If you have never raised an exotic cat up from a kitten, then nothing you have ever done will prepare you for the heartaches, headaches and rewards that you will experience during this most precious and crucial time. There is no substitute for their mother's love and if you have decided to try and be a surrogate mother you have taken on the responsibility of a lifetime of care. This is not a position to take lightly and we cannot emphasize strongly enough how much hard work and dedication will be required of you.

We like to leave our kittens with their mothers for a minimum of ten days, or until the eyes open, for several reasons. The mother's first milk in the first 48 hours contains the colostrum necessary for the kitten to initiate it's own immune system. Without this colostrum, which is not available to the public in synthetic form, the cub will have no natural immunities and will be in severe danger until after the second booster shot, which will be given at eight weeks. This is a long time to hold your breath. Even with novice mothers and potentially dangerous ones, we still feel better letting the kitten get that first milk. The eyes usually open at ten days and if the kitten can be left with the mother until then there is less likelihood of eye infection, if she is properly cleaning and grooming her young. As surrogate mothers, we love our cubs dearly, but usually cannot devote our entire day to feeding and cleaning them, as can their Dam.

Imprinting: Depending on the Queen, we leave our cubs with their natural mothers for as long as is practicable. If she is tame and will allow us to handle the kittens daily, we leave them with her as long as they purr, or at least don't hiss when we pick them up. At this writing the longest that we have been successful with this strategy has been three and a half weeks with tame Caracals and Servals, three weeks with Bobcats, three weeks with Siberian and Canadian Lynxesand eight weeks with our South American Cougars. We have heard that the great cats, Lions, Tigers etc. are even more apt to allow human interference, but we have not had cubs by these larger cats, to be born here, as of yet. We purchased a four week old Lion cub, who had no "bottle" experience, and we suspect had just been taken from his mother and yet, he was very gentle and trusting. The extended time with the mother produces much healthier, stronger, fluffier kittens but they must be handled daily or else they will learn to fear humans and will revert to their wild tendencies. No matter how tame the mother is herself, if the kittens are not handled regularly, they will not inherit their mother's trust.

If the Queen is not tame, or won't let you touch her babies, then we would recommend that the kittens be pulled as soon as their eyes open, which again, is usually around ten days. Most cats are not going to let you waltz in and carry out her offspring, even if she is temporarily distracted. There is no substitute for good planning and this should have been thought of before she ever conceived. We have a trap door on the back of the den box and a drop door on the front entrance to the den. While the mother is out eating or getting a drink, we shut her out of the den and then open the trap door on back to get to the cubs. We usually take the kittens at night, when we feed, so that it is not obvious to the mother that something is up. If you wash your clothing in a different detergent before taking the kits, then it will not be obvious to the Dam that you were the one who raided her nest. This could be important in your continued relationship with her.

Everyone will want to see and handle the cubs, but this can be very stressful for the kits and stress can kill them as quickly as any virus. Studies on puppies have reported that interrupted sleep can lead to death. In the wild, the exotic must be especially alert, and even in captivity a cat will be aroused by the quietest approach. Keep them in a warm, dark, secured, quiet place overnight. To help accustom the new cubs to your smell, you can bed them in a soft Tee shirt that you have worn all day, as long as it does not have other cat "germs" on it. Cats will recognize you as much by your smell as any other factor and for this reason we try to keep that smell consistent by using the same laundry soap, shampoos, body soaps, etc.

We don't even offer food to the cubs until the following morning, because nothing we have to offer is going to taste or feel like "mom" and if we try to introduce some foreign food and container right away the kittens are going to put up a huge fight and it gets your whole relationship off to a bad start. (Except for kits who may have been pulled due to the Dam’s inadequate milk supply. If they are restless and nursing on their feet or bedding then we will offer them something to drink right away) By early morning the kits are HUNGRY and ready (sort of) to accept anything. It's almost always still a challenge, but it's not an all out struggle and by the third feeding they have usually got the hang of nursing from a hard rubber nipple and a taste for that otherwise yucky stuff that makes the hungries go away.

WASH your hands before and after handling the kittens and we suggest sterile aprons or hospital gowns be worn over your clothing when you handle the cubs. Handle them as needed, but resist picking them up as much as possible for the first three weeks, especially the first week of their life. We treat them as much like their mother would as possible by keeping them in a "nest" and feeding and cleaning them within this makeshift nest. The nest material will have to be replaced frequently and the kitten will have to be picked up, but try to keep it to a minimum at first.

At three weeks they are better able to handle being picked up and this is when you will be getting them accustomed to frequent handling. Begin laying the kit on his back in your hand or lap and rubbing his belly and under his chin. When the cat is grown you will want him to feel comfortable with this behavior because you will need to inspect, groom or pick fleas or burrs from this area. If not trained young that he can trust you to touch his most vulnerable spots, you will have a hard time trying to convince him later.

The bonding that you will do with your little bundle of joy during these most crucial times will last a lifetime. Just pulling the kitten out every two hours, feeding him, helping him eliminate waste and putting him back in the carrier, may keep him alive, but he deserves so much more and you will reap the benefits. Do not wake the kitten to play, but if you see he is awake take the time to nuzzle, snuggle and caress. If you cannot drop what you are doing every time, just the warm, loving sounds of your voice can convey the love you feel. The cub will remember these early times and will respond a lifetime to familiar words, feels and games. I have long hair that always falls down around the kits when I am tending to them and all of my adults now love hair. We have three year old Bobcats and Siberian Lynxes that will jump onto a strangers shoulders and nuzzle in their hair like they have known the person all their lives. Many of our cats love a good game of peek-a-boo with a blanket, usually at 3:00 a.m. when we would rather be sleeping.

These learned responses will stay with the cat throughout his life, so choose your games wisely. Our 150 pound Leopards still love to leap up on our shoulders and snuggle in our hair, and this is NOT a good thing. We have since learned that any cat, full grown, we cannot carry must be trained to keep all four on the floor. My husband nearly had his head severed at the neck, when in play, Simba a full grown Asian Leopard leaped some twenty feet across the pen, expecting Don to catch him. The cat was smiling, a big open mouthed smile as he sailed through the air. Don caught him, breaking the impact and fall, but Simba’s upper canine raked across Don’s neck, from his ear down to the other side of his Adam’s apple. I didn’t know a person could live through such a bad injury to the neck, but it did heal in time. We would never recommend that you go near an exotic with the smell of blood on you, but it is interesting to note, that as my husband was nearly bleeding to death in a pen with two full grown Leopards, all they did was gently try to clean the wound.

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