Abandoned Newborns – Body Weight Gain – KMR, Hartz, Goat Milk?

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  • 24 May, 2018 at 3:21 pm #868054
    willy
    Participant

    We had a mother cat abounded three new kittens in a laundry room attached to our four car garage on the 19th. We attempted to return the kittens to the mother on the 19th and 20th by placing them in a sheltered outdoor area but she did not return.

    The night of the 20th we opted to drive to a nearby town to obtain some initial supplies but did not have much of a chance to do a great deall of research before the stores closed. We got in a couple feedings every 2 to 2.5 hours on the first night. We fed them on the 21st through 23rd. We have a few feedings so far today on the 24th.

    We are housing them in a secure heated shelter in our garage as we have four cats ranging from from 1 1/12 to 17 1/2 in the house that can’t come in contact with them. We are also keeping all utilized materials such a rags away from our indoor cats.

    Before we started feeding them they weighed:

    115g
    115g
    118g

    They are now:
    118g
    120g
    129g

    They still have a dried remnant of the umbilical cord attached. They were abandoned clean and have so signs of upper respiratory infection such as coughing or sneezing.

    We have owned cats since 1979 but never this young and are concerned they are not gaining enough weight as several sites I’ve read say they should be gaining up to 7g a day.

    They do regularly pee via manual stimulus and early this morning we found they had bowl movements between feedings in their bedding. I am thinking perhaps they went because they received enough stimulus from each other while snuggling as it was not diarrhea.

    We are currently using Hartz KMR, but I have seen some bad reviews online for that so I was wondering if perhaps PetAG KMR would be better or goat’s milk? PetAg is the # brand, but also has some bad reviews.

    They immediately go to sleep after each feeding and are very vocally active and attempt to crawl and climb anything they come in contact with while they are awake during feeding.

    The kitten with the lowerest weight tends to be very fussy with the feedings so we have attempted to give it more attention. We are also gently burping them.

    24 May, 2018 at 4:15 pm #868055
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Hi Willy,

    Welcome to TDKland. You are doing an excellent work with these kits. Here’s information that may help you out. I know it’s a lot of info so find what you need. They are on the low side but not too much. You can feed them more often if they’ll eat it.

    FIRST-ditch the Hartz brand. PetAG is better product. KMR concentrate tends to give kits constipation and the liquid does the opposite. In TDKland, we recommend Goats’ milk for kittens. Cats are lactose intolerant and can’t digest cows milk. Goats’ milk is full of nutrients, probiotics and gentler on their tummies. This can also regulate the poop. You can find it in the dairy section or the concentrate in the baking aisle. Mix the concentrate 1:1 with water or pedylite. If, at any time, they seem lethargic put a dab of Karo syrup or honey in their mouth. Also, a smidgen of mineral oil in their formula can usually help them poop. You can put a dab of Neosporin on his bum if he gets sore.

    Newborn kittens during their first week need to consume about 32 cc of formula per day. That is based on an average kitten weighing 120 grams. Because normal kittens range in weight at birth from 85 to 120 grams, the amount of formula they should drink is going to vary.

    That amount should be spread out into about ten feedings, spaced about every 2 and-a-half hours round the clock. If the kitten is weak or stressed, it is even more important to give it more frequent feeding throughout the day and night.

    During their second week, an average kitten consumes about 55 cc per day of formula. You can already cut back on the number of feedings if the kitten is steadily gaining weight.

    By week three, the kitten should be consuming about 80 cc of formula per day and by four weeks 100 cc/day, and by 5 weeks about 125cc/day. By four weeks, the amount of formula the kitten consumes per feeding should have risen so that you get by with 5-7 feedings per day.

    Kittens that are hungry and need feeding will cry continuously, move their heads from side to side and suckle on each other or on objects in the nest box.

    http://www.messybeast.com
    http://www.kittenlady.org/savekittens
    http://www.kittenlady.org/weighing

    Good Luck
    PG

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