Did my lost kitten return?

Question

My 2 or 3 year old cat had 2 litters and raising the third one now. Her second litter had 5 kittens, one black, two gray tabbies, and two orange tabbies. One orange tabby was light orange. The mother brought them out on August 12, 2016. They already opened their eyes after, a couple days the light orange tabby we called Sandy was gone. I searched for her but had no luck after, 6 months the mother cat had her third litter.

After almost 2 months after the third litter was born a light orange cat came with the believed to be the father of all the three litters. I try to figure out it's sex but, it always runs away. I think it is a female because the father does not attack it.

They also visit the mother cat and the kittens are there too. The light orange tabby started to visit the mother cat more often. Could this be the lost kitten? And if so did it wander off and someone adopted it or did it survive being taken by an animal.

Every time we leave the mother cat alone outside when we check on here the light orange tabby usually comes. It just started today. It always runs away from us. How do I make it know that I am not going to hurt them?

Answer 1

1. Could this be the missing kitten

We cannot possibly answer if it is the missing kitten. The only way it would have survived is if somebody found her and cared for her at that age.

Kittens open their eyes between 7 - 10 days old. A kitten requires 10 feeds per day in the first 2 weeks of their lives. It's also not simple to care for such young kittens separated from their mothers. So she would have needed to be adopted by someone experienced. Also such a young kitten would not be able to move very far.

It's not probable that such a young kitten would survive like that in most situations - depending on where you live, the density of housing, etc.

2. How to make her trust you

The best way to gain her trust is by offering food without pressure.

Put out small portions of food for her. When you see her, call her gently "puss puss" and place down a bowl and slowly move away and watch. No sudden movements, loud voices. You'll see that she will gradually get closer to you. If she is actually a street cat, she may never trust you. Many street cats are distrustful of humans (and this may be sensible from the cat's perspective) and do not recover from this distrust. They can pass it on to their offspring.

We have two grown cats we got from a litter from a street cat. The mother and kittens were all trapped and rehomed. The kittens hissed at us when we first brought them home.

They always vanish whenever people are over they have not met. They need to have seen a person dozens of times before the person sees them. They hide and watch from a safe place, so visitors don't even realise they are there.

They trust us, however one of them is still flighty, we cannot make sudden movements or loud sounds. We always need to approach him with a soothing voice and make a slow and deliberate action when moving our hands in to pat him.

The other thing is, I'm not sure why you are breeding like this. Have you thought about desexing your cat?