Kitten season has arrived and we need more kitten foster parents! We need your help!
Kitten season (April to October) is here and this year Southern California has been hit harder than usual. Shelters and rescues are seeing record numbers of kittens coming in and Burbank is no exception. The shelter does not have ability to house them all, so this is where the Volunteers of the Burbank Animal Shelter (VBAS) Kitten Foster Program (KFP) comes in.
In a normal year, KFP and its network of foster families will save over 200 kittens. Fosters provide their kittens with safe homes, food and care until they are big enough to be adopted to their forever homes. But this year KFP is on pace to take in over 300 kittens. We need more fosters to save all these kittens! If you love kittens, you can absolutely save lives by becoming a kitten foster parent. When you foster you are saving lives twice: You are saving the kittens in your care, *and* you are freeing up space at the shelter to save more lives!
Neonatal kittens (0-4 weeks) are the tiniest kittens arriving at the shelter. They need the most help and must be bottle fed every few hours. The number of bottle feeders coming in this season has increased dramatically and we *desperately* need more fosters who can bottle feed.
Our biggest need is for fosters who can bottle feed for a few weeks at a time, but if you can only bottle feed for a few days or on the weekends, that will be a tremendous help as well.
What goes into bottle feeding a kitten? Check out this video from Kitten Lady!
We also need fosters who can take in older kittens who are eating on their own, but just need a little more time to reach adoption weight. If you have a busy work schedule or work full time these are the kittens for you! They won’t mind if you work all day: half the day in an empty house or apartment is better than 24 hours a day in a kennel! These kittens are perfectly content to keep each other company while you’re away and of course they’ll be happy to see you when you get home!
The Kitten Foster Program provides comprehensive training for all foster parents, as well as all food, supplies, materials and medical care your kittens will need. We’re also here to support you along the way! When your kitten is ready for adoption, we will help you market them on our website, social media, and at our kitten adoption fairs that are held twice per month. Our adoption rate is 100%!
Karissa, a long-time bottle feeding foster mom, reports that “KFP has been super supportive, responsive, and understanding. It’s so rewarding to see the kittens hit their milestones like opening their eyes, recognizing your voice, and even wrestle each other. My kids have learned how to be gentle, compassionate, responsible humans because they are helping me raise these tiny little creatures.”
Laura, another foster mom, works with KFP as a bottle feeder on the weekends. During the week, she fosters kittens that are eating on their own and can handle being by themselves for hours at a time. “The first time I fostered for the weekend, I was very nervous about caring for the kittens because they are so small, but the KFP leaders and the full-time foster were so reassuring and supportive. I also have two small children and a dog. My oldest child is so excited about helping me care for the kittens, and fostering is a great opportunity to start teaching her to care for animals and the importance of volunteering in the community”
If you can help foster, whether as a bottle feeder or for a kitten that is eating on its own, we want to hear from you! Please click here to learn more and fill out the application. (And if you know someone who might be interested, please send this along to them!)
And if you can’t foster but would still like to help, please consider making a donation. Any size donation will go a long way to making sure the kittens have all the resources they need to keep the kittens happy, healthy, and adoptable!
