Neonatal kittens. Bottle Babies. Teeny, not yet weaned. However you describe them, whatever you call them, kittens who depend on humans to make it through their first several weeks of life are some of the cutest souls you will encounter and also some of the most vulnerable.
The Austin Pets Alive! Neonatal Kitten Nursery is the first of its kind and since its inception in 2008, has taken in thousands of kittens with an average 90% save rate. This work can’t be done without the support of neonatal kitten fosters. Because these kittens must be fed round the clock, we rely on this amazing community of animal-lovers to help ensure that each kitten that comes through our doors receives a human who will go the distance for them.
“Kitten Season” is a time of year where we see the biggest influx of orphaned kittens or families of cats, coming our way and in Texas, this season is from roughly mid-March to late September. In 2023, our kitten intake was about 1430 kittens. This year, we’re seeing that trend stay pretty close to the same with having already seen a bit over 400 kittens just 1.5 months into the season. Of those kittens, more than half have come directly from our city’s municipal shelter, Austin Animal Center and due to the close proximity, many of those have been last minute intakes, sending our already inundated nursery staff and volunteers into a scramble.
The reality is that we need more bottle baby fosters -- both fosters who can take on the clowder of kittens that we have today and a large group of willing fosters who are onboarded, ready and willing to take in kittens in need that come in tomorrow, next week and all throughout the rest of the season.
The Neonatal Team is experiencing a bit of a catch-22: they are in deep need of more fosters, but with being up to their necks in (adorable) kittens, they aren’t able to onboard fosters as quickly as they’d like. Make no mistake -- our Neonatal Team is made up of super humans though being able to freeze time isn’t one of their super powers. Here’s what you can expect when signing up to become a Bottle Baby Foster today:
Email our Nursery Team at [email protected] letting us know you’re interested. Please provide your home address in that email as we do need to ensure most Bottle Baby Fosters live within a 30 mile radius due to the vulnerability of these kittens.
Our team will respond with important information such as what feeding processes look like for the various age groups and also talk through quarantining needs. After you read through this and still feel you’re a good fit, submit your application!
Once approved, we’ll share our online training orientation video. After you’ve gone through that, contact our team and they’ll give you next steps for picking up your kittens!
After you get home with your kittens, we have an experienced volunteer video call you to walk you through feeding and caregiving live to ensure you feel comfortable and to answer any questions that may arise!
