Help w/ recently born kitten

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  • #863586
    Adrian
    Participant

    Hi there, sought out this forum for some help/advice:

    Recently our cat gave birth to a kitten. I’m not sure how old it is, since they live in the backyard, but its eyes are open, ears not yet unfolded, and crawls around (albeit very wobbly). It’s very vocal, and mewed all night; Momma cat doesn’t seem too eager to feed her.

    The mother gave birth to 6 kittens last year, but this time she gave birth to only one kitten. We tried bottle feeding it with some milk replacer we bought earlier, with some success.

    What should we do? It’s starting to rain, too, so we’re somewhat worried. Any advice is greatly appreciated

    EDIT: Kitten is ~6 ounces, we weighed it earlier in a kitchen scale.

    #863594
    Kittyzee
    Participant

    The time to intervene is now. Bring the kitten in and get it warm by placing it under your clothing next to your skin. Weap a heating pad set on low in a towel and place it in her nest and have a place to crawl off if she gets too hot. Feed her milk replacer or goats milk when she is warmed. I will provide links for you when i get to another device on handrearing.

    #863595
    Kittyzee
    Participant
    #863611
    Kathleen
    Participant

    It’s tough, but so rewarding. Good luck – this is an excellent resource – lots of fantastic information, and fab people that will help you out with any questions.

    #863628
    Adrian
    Participant

    Update:

    We brought the kitten in and have been feeding it. She seems to be doing okay. We’ve been feeding her some milk replacer we got at Petco.

    It’s pretty warm here, but just to be safe I put a bag of warm water in the box. She fell asleep on it promptly.

    #863630
    Kittyzee
    Participant

    Adrian, it may be warm in your home, but they HAVE to have some external heat from something (hot water bottle, heating pad, microwaved bag of rice, etc.) since most cats have more than one kitten and they lay in a pile and keep each other warm. REALLY warm. The kind of warm that makes you and me uncomfortable, but is necessary for any kind of digestion to take place for a very young kitten. A cold kitten cannot digest food and will be in danger of becoming lethargic and dying.

    Goat’s milk is another good complete food when you run out of milk replacer. It also does not cause constipation like a lot of the powdered formulas do. It comes as fresh, or condensed or powdered form.

    Good luck!

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