Could you open your home and your heart to provide short term care for young kittens?  Wellington SPCA is looking for foster homes for kittens under 8 weeks of age.  We provide the training, food, blankets, litter and all the equipment you will need to look after these special babies.  You provide the care, cuddles and love they need at this cruicial time in their development.  If you love cats then this is a fantastic hands-on way to help some of our homeless animals.

Why are kittens fostered?

Wellington fosters out kittens that are too young to be desexed and rehomed.  Kittens need to be brought up with other kittens until they are at least 8 weeks old.  They also need gentle handling and introducing to the big wide world.  By being fostered they get used to everyday sights and sounds they might not be exposed to at the animal centre – like TV, the vacuum cleaner and other normal household noises.

Who can foster?

Fostering is suitable for people who work full time or who don’t work at all.  If you work full time you can care for a mother cat with her kittens.  You feed mum and change her litter a few times a day, and she takes care of the kittens.  Our mother cats often need nurturing as pregnancy and bringing up a litter of kittens takes a lot out of them.

If you don’t work full time or can take kittens to work with you, you can also care for kittens with no mother.  Very young orphaned kittens need to be bottle fed until they are about 4 weeks old.  Orphaned kittens who are over 4 weeks old can usually eat for themselves but need more care from a fosterer than kittens with a mum.

For more information on becoming a foster parent http://www.wellingtonspca.org.nz/how-you-can-help/hands-on-help/fostering