When are newborn kittens usually out of risk of dying?

Awww Deanna, you have surely had your hands full. What PG said above is about all there is to know. There is no ‘safe time’ for kittens as sometimes things just happen with no apparent reason. I wish I could relieve your mind, but such is the life of the rescuer, LOL! You are very lucky though, that mama has resume her duties and seems to be taking care of them again. Just supervise closely and if she stop feeding them again, you know what to do. I had a cat that took her kittens and hid them, but I didn’t know it until it was too late, and I could only save one. That’s how I have my Leona with me now–I found her and brought her in to hand raise. We would like to save them all. Some things you just can’t prevent. Mother cat a lot of times was raised by a very young mother who didn’t have good mothering skills. I have seen some cats seek me out and give birth in my flower bed and get up and run leaving it behind. Those are the mostly ferals that someone has dumped pregnant, they are in pain giving birth, not understanding and when the kitten is born associate it with the pain they just felt and ran. 😥 I have had more successes than failures and that’s what keeps me doing it.

That’s the rewards of being a foster mom!

Feeding six is bound to take a lot from a mama. Goats’ milk is the closest to mama’s milk and doesn’t upset to their tummies or cause diarrhea or constipation. To get him to take the nipple gently open his mouth and put the nipple in. You may have to give it a little squeeze to start the milk flowing. He’ll figure it out.

Unless mama hasn’t helped him poop is there a reason you mention poop? You can try helping him if you’re not sure.

You can take a warm, damp wash cloth and gently work on the eye, they love the warmth and will usually let you do this. You can just keep working on the eye as the warm wet cloth dissolves the crust you can try to gently pull the eye open. You really need to get some drops from the vet to put in the eye. Most times the infection goes away, sometimes in rare cases a cat can lose the eye. That doesn’t mean they still can’t be wonderful pets, because they are! And, your kitten looks like a calico (as the fur looks orange, white and black) which usually means it’s a female! Congratulations!

Deanna the links that we posted a while back will help with kittens with diarrhea. But you can add some (human grade) pedialyte found in the grocery with their formula. It will replace electrolytes lost during diarrhea. You can rub honey or karo syrup on their gums too if you think they are fading. But often times they give you no signs, they are here one minute and the next they are just gone. I’m so sorry you are having such a hard experience. You are not at fault, remember that–raising kittens is very hard.

That’s why we don’t recommend taste testing. 😆

To remove the fleas:

Separate the kitten from it’s Mother and isolate Mom until she can be treated as well. Make sure all bedding or other nesting materials are put into a securely sealed plastic bag or plastic storage tote and taken completely out of the house. Do not reuse the bedding, the plastic bag or the plastic tote if used. Get a bowl of hot water and add a drop or two of Dawn dishwashing liquid detergent. Swish it around to make a very thin layer of suds on the top of the water. Get plenty of papertowels and a fine tooth comb — a lice nit comb is perfect on small kittens. With a DRY comb, run the teeth over the kittens and physically remove the fleas, quickly dip the comb in the soapy water, completely submersing it. Swish it around to dislodge all of the insects. Thoroughly DRY the comb with a clean paper towel each time (seal used paper towels into a plastic zip-lock type bag until you are ready to dispose of them away from the house) and repeat until there is no sign of fleas at all on the baby.

Repeat this process with the Mother cat and do not place the kitten back in with her until both have been treated, the bedding completely replaced and surrounding areas thoroughly vacuumed or mopped and dry.