PLEASE HELP! I need to learn more on the “triangle method”

Back on again, been tent testing all three kittens every feeding time since I got them at 10AM, and Trinity who seemed in the poorest shape and screaming bloody murder when I got her at 11AM, and now it’s 230AM, and Trinity passed the tent test, but I’m not sure how quick it’s supposed to “snap back” but it did after a second, it wasn’t an immediate snap back. Skywalker and Saruman did great for the tent test, just Saruman didn’t have any pee, probably because he hasn’t quite taken to the bottle, since this morning, I’ve only been able to get 1 tablespoon of canned formula into him. Trinity finally nursed, although only once, she didn’t bottle feed the second attempt after her potty, but since this morning, I’ve been able to get almost 2 tablespoons into her, almost 1 tablespoon just on this feeding alone. I think it was because she was the first one I grabbed to feed, and she was totally passed out when I stuck the nipple in her mouth, which she started nursing immediately, and when she finishd and I played and pottied her, she wouldn’t take it a second time. I’ll keep trying. Skywalker is a trooper, but now his belly is huge, and I worry that he’s feeding too much, each feeding he’s sucked down a whole tablespoon, and since this morning, he’s had 4 tablespoons. This last feeding had his belly quite taut, I massaged him, and will massage him again right after this post. Just wanted to provide all the details of everything I have on my end so far. Worried about dehydration in Trinity, but she just sucked down almost a tablespoon, would she be fine for a while? or I should run out and grab some pedialyte to add to her bottle? Definetely worried about Sarumon, because he’s not nursing, and he’s eaten the least out of all of them, but he weighs the most out of the three, only 10g behind Tumai, strong and fussy. Let me know what you guys think. I’ll be back on at 5AM PST. I haven’t slept yet, so I’m going to crash for two hours. Hopefully Sarumon takes his bottle then…

Thanks Jcat for answering so quickly! Funds wise I’m fine, I’ve spent about $120 on Tumai, and she’s only in her first week, she’s worked through half of the powder formula and 2 cans of KMR (I had bought 3), I started her on KMR, then slowly switched her to formula, and now, working my way back to somehow find a balance. I’m going to try 50% formula and 50% KMR soon. I think next feeding I’ll give her a watered down version of the 50/50 solution, 50%solution50%water, what do you think? Then today I ran out and got another $100 of supplies for the 3 kittens (3 separate bottles, and 2 more cans of KMR), cause Tumai already almost cleaned out the stash of stuff I bought for her last week. I don’t mind paying a visit to the vet and paying to have them quickly teach me how to poop her, and get her poop out. I don’t know if the cat rescue will reimburse me, I never thought to ask. I basically spent an hour with them last week with Tumai after I had frantically spent an entire morning,afternoon and evening (going to two different vets, my own, which they tried but couldn’t get her to nurse and told me that she would pick it up when she was hungry enough, and an emergency, where they just handed me a syringe and said she’d pick it up eventually) to get her to nurse, which was also unsuccessful, and she didn’t do it until 2 in the morning anyways, and it took me all morning the next day, destroying 3 nipples, to get one that work as it was supposed to (the rescue showed me how to do it, but they also destroyed one in the process). Today was easier, I went slower and didn’t waste a single nipple. Thank you thank you for your quick response. I’ll be back on at 5AM PST, any and all advice and help will be welcomed. (checked the recipe, I have all the ingredients. I also have Nutri-Cal Kitten, can I mix it in Trinity and Saruman’s formula as well? or they’re too young? I gave Nutri-cal Puppy to my dog’s litter 3 years ago as supplements and treats after they were weaned, I’m not so sure if I can do it while they’re nursing, what do you think) Thank you dailykitten and all the helpers!

Alright progress report! So I dumped Tumai’s 25%formula25%cannedformula50%water mixture by half and just added canned formula, so I have no idea what percentage that is, I’ll keep tweaking her formula until I can get it to 50%canned50%formula, and see how her poop comes. For now, I’m just hoping for poop. Soft and pliant belly, she’s doing just fine, except for the poop! For Skywalker, I woke him up and he had a large round belly, which became softer after peeing him and massaging him before I fed him again, and this time, I stopped him after 1/2 tablespoon. Played and massaged him and put him to bed, belly soft, but still very full, just thought I’ll limit his intake at each feeding for a day, since overnight he surpassed Saruman AND Tumai in weight, so I think he’s fine. He was lanky and larger than Tumai. Trinity passed the tent test, she’s no longer dehydrated, but that may not last long, because she refused to nurse again, and fought me hard, I was only able to get maybe 1/10or1/20th of a tablespoon in her, but she gained 3g, so I say small victory for now… I will keep trying, I am determined for her to suckle again! Now Saruman, still tough, still fighting me, not nursing, no pee (maybe cause there isn’t anything to pee out), passed the tent test, active and loud when woken up. Unfortunately, he lost 2g, having only intaken the same amount as Trinity, but that’s his feeding portion all day so far. Basically it’s me fighting him to get some down, because I want to make sure, he’s being fed, cause I worry about him starving and his glucose level dropping or whatever the sites say that’s why we’re feeding them every two hours, and he’s highly energetic the way he’s fighting me off, but then again he’s not eating, or he is, just not as much as I would like, cause for concern. What do you guys think I can do for the two that haven’t learned to suckle yet? Just keep doing what I’m doing, getting some down before I stop (should I increase how much goes down before I stop and just give up and wait until next feeding? or just increae the time in between feeding, every hour instead of every two) and doggedly hope Saruman learns to suckle and Trinity does it again and consistently? Or also ask the vet to show me tube feeding? Just so I know their bellies are full even though they don’t know how to suckle yet, and keep trying every feeding and just tube feed them if I ended up struggling to get some canned formula down? What do you guys think? Thanks!

New status update! Everyone had 0.25tablespoons of formula, and they’re all fat happy and sleeping, and POOP ALERT, while my husband was massaging and playing with Tumai, poop came out! Almost solid, but with watery liquid, I guess that one serving of water helped! Not a lot came out, so hopefully there are more to come, so we are suspending vet visit, pending how she holds up today, but she’s bright eyed, alert, and playful, so I think she’ll do fine! Also, Skywalker also pooped, yay! Smelled a lot like chicken poop (I had raised chickens when I was younger). I am so relieved. I want to thank everyone who commented, you guys helped ease my anxiety, and this was a great place to vent and vex. I will keep you guys updated. Lunch with the in-laws for early Mother’s Day celebration (my own mom is in Korea on vacay), going shopping at Babie’s R Us to find a portable bottle heater, they have those right? (no kids or babies, I remember seeing something that I thought looked like that was what it did at my boss’s house) was very tired of boiling water every other hour and waiting for the bottles to warm up… just want the bottles kept heated and ready. I do sterilize the nipples every other feeding, and I have to have boiled water anyways, each carrier (Tumai in one, the other three in another) have a hot water bottle tucked under their towels to keep them warm that’s refreshed every two hours as well during feeding. My Conair heat pad sucks, compared to my broken Sunbeam one, the high setting isn’t even the low setting from the broken Sunbeam, it doesn’t seem to keep them warm at all. It’s no longer winter in sunny Cali, so I couldn’t find a replacement Sunbeam anywhere. In the fall I guess… Anyways, repeating… Thank you all, you’re so great with the prompt responses! I’ll be happy to post photos if you’d like to see them, and I’ll update again in an hour and a half!

Update update! Everyone’s doing very very well! I was concerned during their 230PM feeding/bathroom/playing time when Trinity and Saruman’s pee came out a dark yellow, but their tent test was good. So one more trip to the store to get some pedialyte which for their 500PM feeding/bathroom/playing (couldn’t do it at 430 because we were enroute home), and I gave each kitten 3mL of pedialyte before their meal, which meant their formula intake was smaller, but their bathroom break, only Saruman’s was dark. Took another hour and half to get everyone down (Tumai had a second bowel movement, and this time, A LOT came out, so happy, but it also meant bath time), and clean up the mess I made from my recent purchases (which, OMG, makes getting everything ready a snap!), napped for another 2 hours and got everyone all ready again.

This time only took an hour to get everything done. I purchased an The First Years Bottle Warmer, (which just fits 4 nursing bottles, yay!), which heats up their milk in under 2 minutes, amazing, in love! haven’t found the perfect setting yet, I played with it twice, I think I’ll try 4 next (9 was too hot, 5 was too). I also purchased a 2-pack Smart Temp Therapy combo (comes with one large and small heat pack) that you just stick in the microwave, heat to desired setting, and it lasts for an hour, they still get their supplementary hot water bottles just in case (these being glass baby nursing bottles and caps, that are sold separately, Dr. Brown’s brand. Bottles are sold in a two pack, and the caps in a 3 pack, no more warping plastic bottles for putting boiling hot water in them!). The rest of the purchases were for ease of travel of keeping their bottles warm while on the road (Tommee Tippee insulated bottle pos, 2pack, kept their bottles warm for feeding even an hour later, probably could have lasted 2 hours) and something to heat up the formula (a Munchkin Deluxe Auto Bottle Heater, that you plug in to your car adaptor). Wow! making trips away from home with the kittens easy, and convenient! I had purchased a storage bin to make a makeshift exercise pen for them for when I finished feeding each kitten in a carrier, so that they can keep warm (this one is using the Conair plug in heat pad, and towel), while I reheated the pads and hot water bottles in their respective carriers. OH! and everyone nursed from their bottles this time! (Saruman and Trinity nursed from the syringes, didn’t have to squeeze it to drip drip drip into their mouths, so sucking reflex strong, they just hated the size of their nipples I guess, at their 11AM, and 230PM feedings. Their 500PM feeding for Saruman and Trinity was still syringe fed, but they both accepted the bottle on their second feed/potty/exercise… I do each routine twice, to make sure they weren’t just being fussy when they didn’t want to eat the first time). Cleaned everything up, sterilized everything for next feeding, and I can rest until 1130PM PST for the next round. All clear pees and bowel movements for Tumai and Skywalker (he had a large large bowel movement at his 11AM routine, probably because of the 3 tablespoons of formula he had inhaled within 6 hours, before I slowed him down), and everyone had almost 1/2 tablespoon of formula (I had also added 10mL of pedialyte to each of their bottles when cleaning up their 530PM routine). Now that it looks like everyone has stabilized (weighed everyone, Trinith gained 7g from this morning, Skywalker remained the same (he ate little for his 11AM and 230PM feedings), and Saruman gained 15g from this morning. I forgot to weigh Tumai *but she’s been gaining weight steadily since we had her last week*, and I don’t want to wake her so next post), I can go to my 2 hours-2.5 hours intervals between feedings (I was doing that with Tumai by Thursday before her siblings arrived on Friday, bringing us back to the beginning, because I was so concerned with her siblings feeding habits (my train of thought all Friday until now was “who is nursing from bottle, who is not nursing from bottle, those not nursing from bottle must eat, how to get what they’re supposed to be intaking into them, Tumai’s not having a bowel movement, Trinity’s belly was very empty and not round at all causing concern, threat of dehydration, rehydrate everyone, bowel movement, I have three extra kittens, routine takes longer to get everyone to bed so I may take naps or have a break, some lost weight, some not gaining enough weight, I needed more supplies”.

I want to thank everyone for their support and advice, such great help and anxiety soother. I will keep everyone updated on how they’re doing. I am so relieved everyone is finally doing well and stabilized, but that can change next routine, here’s hoping everything goes well tonight, fingers crossed!

Oh! OK, how do I do that? I know how to internet surf, but I’m not so computer savvy as to know how to post photos online, my own facebook page was setup by a friend, and I barely go on it. I have photos taken with my blackberry, I’d be happy to post! Question: does anyone know when I can use flash photography? Tumai opened both of her eyes 4 days ago, and her siblings only yesterday (although Trinity and Saruman is still winking in one eye). Can’t wait to be able to use flash, and not be doing their routine in a living room with the lights dimmed or with the curtains drawn! it seemed I went faster when Tumai couldn’t see, but then again, I only had one… haha.