Deliver Kittens

Listen to Bob Barker and have your pet spayed or neutered. However, if a stray pregnant cat decides to live with you, here's how to help her give birth to her kittens.

Step 1: Materials

You will need:
- some old towels
- wide box (1.5 ft x 3 ft or larger)
- scissors
- sewing thread or dental floss
- kitten food (for the mom cat)
- microwave (for the towels)

Other websites may say you need a whole bunch of other junk, but these are the basics.

Comments

[lil jon168]

Dont neuter or spay your cat cats like to do it to you know what if u were neuterd

[Master97865]

Always agree with you buddy. I don't think anyone wants their balls chopped off or operation on their vagina. Not only that, it also makes your pet more lazy and sometimes makes puppies piss down their leg. Not fun, right?

[Lily Baldwin]

Cat's need to be neutered or spayed. If too many cats were born, they would over-populate, and there wouldn't be enough care for them. Thus, leading to stray cats, dying cats, and more importantly, sick, contagious cats. They could spread diseases to healthy cats. I actually visited a family member in New Jersey this summer who owns a farm where they adopt or rescue sick and/or injured cats and use their own personal money to nurse them back to health. Once they're healthy, they put them up for adoption. Currently, they're housing 31 cats. Including 2 kittens with feline lukemia. You can donate or look them up. They're called the Moore Foundation.

I luv kitties. o yes i do.

[nodnol]

Cats in heat suffer if they don't get nookie, and they go into heat pretty frequently. If you let your cat get frisky while in heat, she will get pregnant. There are already too many cats that need caring-for, please don't contribute to the problem!!

[jsepia]

What's wrong with neutering? (and punctuation?)

If well done, the operation invoves little to no pain for the cat, and spares the owner and the kittens a lot of trouble. I see no downside in it. It's not like cats are an endangered species.

BTW, me? I'd love to be neutered.

[dcraves]

she dosen't want to clean them
shes only paying attention to the one moving

[dcraves]

can u please tell me what to do my kitty gave birth to one kitty and the second one she didn't wanted to clean it and it died what can i do to help her

[aolsén2]

Kittens should never leave their mother before they are 12 weeks old.
This is the current recommendation.
For instance, TICA has this on their page:
"When can I take the kitten home?
Most responsible breeders allow their kittens to go to new homes at 12 weeks of age or older. If you're used to seeing barely-weaned kittens in pet stores, this might seem old; but its actually a good age to make the transition to a new home. At 12 weeks, a kitten is weaned, litter trained, and has been vaccinated at least twice. And it still has plenty of comical, lovable kitten hood to go. "

Kittens need that extra time not for their physical needs but in order to learn "how to be a cat". Allow them that!

http://www.tica.org/public/faq/adoption.php

[leahculver]

Addedum. In the last sentence I have replaced "better" with "else." While helping to raise the kittens I realized that I did not have many mushy feelings for them. I care for their well-being but I don't think I wuv kitties. Since there are many people who love cats and kittens in the wuv sort of way, this lead me to thinking that perhaps it is similar with human babies. There are some people who really enjoy human babies and there are some who care about children's well-being and are glad that people choose to have them, but don't have a desire to raise any. I don't know if I love (wuv) babies, but this experience has left me feeling a bit shaken.

[Shany120]

I will always love (wuv) little kitties. There so cute!!

[maryaw]

Not everyone is meant to have kids or be a pet owner. There's nothing wrong with what you said. You helped one of God's creatures and her little ones and wrote a great instructable about your experience. KUDOS to ya!

[nekoaitsu]

I really hope that you did not practice what you preach. There is no way that swinging a kitten down rapidly will be effective enough to warrant the possible internal damage that may result, let alone the possibility of DROPPING the kitten. That is extremely rude to boot.

People, NEVER swing a kitten, or move it rapidly as described by the poster. If anything, a small bulb syringe may be used sparingly to CLEAR the MOUTH FIRST and then the NOSE AFTER, but a kitten is VERY FRAGILE. For the most part, a kitten should have no problems adapting to it's new environment, as the mother cleaning it is plenty of stimulation for the kitten to start breathing on it's own.

[nodnol]

Indeed! Shaken baby syndrome can happen to babies from ALL species - not just humans.

[tinkerbell2008]

hi just woundring if you can move newborn kittens into a box if she does not have them in there

[nodnol]

It is unwise to move the kittens. Your human smell may transfer, and the mother may end up rejecting the litter - even if she knows you and usually trusts you. The mother will move her kittens when she wants.

If you absolutely *MUST* move the kittens, first wash your hands in unscented soap and dry them with a clean towel (fresh from the linen closet because one you have used recently will have your smell). Wear gloves while you move the kittens, and make sure that the mother can see you and her babies the whole time.

If the mother can't see you while you move the kittens, she may freak out that one of her babies has disappeared. Even if she finally sorts out where they went, her agitation may transfer onto the kittens themselves, and she may not provide the best possible care after that.

Again, it's best if you don't move them, but following the above guidelines are important if you have no choice.

[porterlu]

This would be a fine Instructable but is kind of ruined when you advise people to "hold the kitten above your head and swing it down rapidly." Yikes.
Swinging a newborn cat (or newborn anything for that matter), even if you support its body is a really, really poor idea.  It has been done successfully of course, but this very method can often kill newborn kittens as well.
A gentle and slow swing between ones knees *may* be acceptable, but generally people (and the kittens) are better off using the syringe method.

[xana]

why do they make kittens so darn cute.

[nutsandbolts_64]

 our cat here gets batches upon batches every year! they all survive the delivery without us knowing about it. she's pregnant right now and it's her umm... 6th or 7th batch I guess. 

[platypusymphony]

Excellently written article with great pictures.  This one is so sweet!

[Amiga500]

Purring can be a response to pain or stress, sort of like how some people will smile to show they're getting by, even if they're not feeling well.  I appreciate that this instructable was matter-of-fact, rather than sentimental.  Kittens are adorable, but responsible pet owners get their animals fixed.

[stephenniall]

a few years ago i woke up ready for school looking in our airing cupboard (we made the cat a bed in there because it was arm for her Whilst she was pregnant ! ) for a jumper and saw a kitten half way out of her ! we didnt deliver them we just left her and they all survived . we then got a shock a few weeks later when she got pregnant again ! she had about 12 kittens overall ! we kept 2 though

[iglo1234]

The same basic thing with dogs. Although when my dog had puppies i didn't go near them, they all survived and she cleaned them up by licking them and ate that there placenta.  Watching puppies, kittens, and hell even babies being born is really not a fun thing to watch.

[oOMarioMafiaOo]

Thanks for the instructable my cat just had kittens about 6 weeks ago and this helped alot.

[animal lover 1112]

they eat the plencenta to get some of there nitritons back cause the kittens take alot of them from the momma cat

[bowmaster]

Lolz. She eats the placenta.

[mantticore]

It is best to leave the "mom" to handle the placenta. If there is a small number of kittens, she'll be fine. Only intervene if u see that aftre an hour the kittens still have it attached.

[stienman]

A great instructable though I am confused about the purpose or need of the last bit: "Which leads me to believe that human babies are boring and that I could probably do something better with my life than have babies." I'm not sure how this is intructive or is useful knowledge for an instructable on delivering kittens. If this is an important part of the instructable, please explain it further - perhaps use a full paragraph or step so the audience can better understand what it has to do with the subject. Lastly please consider the feelings of your audience. While you needn't go overboard with political correctness, you may want to avoid implicating that having children is a waste of time. Perhaps when you expand this point you can explain other experience you have that indicates that since newborn cats are boring then human babies are a waste of time. One data point (this experience) seems a relatively shaky foundation on which to place a pretty heavy conclusion.

[LittleWolf]

I don't know about other people, but I usually don't take life altering advice from the internet, much less from instructables. If someone says people like me are ugly, poor, or conceited, I just take it as a personal opinion and not a derisive statement. The internet doesn't need warning labels; if you like it, great! if you don't, then there's many more places to get more information.

[stienman]

Good for you. It's funny that you should reply to a two and half year old comment about the usefulness of having children just 6 days after I had another child. :-D This site is meant to contain useful, actionable, positive, constructive information. The sentence didn't add anything to the instructable, and in fact could be interpreted to be saying that having children is a waste of someone's life. Any way you interpret it, it's not positive, constructive, and most importantly isn't useful to know if you are trying to follow the instructions for delivering kittens. I wasn't asking for a warning label - I was asking for clarification as to why this sentence is needed in an instructable about how to help a cat give birth. It was social commentary at best. I asked the author to explain further how this sentence will help someone who wants to help a cat give birth. I suppose I could have moved on without comment, but I was honestly curious what the usefulness of that instruction was. While the author did address my comment, she chose not to give a reason as to why it belonged, merely commented further on why she felt that way. I am glad, however, that you were interested enough about the topic to stop and comment on my post, just as I was interested enough to stop and comment on the author's post. -Adam

[TimAnderson]

I remember being a baby. That part of the deal isn't all rainbows either. That's why we babies cry so much. Parents are always telling me they wish they hadn't had kids. There's a study I can't find now that shows about half the people who have had kids regret it.

[dan]

before tourist season is warm countries the police round up and massacre unwanted children, street children. you should adopt these kids instead of being a selfish bastard that only cares about their own chromosomes. (straight from the lips of: tim anderson)

[dan]

"so god said, be fruitful and multiply and spread across the earth. ok, mission accomplished, now stop. did god say to keep spreading until the earth is destroyed?" (more from tim-a)

[dan]

and why did i put all those species on the Ark if you're just going to kill them all?

[leahculver]

Good point. I have added a response comment on the last step. Please see the How to make a baby instructable for more information about that topic.

http://www.instructables.com/id/E9D4XUCEZBEQ2W3CMZ/

It seems the author has actually made a human baby with similar results, although I cannot say if he is a credible source.

[muller]

Booya! Excellent Instructable. I'm a cat person and though i've never had to help deliver before, it's now nice to know i've got a leg up.

[codongolev]

all together, now.... 1, 2, 3: AWWWWWW!

[fwjs28]

awwwww.....*sneeze!*...im alergic to *sneeeze* cats....

[codongolev]

you're allergic to sneezing cats? I've never heard that one before.

[fwjs28]

yes...the fur and stuff.....dogs dont bother me too bad...

[fwjs28]

hahaha....i just realized what you said....lol...thats funny!