i recently have had the pleasure of raising my own newborn kitten from 1 day old; he was found outside my job in the bushes.
he is now three weeks old and is thriving wonderfully. i have had the time to take care of him and am so glad he got into my hands, otherwise he would have definitely died on his own out there. this experience has got me thinking about other orphaned kittens found by people who do not have the time to take care of them, and i have thought about maybe opening up a first come first serve kitten raising business out of my own home. i thought of taking in the newborns from people, raising them to the age they can go home into a family, and returning them to whomever found them once they are old enough to fend for themselves (around 8 weeks) i know i could not do this for free, so do you think people would pay maybe a weekly fee for this(to cover a vet visit, food costs, and for my own time and care)? i also have heard the statistic that around 20% of kittens die due to FKS and for no cause due to the caretaker. if that were to happen, how would i handle it? would i be legally liable?
i really want to start this idea to help many newborns grow to be healthy kittens for people, so i came here to ask advice of other cat lovers who may have had experience with this. thank you for getting back to me :)
- rizzie
Daily Kitten Chat Forum » Purrs
Rasing Orphan Kittens for Others?
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Wow that is an awesome idea..but to be honest I'm not sure if most people would be willing to pay more than the cost of food and other items needed. But I could be just being synical, personally if I found a newborn and couldn't care for it I would be glad to pay someone to help as would most of the people on this site. What kind of fee were you considering?? if not too much you might have something there.
Bless you for caring for the wee ones...What is your babies name?? any pictures?
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true. im just hoping some people who are looking for someone to care for their newborn so they can have a healthy kitten :)
mine's name is lancelot :)
heres a link; http://i40.tinypic.com/senaly.jpg
that was him around a few days ago -
If you are willing to foster and able to give up the babies when they are old enough for forever homes, your local animal shelter might be a good place to start. They won't pay you a salary to hand raise the babies, but many of them do take care of the veterinary and food costs. And, they take the babies back when they are old enough to adopt out so you don't have to find homes.
If you start that way and get a good reputation as a foster mom, then you might end up with referrals to care for orphans from both the shelter and the local vet practices.
There's a link at the end of this post to a website for the Itty Bitty Kitty Committee lady. She takes in foster families and raises them for the Humane Society. She has a really cute website.
If it turns into a paying business (for profit rather than just covering costs) you'll have to do all the red tape bureaucratic stuff.
Can we see pictures of your little one?
Posted 2 years ago by CheetahBoysmommy #
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ah, thank you. i was also thinking of it being more of kitty-sitting for people who have a baby kitten that they know they want but the kittens are too young to make housepets like a mature kitten or cat.
but a shelter would be a good place to start, ive never heard of them let people take the kittens and raise them but if they do that would be great
i posted a link to a picture of him above :) -
Lancelot is adorable, Rizzie! And welcome to TDK!
Actually, I think that your idea is a good one and I think that CBM has some great ideas. So many kittens are probably lost because people won't make the time commitment even though they might really like to have a kitten. To have established yourself as a great foster mom to kittens would give you a lot of credibility. Many shelters use foster kitty families because they just don't have the staff to do the round the clock feedings.
It's a great idea!
Posted 2 years ago by WillowandWindismom #
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