Guides

Fostering cats and kittens

What fostering involves, what a rescue provides, how to set up and keep fosters healthy and socialised, and when to call the rescue or a vet.

4Feline · Published November 7, 2026

Fostering means caring for a cat or kittens in your home until a rescue finds them a permanent family. The rescue usually pays for veterinary care and often supplies food and litter, and you give the space, time and affection. Fostering saves lives and frees shelter space. It also asks for patience, hygiene and the willingness to say goodbye.

What fostering is

Shelters and rescues use foster homes for several reasons:

  • Neonatal kittens, newborns that need frequent feeding, sometimes every few hours, day and night
  • Kittens too young for adoption, or too small for neutering surgery
  • Nursing mothers with litters
  • Cats recovering from illness or surgery
  • Shy or stressed cats that do better in a quiet home than in a shelter
  • Cats waiting because the shelter is full
  • Hospice or senior cats that need comfort in their last months

You choose what you can offer. Many groups let you say whether you can foster adults, kittens or neonates, and whether you can care for a sick cat. Be honest about your time. Caring for neonatal kittens is a serious commitment, and a rescue should train you before you start.

What to do, step by step

  1. Contact a local rescue or shelter. Ask how their programme works. Find out what they provide, such as food, litter, supplies, vet care, medicines and a contact person. Ask who pays for emergencies, and who makes medical decisions.
  2. Complete the application and training. Many groups hold an orientation. You may need your landlord's permission and agreement from everyone at home.
  3. Check your own pets. Your own cats should be healthy and up to date with vaccines. Fosters may carry illness, and young kittens are vulnerable. Ask your vet whether fostering is suitable for your pets.
  4. Prepare a separate room. A spare bathroom or bedroom with a door that closes works well. It should be easy to clean, warm and free of hazards. Provide a litter tray, food, water, a bed, a hiding spot, toys and a scratching post. Keep fosters apart from your own cats until the rescue says it is safe.
  5. Set a hygiene routine. Wash your hands before and after handling fosters, and change clothes or use an apron if you handle your own pets afterward. Disinfect surfaces with a product your rescue recommends. Some infections, such as feline panleukopenia and ringworm, spread easily and survive on surfaces and clothing. The rescue will tell you how to prevent this.
  6. Take the cat to the first vet visit. The rescue will tell you where and when. Keep a log of weight, appetite, litter use and behaviour.
  7. Weigh kittens each day. Use a kitchen scale and write down the weight. Healthy kittens gain weight daily. If a kitten is not gaining or loses weight, call the rescue at once.
  8. Feed what the rescue tells you. Young kittens rely on their mother's milk or on a special formula. Do not give cow's milk. The weaning stage, when kittens begin to eat solid food, usually starts at around four weeks. The rescue will guide you, and the kitten schedule tool on this site shows the typical timeline for vaccines and milestones.
  9. Give only the treatments the rescue's vet has prescribed. Follow the vet's written instructions. Do not give medicines, supplements or home remedies of your own.
  10. Socialise the cats. Kittens learn most about people in the socialisation period, from about two to seven weeks old. Handle them gently every day, let them meet calm visitors, and expose them to normal household sounds. Play with them using wand toys, not hands, so they do not learn to bite fingers. Shy adults need a quiet routine. Sit in the room, read aloud or offer treats, and let them approach.
  11. Share news. Take clear photos and write notes about each cat's personality. This helps the rescue find the right home.
  12. Say goodbye well. When the cat is adopted, you may feel sad. Many fosterers take comfort in knowing they gave the cat its start. If you decide to keep a foster, tell the rescue. Some groups welcome it, and some have rules.

What fostering costs and takes

Rescues usually pay for veterinary care and medicines. Ask about food, litter and supplies. You give time, space, cleaning and attention. A foster may need feeding several times a day. Plan holidays and work schedules. Some fosters stay for days, and some for months.

Common mistakes

  • Mixing fosters with your own cats too soon. Keep them apart until the rescue clears it.
  • Skipping hygiene. Infections travel on hands and clothes.
  • Not weighing kittens. Weight is the earliest warning.
  • Treating sickness at home. A sick kitten can decline fast. Call the rescue.
  • Giving cow's milk or human food. It can cause diarrhoea.
  • Handling kittens roughly or letting children handle them unsupervised.
  • Letting fosters outdoors or near open windows.
  • Taking on more than you can manage. Know your limits.
  • Not telling the rescue about a problem. They want to know early.

When to call the rescue or a vet

Contact the rescue's vet or an emergency vet at once if a foster:

  • is a kitten that is cold, limp or will not feed
  • is not gaining weight or is losing weight
  • has not eaten for a day, or a young kitten misses several feeds
  • breathes with an open mouth, or struggles to breathe
  • has diarrhoea, especially with vomiting
  • has pale gums, or is covered in fleas, since heavy fleas can make a kitten anaemic
  • has an upper respiratory infection with thick discharge from the eyes or nose, or cannot smell and stops eating
  • strains in the litter tray or passes little or no urine, especially a male
  • has a seizure, or suddenly cannot stand

Speak to the rescue first if they have an on-call number. Follow their instructions.

Summary

  • Fostering is temporary care until a cat is adopted. The rescue usually covers vet costs.
  • Set up a separate, easy-to-clean room and keep fosters apart from your own pets.
  • Wash hands, change clothes and keep a hygiene routine.
  • Weigh kittens daily and keep notes.
  • Do not give medicines, formula or milk unless the rescue instructs you.
  • Socialise gently, especially young kittens.
  • Call the rescue or a vet quickly when a foster is cold, limp, not feeding or not gaining weight.

Related tools

Kitten schedule Enter a kitten's age or birth date to see when vaccines, weaning, spay or neuter and other milestones usually fall.

Terms used in this guide

Neonatal kitten A kitten in its first two weeks, born with closed eyes and ears and unable to regulate its own temperature or toilet without its mother. Weaning The gradual switch from mother's milk to solid food, which usually starts at about four weeks and is mostly complete by eight to ten weeks. Socialisation period The early weeks of a kitten's life, roughly two to seven weeks, when gentle handling and new experiences shape how friendly and confident it becomes. Ringworm A contagious fungal infection of skin, hair and claws that causes patchy hair loss and can spread to people and other pets. Upper respiratory infection A contagious infection of the nose, throat and eyes that causes sneezing, discharge and a poor appetite, common in kittens and shelter cats. Feline panleukopenia A highly contagious and often deadly parvovirus that attacks fast-dividing cells, mainly in unvaccinated kittens.

Latest on this topic