During the spring and summer months each year, many kittens and puppies are abandoned by their mothers, or relinquished by their owners.

When young animals are separated from their mother, they have little chance of surviving without loving foster parents. The role of foster parent can be very demanding, but can also be very rewarding.

Sometimes fostering involves caring for an animal for a week or two following a medical procedure or administrating medication to treat a condition requiring more frequent attention than would be possible in the shelter environment. For example, your role might require ear drops or eye drops 3-4 times a day, or just caring for a pet with a bandaged leg.

In addition to providing an animal with much needed love and attention, fostering allows you to evaluate the animal's temperament and habits. This knowledge helps us to make better decisions as to a permanent home.

Critter Haven Foster Parent Guidelines

This set of guidelines is intended to give you a perspective of fostering animals. It can be a very rewarding experience; it also represents an extraordinary commitment of time and can be very taxing emotionally. Thank you for your understanding and assistance.

Critter Haven Foster Parent Training Class

Everyone considering participation in Critter Haven Rescue Center's Foster Care Program is required to attend a foster care training class. These will be held at Critter Haven Rescue Center. Please contact us for upcoming dates of training sessions.

Critter Haven Foster Parent Basics

Puppies and kittens are not always neat. Their job is to run, play and grow. Our job is to make sure they stay healthy and happy. Very young animals require feedings several times a day and night just like human babies. Your schedule must often be built around their needs.

Potential Illness and Death

Sometimes, despite everything we do to care for them, animals, and particularly very young animals, may not survive to adulthood. This is no one's fault; it's just one of those things we humans find especially painful.

There are any number of reasons why a baby animal might not survive. The young may lose their ability to suckle and/or move food through the gastrointestinal tract. They may have contracted an illness from the mother before birth, or even have parasites from the mother, which later causes health problems.

A a foster parent, all you can do is be as well informed as possible, keep your eyes open for potential problems, and alert the Critter Haven whenever problems arise. Be on the alert for runny eyes or nose, coughs, irregular breathing, lackluster behavior, etc. If a cat's membrane shows in the corner of its eye, be on the alert for further illness. As a volunteer who is considering fostering animals, you must think seriously about whether you could handle the heartache that is sometimes part of the job. Fostering animals is not for everyone.

Food and Feeding

Critter Haven will provide high-quality food for the foster animals. A specific diet and feeding routine will be designed for your animal; these menu items are readily available at your local pet supply or animal feed store. Very young animals that are being bottle fed may be fed every two hours, and should be fed when they cry for food. These animals can generally be weaned onto solid food starting at 4-5 weeks of age.

Elimination

Stools should be firm in healthy animals. Runny stool may indicate a multitude of issues, pPlease consult the NCHS staff should this arise. Young puppies and kittens cannot eliminate on their own; normally, the mother assists them with elimination by licking their bottoms, which stimulates the reflex to eliminate. Foster parents should mimic the parent role by wiping puppies and kittens with a warm, moist cloth after feeding to stimulate elimination. This is especially important in kittens, as they can become sick or die from blocked intestinal tracts if not properly stimulated. Kittens should be placed in litter boxes at an early age when they can dig and scratch.

Urine and fecal scalding are common in puppies and kittens. Their bottoms need to be washed frequently as they become repeatedly soiled. Think of yourself as a mother cat who is always licking her young at every opportunity.

Keeping your own Pets Safe and Healthy

Foster animals should always be kept away from personal pets at home to prevent the possible spread of illness and parasites. This procedure protects both the foster animal and your pets. Keep in mind that the foster animals are generally too young to be immunized. If you have dogs or cats of your own, be certain that they are inoculated against all of the diseases that foster care animals are likely to have. If possible, your personal animals should not be allowed to come into contact with the foster animals at all. At the very least, do not allow them to eat out of the same bowls.