2-3 Week Old Orphan – Question about Heating Pads + Summer Time

Thank you so much for responding! I looked everywhere, but I found a lot of varied information about heating pads. And do you mean goats milk/yougurt in addition to, or mixed into the formula? I will definitely give that a try with the little bug. If it’s mixed in, what ratio of formula to goats milk do you suggest?

I’m in Indy, so I can definitely grab some from Walmart – I definitely wanna do all I can to keep this little guy healthy, I’m already really attached to him.

I also have one more question – I’ve been stimulating him to pee, and he pees a little bit every time… but he just mewed at me, and when I looked over at him he had peed on the tshirt of mine I gave him to lay on (he was being extra fussy, I couldn’t figure out why, he kept falling asleep against my chest while we were cuddling, and when I would transfer him to his box, he’d wake up and fire up his lungs, tshirt worked in 30 seconds flat, lol). Is it bad that he just peed on his own so early, or is that normal? Is it because I didn’t get enough out of him when I was doing it or is that a sign of a problem or is it normal? I’m not 100% sure on his age, so maybe he’s older than I think?

Hey Pussigato,
He does have baby blankets – soft, thick nap blankets that kind of feel like cat fur layered on top of soft towels, and another of my t-shirts, of course… Not for him to potty on, but to sleep on. He was refusing to sleep yesterday unless I was holding him so I gave him the shirt and he went to sleep on it within seconds.
I don’t think he’s four weeks yet. My initial guess was two weeks because he is so small and his ears were still folded slightly. But when I woke up today his ears were fully open and standing up like big cat ears (I was so excited that his ears were up), so I believe him to be about three weeks old. And that’s a relief, knowing he had about three weeks of mama’s milk. He’s also gained about an ounce since I brought him in and he’s walking better, still wobbly on his feet, but he’s standing not crawling. He’s also super playful today and sleeping slightly less. He also no longer sleeps in a tiny, curled up ball. He now sleeps stretched out on his back/side with his arms and legs stretched out as far as he can reach (strangely, that’s the exact position all of my other cats sleep in), so I think he’s decided that he’s safe and this is his home.
He did pee on his own again, on the very opposite corner of the box from where he always sleeps, so I’m fairly certain it wasn’t an accident since it appears he got up and peed as far away from his “bed” as possible. (I cleaned him and changed his bedding as soon as I saw it). I’m going to find him a very shallow litter box, so he can pee when he needs to in between feedings/stimulation. I did not know that kittens ate clumping litter, so thank you for that. Do you have any recommendations as far as brands? I always use clumping with my big kids, but they’re very, very picky with their litter and will refuse to go in the boxes if I get a brand they don’t like.
Also, I can see little bumps where his teeth are about to break through (which explains why he keeps gnawing on my finger and the bottle nipple and the blankets and towels and his toys and everything – i should have realized why sooner), and once those come through, I’m going to start mixing some wet kitten food into his formula.