Animal Care Tūrangi's free snip and chip aims to stem kitten deluge

Stacy Lewis of Animal Care Tūrangi hopes a free desexing and microchipping programme will help stem the flow of unwanted kittens over the coming months. Photo / Sara Bell

It's only the beginning of kitten season and already Stacy Lewis of Animal Care Tūrangi has had a litter dumped on her doorstep.

The four kittens, estimated at about three weeks old, are too young to be away from their mother, which means Stacy and a foster carer have been feeding them every three hours by syringe to keep them alive and nourished.

"Their eyes are open but they can't walk very far and they are totally dependent on me. I feed them at 10pm, get up at 1am and 5am and 8am … I'll be feeding them for another week or two and then I'll start to try to feed some solids."

But with the mother cat still out there and unspayed, she will be pregnant again within just a few weeks and producing her second litter of the season in no time.

It used to be that cats bred only during the warmer months, but as mean temperatures rise each year, so too does the number of litters cats can produce.

So breaking the cycle to reduce the number of unwanted kittens being dumped - or worse - from cat owners who can't or won't get them desexed, is imperative.

Stacy says she knows many families in Tūrangi are struggling in the recession and finding the money to get their cat spayed or neutered is low on the list of priorities.

So Animal Care Tūrangi, with support from Pelorus Trust and the New Zealand Companion Animal Trust are offering locals with cats free snip and chip - cat microchipping and desexing at VetEnt Tūrangi.

Desexing and microchipping a female cat would normally cost $209, and a male cat $149. With the snip and chip, it is totally free, and will remain on offer until the money runs out.

Stacy estimates the grants will cover the costs of having around 100 cats desexed and microchipped for free.

"It's breaking the cycle. It's two-fold. Reducing unwanted and given away free kittens to people that can't afford to vaccinate, desex and do all the rest of the things that people are not doing.

"But also where we lie we are a gateway to the mountains, we live in a place where we'd like to have bird life and by not having animals out there that are breeding unnecessarily, it's better for our community."

Stacy says last year Animal Care Tūrangi took in 123 kittens and has taken in 91 so far this year. With a litter of kittens so soon after the breeding season has begun she's hoping to stem the tide of unwanted kittens. In the past, she's offered discounted desexing for $30 but even that's not low enough to get some cat owners through the vet clinic doors.

"At Christmas time I normally have 50 kittens in care.

"I'm hoping to break the cycle so I don't end up with 150 in February because [cats] will have maybe four litters a year. It used to be three but because it's warmer they are getting an extra litter in during the year.

"They're having their babies and by the time they are weaning their babies, the mothers are coming on heat again."

Stacy says if a person has a nursing mother cat, as soon as the kittens are weaned is the time to get the cat into the vets to be desexed before she becomes pregnant again.

While Covid-19 has meant a rise in the adoption of companion animals, the influx of kittens puts massive stress on animal shelters.

"When I take in a litter of kittens, even if they are six to eight weeks old, I still have them for a month or more feeding them up, worming, fleaing, getting them to a weight that's desexable before I can put them up for adoption. When I get a pregnant cat, I have her for three months before she's adoptable along with the kittens, so that's a lot of resources."

* To take up the free snip and chip offer, contact VetEnt Tūrangi on 386 0220.