if she wasn't pregnant before she almost certainly is by now. It may be the bush telegraph sent out the message about the soft touch at no.24, but its more likely the sexy feromone smell of a female on heat that brought all these males to your door. Dinner is an added bonus.
if she's as young as you think, a full term prgnancy may actually be quite dangerous for her. Feral cats often lose their babies if the mother is under developed, and if thebabies are to survive they will need to be brought into a safe environment. Most rescues have a kittening pen (or six!) similar to this one that allows access for cleaning and caring for Mum while she keeps her babies fed.
If you're in the London area I have a crate I can lend you if you want to volunteer to act as midwife for this little one?
I understand its a very fulfilling experience when all goes well although not one I've been through personally.
This is my crate
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Foldable-36-Large-Metal-Dog-Pet-Cat-Puppy-Crate-Cage-Travel/261392030350?_trksid=p2045573.c100034.m2102&_trkparms=aid%3D555012%26algo%3DPW.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20494%26meid%3D4716394290575762153%26pid%3D100034%26prg%3D9150%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D350800849091 it folds flat for storage so will go under the bed when not in use. Good price at the moment too.
THE FOLLOWING IS AN EXTRACT FROM THE CAT FANCIERS ASSOCIATION WEBSITE (OK it's an American breeders page but it contains some extremely useful tips that will apply just as well for UK knocked up strays as USA fancy breeds
)
WHERE TO DELIVER?
Think ahead to where you want your mother-to-be to have her kittens. The middle of the down comforter on your bed is NOT a good place. Nor do I like a closet floor because even in the best of locations it can be drafty. While my cats are generally caged only at night, I am a firm believer in cages for certain situations. Kittening is one of the times I insist on caging. It eliminates all sorts of problems you can do without! Many a breeder has gotten up in the morning to find dead newborns scattered all over the house while other mothers insist that every day is moving day until the babies have puncture holes in their necks. Get or make a cage, decide where you want the mother to deliver and put her in it for a few hours every day if she is not used to being caged. It is a good idea to feed her there too. About two weeks before delivery, put her in the cage and leave her there all night. Delivery dates can be tricky too. I put my girls in with the stud twice a day for three days unless I want to pinpoint the delivery date a little closer. Then I begin a kitten watch 63 days from the FIRST mating, NOT the last. I've had cats deliver anywhere from 61 to 69 days from that first breeding. Needless to say, she may not have conceived from that first mating or even the second - you'll never know; but it's much more expedient to keep a KITTEN WATCH from the 63rd day on.
IS TODAY THE DAY?
Some cats give obvious hints when they are going to deliver, others give none. Most cats will skip the last meal before delivering; I have a couple of girls who will snack between kittens. Anything to make it more confusing.. Some breeders insist that they can accurately predict delivery time by taking temperatures twice daily beginning the 61st. day after breeding. If the temperature reads about 101.5 for a couple of days, then drops to 98 or 99 degrees, you can expect labor to begin within 12 hours. If the temperature goes a couple of degrees ABOVE normal, you have been real sharp and caught a beginning problem and you need to call your veterinarian right away. This may mean a problem with the pregnancy or a developing illness of some other type.
I never seem to be able to tell with any real accuracy exactly when my girls are going to deliver - either I'm a nervous mother or they lie to me. For me, the best system, exhausting though it is, is to set an alarm for every hour and a half all night from the 63rd night - or sooner if your female shows signs of impending labor. With a husband who is a light sleeper and/or you want to avoid a divorce, you and the mother-to-be should spend a few nights in another room. Your queen will not object if you get her used to it ahead of time.
For a couple of weeks before delivery, your girl will be looking for places to deliver. She will poke into dark corners, make a mess of your linen closet if you are careless enough to leave the door unlatched or take over your overflowing laundry basket. Once you have her caged, she will do a lot of digging and nesting. Cardboard cartons or half of a large carrier make good nest boxes to put in your kittening cage. Some breeders line the bed with newspaper but I find that too messy so I use towels and the female can dig and nest in them.
SUPPLIES NEEDED FOR DELIVERY
(Many) old, soft face cloths
Heating pad
Small carrier which opens from the top or a container of some sort to put the pad in
White (colorless) iodine
Small hemostat
Extra towels for bedding
Record book and pen
Permanent markers
Small scale which measures weight in small increments (postage scale, etc.)
Aspirator
Dopram-V (doxapram hydrochloride)*
Oxytocin **
FIRST STAGE OF LABOR
In the first stage of labor, perhaps all you will notice after a general uneasiness in the cat is a slight mucous discharge or a more or less constant washing of her genital area. About a week earlier you will have clipped her "bottom" (if you have a long-haired cat). It is also a good idea to clip the hair around the nipples and massage them with Vaseline or cocoa butter if they seem crusty.
AND NOW.....
The second stage of labor begins with straining. Sometimes the queen will go into her litter pan and squat but do nothing. Sometimes they will even deliver their kittens in the litter pan - a very messy ordeal - so when the second stage begins I remove the litter and replace it with paper toweling. If she delivers there - no problem - the kits won't be covered with litter. If she urinates in the pan, it is easily cleaned. You can see and feel the muscles of the abdomen contract as the straining becomes more pronounced. To facilitate delivery, the vaginal opening will have enlarged and the vagina will be well lubricated. Though a cat will rest between contractions, the contractions will come closer and closer together as the kitten leaves one of the horns of the uterus and nears delivery. Some books will tell you that most kittens come "head first" - it would be nice if it were true. 50% head first delivery is about the best you can hope for. Hopefully, your girl will deliver her first kitten head first; rear first is a more difficult delivery, especially for the first kitten in the first litter. Once the head is out, the rest of the kitten comes without too much trouble. Tail-end first means the large rib-cage has to come first and it is more difficult to deliver. Head first or rear first, the first thing you will see is some portion of the kitten covered by the sac of membranes. Once the kitten is out you will probably find it is still pretty closely connected to the mother by the cord to the placenta (or "afterbirth") which she should expel fairly quickly. She probably will begin to lick the kitten right away but may be more concerned with washing herself, especially if it is her first litter. Either way, break the sac over the face of the kitten and begin to rub it lightly with a small cloth such as a face cloth. If it is wiggling and making noise you have time for her to expel the afterbirth. If the kitten seems too quiet and lethargic, fasten the hemostat on the cord and holding the cord on the side closest to the mother, try to ease it out by pulling gently. This may stimulate a contraction. If it doesn't, it is probably safest to break the cord so you can take the kitten out of the nest to work on it. Rub firmly with the washcloth and use the aspirator in the mouth to remove fluid. Hold the kitten between the palms of your two hands, head down, and swing briskly back and forth, pendulum fashion. I find bending over and swinging the kitten between my legs is most convenient. Stop and aspirate again and continue rubbing; continue the swinging and aspirating as long as you think there is liquid in nose, mouth or lungs. Another method for reviving a kitten or starting it breathing if this doesn't work is to use bowls of water - one very warm and one quite cool. Dip the kitten first in one then the other: sometimes when all else fails the shock will make them gasp and begin to breathe. Once the kitten is breathing well and crying, stimulate by drying some more. Occasionally you will have a kitten born that does not seem to be breathing and the normal massaging doesn't seem to help. If you have Dopram-V available, a drop under the tongue, using a regular syringe, may be a life-saver. It stimulates respiration. Continue to massage the kitten and "shake down". (Discuss this with your veterinarian ahead of time). If there is fluid coming from nose and/or mouth, use an aspirator to suction it - again with massage and shake down which helps to inflate the lungs and remove fluid.
KEEPING RECORDS
Now is the time for you to apply white iodine to the navel cord to prevent infection. I just drop the cord in the bottle, put the neck of the bottle against the belly of the kitten, and invert. After this you are ready for your record keeping. If your kittens are all going to be "look-alikes", you will want to mark them. I use a permanent magic marker. Touch the kitten under the front leg (armpit) with the marker, weigh it and put it in the "incubator" on a well-covered, warm heating pad. I have a page in my record book fro each litter, and it looks like this:
Peggy x Serail June 6, 1989
due: 6/5/89 delivered: 66 days
*****************************************************************
4:00 a.m. silver female (breech - difficult delivery) 4 oz
4:30 a.m. silver female (headfirst) 3 1/2 oz
6:00 a.m. silver male (headfirst) 4 oz
7:00 a.m. silver female (breech)
The top line gives the date of the parents and the date of delivery. The second line gives the date due, and the number of days carried. The you will want to have a line for each kitten giving time of birth, color, sex, weight and a brief description of delivery. You will be surprised how valuable this will be in future breedings of this female. Use the rest of the page to keep daily weight records of the kittens. this is most important - a lack of gain one day may be followed by a loss of weight the next day. By the time you notice or feel a weight loss; it may be too late to help the ktten and reverse the condition. If you weigh them daily at about the same time, you will know if they are gaining regularly. Don't count on your sense of touch to tell you this. You cannot tell a loss of 1/4 to 1/2 ounce and this can be serious with a very young kitten. If you need to give supplemental feedings as might be the case with a large litter or to give the smallest kitten an extra boost, the sooner you begin, the better.
Watch the mother carefully to see if she delivers the afterbirth and check off somewhere on the record for each kitten, the delivery of the afterbirth. It is VERY important to count a placenta for each kitten. I once had a mother deliver four kittens with no problems only to develop a high fever in 36 hours. She delivered early and I had found her in her bed with one kitten and no afterbirth and assumed she had eaten it. The result of "assuming" was that she had to have a Caesarian section to remove the afterbirth; due to high milk fever she couldn't nurse and lost her milk. This was a most unusual course of events; if a retained placenta is not expelled after an injection of Oxytocin, it may liquify and be expelled or be absorbed.
IF YOU NOTICE A PROBLEM, CALL FOR HELP IMMEDIATELY
While most deliveries are problem-free, if a cat is in HARD labor for an hour and has not delivered a kitten, you should be concerned. Do NOT let anyone talk you into letting a cat continue in hard labor for more than two hours. (I tend to panic and phone the vet after one hour). It may be a simple problem where your vet can manually turn a kitten into a better delivery position. However, it could mean the kitten is just too large to deliver or it could even mean a torn uterus. In either case, a cat could labor forever and not deliver. The latter can, in most cases, be repaired for future eventless deliveries. Sometimes a cat needs a C-section but sometimes she just needs more expert help than you can give. Occasionally, labor stops and the veterinarian will give Oxytocin to start contractions again.
There is a problem you can handle yourself. "Each kitten is enveloped in a skin sac, transparent and filled with fluid. When the kitten starts through the birth canal, this sack sometimes is forced through first, the water forming a sort of blister-like protrusion before the kitten appears. Sometimes the force of the contractions makes the bubble very full of fluid and keeps the progress of the kitten back. Should this occur, pinch the bubble, or sack, between the nails of the thumb and the first finger to break it and allow some of the "water" to escape, and the kitten will then come rapidly as the pressure is relieved." 1 I delivered my first litter of kittens with the book from which I've quoted in my hand and it was a text book delivery.
Most queens will attempt to eat each afterbirth; I figure one is enough and dispose of the rest. In the wild, an animal will eat the afterbirth to remove all traces of the birth as protection from enemies. It is also a source of nourishment, a possible laxative and a source of hormones to make the uterus contract. The queen may deliver her kittens at 15 minute intervals or even wait four hours before producing another. As long as she seems seems comfortable - don't panic. An extended period of hard, unproductive labor is worth panicking about. Another unusual delivery was a Siamese which aborted one kitten seven weeks into her pregnancy. She went full term to deliver five more. Another girl delivered one kitten and waited 24 hours to deliver its littermate. You don't get much sleep that way.
It is best to keep all of the kittens separate from the mother until delivery is completed unless it takes several hours. In most cases, the mother will not be too interested or have time to wash and cuddle kittens while in labor with another. She may even inadvertently roll on it. It is important at this stage to keep the newborns warm and dry. If she goes a long time between deliveries, put one kitten in for awhile for her to wash and nurse if she is willing. You can always alternate kittens as the litter grows in size. It is easier to sneak one kitten away from her when she is in labor for the next than it is to remove two or three kittens.
AT LAST!
