Your local animal refuge might be able to lend you a humane trap - I’ve used these and they’re very simple to operate.
We have a 10 week old kitten who was born in our barn with no mother which we have taken in. Our kitten is separated for now as we’ve kept it inside our house but there are 20 stray cats in our small road. Our local vet says France does not neuter before 6 months and I’m so worried our kitten will be caught up by the huge presence of strays. 6 months seems way beyond puberty for most cats. I have asked (almost begged) twice but she won’t budge. What is normal in France? I am a New Zealander and neutering cats is common from a very early age to make the cat, owner and environment happy.
Did something happen to the mother for you to have taken her in at 10 weeks…??? Ordinarily a mother cat will still be teaching her offspring life skills well beyond 10 weeks and pedigree cat breeders will not let kittens go before 12 weeks…
I agree with your vet…neutering at such a young age is detrimental to future health and development …is there any way you can keep her safe for now by keeping her inside until she has at least had chance to mature a little…???
Hi the mother died when he was very little. I have been feeding him since he was only around 4 weeks of age. I really just want him neutered so that I know he’s not going to fight. Thanks anyway for your reply.
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Our village has many cats, but when I ask about neutering the response often is that it’s too expensive so drowning the kittens is cheaper/better option.
Our opposite neighbour is a slightly simple soul, who had a couple of cats and whose husband “did the necessary” every time they had a litter. Unfortunately he died just as one cat was reproducing. So now she has 7 cats, and no doubt soon many more. She has very little money (another sad story) so I asked the local SPA about helping her get them neutered. They have a budget to do 80 cats a year, and it’s used up by January… and they won’t do it before the cat is 6 months old.
To better inform you regarding early age neutering.
At the FRENCH cat charity Chats du Quercy, we help up to 400 cats and kittens every year, we neuter at 2 months of age and have never had a problem, quite the opposite. Research shows that cats that have been neutered at 8 weeks of age have no related future health problems, in fact these cats are at lower risk of cancers tumeurs and disease, they also tend to be slightly larger in size that those neutered at a later age.
We are also now seeing female cats coming into season from 3 months of age, which is dangerous for them.
Take a look here for more info - http://chatsduquercy.fr/fr/sterilisation/sterilisation-precoce-du-chaton/
As with humans, young kittens recover much more quickly from an operation and can be up around playing as if nothing has happened within an hour after the op.
If you would like anymore advice, please feel free to contact us www.chatsduquercy.fr
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