months and years pass. Street animals live next to us, without affecting our feelings in any way. And suddenly someone’s plaintive “Meow!” turns our world upside down and makes our heart beat more anxiously: “How small you are! Poor thing, you’re very cold...”

Another feline miracle, having melted the stern heart of a city dweller, was able to find a loving owner and warm shelter. The animal is happy, but the breeder is in deep thought: “What should I do with you now?” Let's consider several options for the development of events. Let's start with the ideal.

Suppose you saw a defenseless cat child who did not leave your heart indifferent. The first wish is to take it with you and bring it home. This is exactly what you need to do, but first you need to prepare a little. If possible, all stages should be completed on the same day, without delaying it - the kitten will not wait, it will either find another owner or die. So, preparation for the reception includes:

1. Examine the animal, especially pay attention to the muzzle and eyes - is there any discharge, are they watery? Observe the behavior - whether the kitten is running, whether it is active. The information you receive will tell you whether he should be taken to the vet immediately. Of course, visiting a doctor before bringing a kitten home is an ideal option, but not everyone agrees to it.
2. Having decided to show your animal to a doctor, immediately start looking for friends who have the phone number of a good clinic or private veterinarian. Make an appointment with your doctor, preferably on the same day, or simply take the kitten to the nearest veterinary hospital.
3. Before going to the doctor, go to a pet store. There you will need to purchase a cat litter box, food bowls, water, some litter and specialized food for kittens. If the baby is still an infant, then be sure to buy a cat milk substitute. Buy medications for fleas, worms and ear mites only if you do not plan to visit a veterinarian, since the doctor will do all this treatment himself.
4. Bring all your purchases home with latex gloves and a resealable cardboard box with holes that are easy to breathe through but difficult to escape. Wear disposable gloves, carefully pick up the kitten and place it in the box and close it tightly so that the animal does not run away in panic.
5. Give him a few minutes - he will meow pitifully because he is scared. Try to speak to him in a gentle tone, let him gradually feel that he is not in danger. When the animal calms down a little, take it to the veterinarian and then follow his instructions.

If for some reason you decide not to take the kitten to the veterinarian, then proceed as described in the next scenario.

They spontaneously brought a kitten from the street: what next?

You still couldn’t resist and succumbed to your first desire - you took the kitten and brought it into the house right from the street, as it was. In this case, you should immediately take it to the loggia and close it there. While the baby is settling in, you should take care of your health and the safety of your home. Without delay, dilute the disinfectant with water and immediately wash all the rooms where your new inhabitant has already visited. If you handle your baby without gloves, wash your hands thoroughly with antibacterial soap. Then sit down, calm down and carefully consider your next steps, namely:

Your new pet will be quarantined for the next two weeks. This means that you will need to carefully observe everything that happens to him. Use this time for your learning. Find out how to feed kittens correctly and what food you will use. Study their psychology and possible manifestations of aggression. Buy a carrier for your pet, think about where in the house it will sleep and where it will eat.

An equally important issue is qualified assistance. Even if you did not decide to take your kitten to the vet on the very first day of his arrival in your home, sooner or later you will still have to do this. Well, at least to check it for the presence of ringworm, which is very easily transmitted to people. While the baby lives on the loggia, you are protected, but when he starts sleeping in the bed with you, the risk of infection increases.

Ringworm cannot be detected as an infection within two weeks. Therefore, plan to visit your veterinarian during this period. He will also give him all the necessary vaccinations, which will protect you from distemper and rabies in the future. If distemper is fatal only for a pet, then rabies is already a lethal threat for humans.

How Kindness Harms Street Kittens

Among inexperienced breeders, there are persistent stereotypes of behavior that can only harm a kitten brought from the street. Let's mention just a few of them:

Love your new friend. Let your care for him from the very first days be based on knowledge, and not on harmful stereotypes.

Thousands of homeless animals live on the streets; every day the “army” is replenished with abandoned pets. Adult individuals give birth, and at bus stops, near shops and markets you can find abandoned domestic kittens. If you are looking for a pet, find out from this article whether you should pick up a kitten on the street. We will tell you how to tame your baby if you plan to keep him, and how to find new owners for him, as well as how to determine whether he is healthy and how to instill in him the skills of living in a house.

When should you pick up a kitten from the street?

You can find 2 types of animals on the street: those that grew up there and have survival skills, and those that were thrown out by their owners. The mother cat will teach the kittens to hunt and get food. The life of a stray cat is short - few of the litter will survive to the age of one year. In fact, this is an island of wild nature inside the metropolis. It is worth adopting a kitten from a stray cat only if it is socialized to humans. When mother and kittens are held, play and show affection to a person, they will take root in the apartment. If babies were born in a basement and are afraid of people, then it is difficult to catch them, and even more difficult to adapt. Think about whether it is worth taking such a kitten from the street. He experiences extreme stress in the house, sits for a long time on the sofa or behind the furniture, and it’s not a fact that he will ever allow himself to be stroked. His home is the street. Taking him into an apartment doesn't make him feel better.

The second category is discarded pets. Often the unwanted fruits of love from domestic cats end up on the street. They are sitting in a box, huddled together in fear. They will not survive if kind people do not take them into their homes - these kittens do not have the skills to behave outside.

If you see an unhealthy baby or several and your heart trembles, then take it, but immediately prepare yourself that despite all efforts, there is no guarantee of survival. A weak immune system, fasting, hypothermia or overheating, dehydration and something dangerous in food, for example, very fatty meat or herring, can cause a condition incompatible with life. You need to contact your veterinarian for treatment. It is possible that in your city, in a municipal or private shelter, there are specialists whose services are cheaper, or even free. Veterinarians in shelters encounter animals in this condition every day, sometimes called “street syndrome,” and have experience treating starved young animals.

How to go through the adaptation period

It is important that the pet learns the rules of behavior in the house from the first days. The most important point is going to the potty. If the kitten lived at home and knows how to use a litter box, then there will be no problems. Place the house and a bowl of food and water near the litter tray. The kid will understand why this item is needed.

If you are adopting a kitten with an unclear past, it may have been born in a barn at a private home and discarded as unwanted trash. It is possible that he was born from a stray cat oriented toward human contact. These cases have one thing in common: these kittens had a toilet everywhere in their street life. If you take a baby into the house and do not teach him good habits, then there will be puddles and heaps in the corners, in the bed and in the house flowers. Training to use a litter box is not difficult, but you need to pay attention: enclose the kitten with a litter box, a place to rest and bowls in a small room. If it has passages for a bathtub or shower, block them off. A baby in a confined space should always have a tray, bowls and bedding in sight. To avoid the temptation to do toilet chores on it, select a small piece of fabric and place it in a small box in even layers. Thanks to this, it will be uncomfortable for the kitten to dig into the material.

Toilet time is 20-40 minutes after eating. Keep an eye on the kitten and put it in the box when you see it spinning and sniffing. There is no need to praise for “things” done correctly; it’s easy to scare a baby even with a gentle voice. After the toilet, you can carefully, under supervision, allow him to explore the territory. In a few days, the little one will be able to run around the entire room and find a potty, but for now it is better to make voyages far from the toilet only in the hands of people. When leaving, keep your kitten in a confined space with food, water, a clean litter box, and light.

If there are other animals in the house, they will not be happy to see the new one. Spread them out for a while, giving the baby a small personal space. A properly raised dog and any cat will “agree” to be neighbors in a couple of days. It is possible that friendship will arise.

Veterinary issues

Many who have picked up a kitten from the street are wondering on social networks whether they should take it to the veterinarian, or if it is sick or contagious. A doctor will not be able to diagnose an active baby with an appetite and good bowel movements “by eye.” Diagnostics, at least PCR, will be required to establish or exclude hidden viral diseases. All species diseases are not terrible for humans. If you have other unvaccinated cats, then you have every chance of bringing the disease to them from the street on the sole of your shoe. And they are no worse than catching something from a new kitten, provided that it shows no signs of illness.

Here's what should alert you:

• indifferent state of the kitten;
• sour eyes;
• diarrhea;
• mouth ulcers
• lack of appetite.

The more signs listed above you notice, the higher the risk that the kitten has a disease that is contagious to other cats. If you have adopted a kitten and your pets are vaccinated, then there is no need to worry. It is recommended that unaccustomed cats be given serum against viral diseases “Vitafel-S” or “Globfel”. It will protect exposed cats for 14-20 days. During this time, the kitten will have already been diagnosed and perhaps its illness will already be over.

What to do with a found kitten

Common advice is to keep it for yourself. In a house where there is already an animal or two, another one will take root without problems. If there is neither a cat nor a dog in the apartment, then it is all the more worthwhile to leave it: after a while you will not imagine how you ever lived without a furry pet. The kitten easily tolerates the time of your absence. He's just sleeping. If you often go away for a day or two, this is also not a problem. It is enough to teach the kitten to eat dry food.

Sometimes people cannot keep a kitten, for example, they live in a rented apartment. And they have to look for where to take the baby. Shelter is not the best solution. Shelters are usually overcrowded and may not accept new arrivals. You can advertise, providing it with a detailed description of the baby’s character and several good photographs. Be prepared for the fact that the fraudulent kitten business is thriving: they may call you and offer to take a kitten “for foster care until adoption” for money. In the evening of the same day, unscrupulous people will mercilessly throw the baby out on the street again. Such businessmen can easily be found with boxes of kittens near markets or other crowded places. They assure that all kittens will be given away to good hands, but if you try to adopt a kitten yourself, you will understand how difficult it is. It is impossible to hold dealers accountable - there is no corresponding article of the law, so the business on kittens flourishes as long as there are people willing to sell their own or found ones.

Use caution when advertising black kittens, especially before Halloween. They often become victims of satanic rituals carried out by seemingly sane young people.

Children often call from advertisements. They assure that mom and dad also want to adopt a kitten. Still, it’s better to talk to your parents in person - when talking on the phone, other teenagers can play the role of parents. Make sure that the kitten will not become a toy for a small child. This fate almost always ends in injury and discarding - “the evil kitten scratched the son.”

If possible, take the found kitten to a new place of residence. At the same time, make sure that everyone is happy there with the kitten. And ask what the animal’s planned lifestyle is. It happens that villagers are looking for a cat to catch mice in the barn, and they take a kitten for this purpose in the winter. Then the kitten will not survive and it is not worth giving it to such conditions.

By picking up a kitten on the street, you have done a good deed. Now the fate of this lump is in your hands. Do everything possible to make him happy!

First of all, pay attention to how active the animal was when you found it. Were there other kittens and adult cats nearby and what condition they were in (activity, condition of fur, discharge from the nose, eyes, etc.). Have you noticed any dead animals near the kitten's habitat?

Place your pet in a carrier, bag or box and make an appointment with a qualified veterinarian.

At your appointment, first of all, tell the doctor that you adopted the kitten from the street.

If there is eye damage, drops will be immediately prescribed to relieve inflammation (the drug is prescribed only by a veterinarian, depending on the condition). You can wash your eyes with saline solution or eye lotion.

Since you picked up a kitten on the street, there is still a possibility that it could simply have run away from its previous owners and therefore you need to check the microchip. Fortunately, more and more people are getting their pets microchipped, even at a young age. This is a second procedure and if you have a microchip, it is possible to find the previous owners of the animal.

If the owner took a kitten from the street, then it is very important to immediately make a serum that causes the development of passive immunity against panleukopenia (feline distemper), infectious rhinotracheitis, calicivirus and feline chlamydia. It provides protection for up to 2 weeks. Since we picked up a kitten from the street, the likelihood of him getting sick is very high. This is the treatment and prevention of the above infectious diseases.

If the animal is in good condition, then the medical procedures at the clinic end; the doctor gives recommendations on feeding and maintenance, and the owners are sent home to watch the kitten. If the animal is weakened, dehydrated, or has a high or low body temperature, then infusion therapy (droppers) is prescribed and carried out. Which includes general strengthening drugs, anti-inflammatory drugs, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, etc. Antibiotic therapy is often prescribed. Further actions depend on the condition of the animal.

You picked up a kitten from the street, took it to the veterinary clinic, received recommendations, and the animal feels well. How can you get infected from a kitten, even if it looks healthy on the outside? Some of the most common and unpleasant infections are:

• lichen
• scabies
• toxoplasmosis
• helminthic infestations (toxocariasis, etc.)
• protozoa (giardia, etc.)

Therefore, be vigilant and first place the animal in quarantine for at least 7-14 days. If you pick up a kitten, what should you do to avoid getting infected with these infections:

First, as already mentioned above, place the animal in quarantine and conduct the above studies.

If you have cats at home and they are vaccinated (no more than a year should pass from the date of vaccination), then they are less likely to pick up feline infections from a street kitten. If animals are not vaccinated, then it is necessary to make serum. If any signs of illness occur in animals, immediately contact your veterinarian and first of all tell them that you took the kitten from the street!

After leaving your cat in the care of veterinarians for an hour or two, you need to visit a pet store and prepare everything for the arrival of a new resident of your home. Here are the purchases:

Cat litter box;

Tray filler;

Cat bed;

scratching post;

Bowls for food and water;

5-7 cat toys;

A brush for combing fur (do not take one with iron teeth, as they tear the fur too much; it is better to opt for a brush with bristles);

Shampoo;

Collar;

Carrying;

Vitamins for kittens;

Antigadin spray.

Getting to know the house

Cats love to feel like they are in charge. When you let the kitten into the house for the first time, let him look around and sniff, so to speak, to scout out the situation. For outdoor cats, it may be unusual at first to be in a closed space, but, as a rule, the feeling of discomfort goes away after a maximum of a month.

Watch the kitten. As a rule, cats like to choose where they sleep and where they go to the toilet. If you notice that the cat has taken a fancy to a certain place, place his sleeping place there so that he knows that this is only his safe territory.

Now about going to the toilet. Cats are very clean by nature, spending 80% of their day grooming. So it is quite logical that, having gone to the litter box only once, the kitten will continue to relieve its needs only there. But still protect yourself: treat all nooks and crannies, as well as the floor under your shoes, with a special “anti-gas” spray according to the instructions. Cat waste is almost impossible to remove.

Feed the cat, thereby determining for him a place where he will feed in the future. There are two diets: when the cat has unlimited access to food and when food is served in portions by the hour. Talk to your veterinarian about which diet plan is best for you at first. And for God's sake, don't feed your kitten milk or fish. In fact, these foods are contraindicated for cats. Replace milk with fermented baked milk, and fish with boiled beef or chicken. Pork is also not allowed.

About games. Until the age of five months, kittens are very playful, so be prepared to spend a couple of hours a day playing with your pet so that he doesn't feel neglected. Do not play with the animal with your hands, as an older cat, accustomed to throwing itself into your hands, can significantly injure you. It’s better to buy a special stick with strings or a ball at the end and play with it. If the cat continues to jump into your arms, get a special small spray bottle with water and each time during the next “attempt”, spray the kitten in the face with water. He will very soon begin to associate being thrown on his arms or legs with unpleasant sensations.

And love your kitten. Don't scold him, it won't help anyway. It’s better to use kindness and affection to try to turn his behavior in the direction you want.