Bottlefed kitten scratches at bottle when trying to feed

I don’t see why not 🙂 I would.

I’m glad we could help some Lisa,you did all the work though. Thanks for being such an awesome kitty Mama(along with George) for little Lazarus. 🙂

I hope to see frequent pictures of him growing up and well,anything anytime you want to chat. :3

That’s great!!! Lazaraus is such a cutie, I love when the fur kind of poofs up since he’s still young. I’m proud he’s not using the bottle. I can understand how hard it is to get a kitten of the bottle.

I have had this same issue with 2 of the many of the little kittens I have hand reared. Funny thing is, they were both males! But I will have to say I don’t think it’s the same thing as kneading. It is a frantic grasping trying to get to the bottle and nipple. Make sure that the end of the nipple has a cross-cut in it to let the milk out when he sucks. You can GENTLY squeeze the bottle a bit at first when you put it in his mouth so he can taste the milk. BUT BE CAREFUL that not too much comes out and it goes into his lungs which can cause him to choke and then develop pneumonia. Make sure the kitten is upright or even on all four feet, don’t try and lay him on his back to feed. Sometimes “scruffing” him might work since kittens seem to relax when doing this because their moms carry them like that. Once you get him to relax a bit and the milk is flowing, he should settle down. My kittens only did this at the beginning of the feeding.

Welcome Kirra! When kittens scratch at the bottle frantically, I have found it means they are not getting food fast enough. I don’t know how old your kitten is (Oh! I see, approx. 18 days old)–well you could mix some wet food into the milk and make a thin gruel, opening the nipple up and letting her get more nutrition that way. It worked for my kittens before going on solid food.

I would try her on wet food by putting some on your finger, let her sniff it and then if she doesn’t lick it, then open her mouth and put a little on the roof of her mouth. Then she will see what it tastes like. Mixing it with milk to make a gruel is the next step if she doesn’t take to wet food right away. She could just be a small cat and never be very big and the runt of the litter, you never know how old they actually are when you take in a rescue. Congrats on the firefighters saving her in the wall!

Welcome Heather,

Here in TDKland we love cats and chatting with other cat purrsons. If you ever have a question, please don’t hesitate to write us. We’re not vets. but have lots of experience in raising kits.

PG

Thanks Heather! I experienced this behavior with one of my first kittens that I hand reared. He was so aggressive with the bottle that my hands were beginning to look like hamburger. I finally figured out that he wasn’t getting enough food fast enough…so making a gruel and opening up the nipple was what I did and he settled down after he realized he didn’t need to fight for every bite!

Thanks for saving the strays in your area. Hopefully with people like you and sites like this we can save them one cat at a time until everyone is on board with NO KILL!