Now what?  Instinct will be to scoop those little fur balls up and take them to the nearest shelter.  But don’t do that quite yet!!  Odds are there is a Mom cat who is out and about getting food, hiding from you, or transporting the litter.  If there is indeed a Mom cat, leave the kittens be as she will be their best caretaker.  If there is no mother, unless you have a local nokill shelter don’t take the kittens there.  The vast majority of underage kittens are killed within hours of intake at standard shelters since they don’t have the setup to handle these little guys.

If you have determined there is no mother, and your local shelter is not nokill, it’s on you to help them!  You can get great advice from a local vet on how to take care of them, but basically you need to feed them every 2-3 hours and definitely don’t give them cow’s milk.   If your local shelter is nokill, then call them ahead of time because they probably need to setup a foster for your little guys and a heads up is greatly appreciated.

Care2 has a great, comprehensive article about how to handle it all, so check it out if you want to learn more and happy kitten season!