Kitten Nursery



 

Each year, thousands of kittens are born in the Bay Area to intact neighborhood, feral, and pet cats. Despite continuous spay/neuter efforts by the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society (BEBHS) and other groups, the population of homeless cats continues to grow, and underage kittens flood local animal shelters almost year-round. Volunteer foster homes have traditionally been used to provide around the clock care for kittens too young to live in shelters, but the number of kittens in need of a foster home has always exceeded the resources available. Sadly, this forces many agencies to euthanize incoming kittens whenever a safe home environment cannot be immediately secured.

 

In response to this crisis, the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society (BEBHS) launched the pilot Kitten Nursery program in September 2011. The nursery has been designed as a separate 24/7 animal care facility for kittens under the age of 8 weeks. Trained kitten caregivers work in shifts around the clock to provide age-appropriate feeding, supportive care and socialization of up to twelve litters of kittens of varying ages and developmental stages. Kittens are separated by age group, measured against growth and behavioral milestones, and handled with strict disease control procedures. The program is modeled off of the successful “Paws to Success” kitten nursery at the San Diego Humane Society & SPCA, now in its third year. 

 

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Kitten Nursery Goals

  1. To decrease the number of kittens euthanized in local shelters
  2. To provide homeless kittens the time and loving attention necessary for them to heal, learn, mature, and grow into healthy, behaviorally normal kittens
  3. To nurture the human-kitten bond through proper socialization with the goal that they eventually be placed in a loving, forever home

Support

 

Donations: Monetary gifts to BEBHS' Kitten Nursery program can be made online by clicking the donation button below, or over the phone at (510) 845-7735, x233. Checks can also be designated in the memo field for "Kitten Nursery" and mailed or dropped off to 2700 Ninth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710.

 

Wish List: The nursery team maintains an Amazon Wish List of used and new items that are needed for the operation of the Kitten Nursery. Items can be sorted by price, most current needs, and urgency. Donated items can be dropped off at the shelter during business hours or ordered through the wish list and shipped directly to BEBHS.

 

Foster Homes: In order to care for as many underage kittens as possible, kittens who “graduate” from the nursery must move into foster care at 8 weeks old until they are adopted. To sign up to foster nursery graduates or older (5-7 weeks old) kittens who need to move to foster to make more space for new nursery residents, please contact foster@berkeleyhumane.org. Fostering kittens in this age group is a great experience – they are eating on their own and are a lot of fun to watch!


The Future

 

Although the Kitten Nursery program is an innovative and viable short-term fix, it is by no means a solution for the cat overpopulation problem. The fact that we will be able to save hundreds of kittens through this program is no match for uncontrolled breeding which results in thousands of kittens born every year. "Just one litter" can and does easily create hundreds of homeless kittens, many of whom will not survive past their first weeks without round-the-clock care, let alone into adulthood.  

You can help reduce cat and kitten overpopulation by: 

  • Spaying or neutering your cats to help reduce the overwhelming numbers of unwanted cats, and encouraging others to do the same. Kittens as young as two months and weighing two pounds can be safely altered.
  • Keeping your cat safe indoors and learning how to provide safe outdoor time.
  • Contacting your local animal sheltering organization if you find kittens, to ask for their recommendations on next steps.
  • Adopting your next cat. Typically, adult cats feel the most immediate effects of kitten overpopulation, as they are often overlooked by potential adopters when kittens are in abundance.
  • Providing temporary in-home foster care until animals are ready to be adopted. The Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society is in need of foster homes for cats and kittens of various ages.
  • Caring for homeless or feral cats in your area by working with your feral cat group to help control your neighborhood’s feral and stray cat populations.