Kittens Do Best With Their Mom, Please Don't Take Them: PACC

TUCSON, AZ — Pima Animal Care Center is reminding locals not to immediately step in when they see kittens alone in their community.

Mother cats leave their kittens multiple times each day to get food, according to the center, so unless the kittens seem to be in immediate danger, they will be most safe staying with their mom.

To check that the mom is caring for the kittens, you can sprinkle baking soda in a circle around them and check back in 24 hours to see if there are paw prints in the circle. That means their mother has returned to care for them.

The best place for kittens is with their mother, said Monica Dangler, director of animal services for the center.

“We know people have good intentions when they bring kittens to PACC, but the truth is the very thing they are trying to prevent, might unintentionally happen when the kittens are removed from their mother,” Dangler said in a news release.

The center has taken in 750 kittens so far this year.

The warmer months are cat breeding season and cats can get pregnant when they are as young as four months old. They can also get pregnant again very quickly after giving birth, and a typical litter size is four to six kittens.

It is difficult for kittens that are 8 weeks old and younger to survive without their mother, even with round-the-clock care, the center said. This is the reason it's important for them to be left undisturbed if found within the community.

If you'd like to help:

The center needs 300 on-call foster parents to take in single cats and litters of kittens as they come into the shelter. Those who are interested can check out the foster website and then come into the shelter.

The center's neonatal foster program is in need of donations like milk replacement and non-clumping litter. You can check out the Friends of Pima Animal Care Center's Amazon Wishlist to help the center get these items and others things it might need.

There are more than 400 animals at the center and 1,200 in foster care in need of permanent homes. You can adopt one with no adoption fee, but there might be a $20 licensing fee.