Very young kittens

liney

I wanted a kitten, and a friend of a friend's cat had some ( 8 weeks old we were told). When our friend delivered said kitten to us in the evening, it was in a right state, with runny eyes and nose, very weak, hardly moving around at all. We were at this point told that it was 7 weeks old, but the mother had now run out of milk, and that the whole litter were poorly but had been to the vets. We took the kitten to the vets at 9am the following morning and were told that she was touch and go and had a severe bronchial infection. Luckily she seems to be on the mend, but will only eat or drink from a siringe (sp?). The vet said she doesnt look like she is 7 weeks old to him, but that could be because she is underweight due to the infection.

My question is, how do you get a cat to eat/drink from a bowl and at what point do they normally do this?

Dani85

My two were eating and drinking out of bowls from 7 weeks old. A good way to teach them I found was to have sterlisised hands and place bits of the food/milk on end of finger and each time get further and further away from them until your hand is above the bowl. This worked for mine, hth xx

poppyjay

hi if you heat food you to just warm it will smell more it may get him more intrested hope hes on the mend

MrsTinks

People who don't take their kittens and pregnant queens to vets make me SOOOO mad! I hope the little critter makes it! I woudl for now give him a mix of formula just to make sure he's getting what he needs, and then kitten food (your vet should be able to give you some for weaning - it will look like pate) too. Hopefully he'll get an appetite back, but don't forget it sounds like he hasn't been weaned properly and certainly that won't help... if the mums owner hasn't been putting down kitten food to encourage the kittens and they were all poorly then there is every chance he simply has no idea of what it is. Keep on with the syringe feeding for now though...

liney

The vet gave me some pate type stuff to feed her with through the syringe and il giving her kitten milk and water too. I'm abit worried about going back to work next week, when she'll be on her own, but i can come back at lunch time to hand feed her if she still needs.

She's definately getting better because shes starting to fight me when cleaning her eyes and nose )

Thanks for the suggestions all.

Dani85

liney wrote: »

She's definately getting better because shes starting to fight me when cleaning her eyes and nose )

Dunno why but this made me go awwww hehe

tigs78

Poor little kitten, glad she's found someone to look after her properly now.

By kitten milk do you mean cat milk like Whiskas/Felix milk or proper kitten milk? She will need something like cimicat or lactol, they are replacement kitten milks. You can get lactol from petshops but I think cimicat comes from the vets, it's powdered and you mix it up with water. Once she has learnt to lap from the bowl you can try mixing in a bit of sloppy cat food and gradually decrease the milk portion.

Kittens of 8 weeks need at least 4 meals a day so if she is younger then you will definitely need to pop home to feed her when you go back to work.
My two childhood cats were dumped on a skip at just 2 weeks old and so were handreared completely, they developed into big strong healthy adults and I recently lost the last one of them aged almost 19. Hope she starts to get better soon and that you have as many happy years with her as I did with my two.

mariejader

My question is, how do you get a cat to eat/drink from a bowl and at what point do they normally do this?

I bread dogs occassionally I am sure this principal will work for you also:-

With my puppy's I generally start buy holding them under my arm and supporting them with my left hand under their tummy, with clean hands obviously, I then with my index finger on the other hand place a small amount of food on it and place it around their mouth, generally they will lick it and get the tast pretty quickly the important thing is be calm and keep talking to them when you are doing it remember it's a new and a frightening experience for them, just give it a few mouth fulls to start with and always remember to clean away from the mouth and furr any excess food.

Keep repeating this every few hours and when you think they have mastered it them proceed to a flat plate on the floor, again loads of patience and reassurance is required be prepared for a mess as they generally walk and sit in the food before they realise what it is, you may find you need to repeat the food on your finger around the mouth before they will start eating it themself. Weaning can be a very stressfull time for animals so try and do it some where quiet and you will be fine.

Hopefully within a week you should see some real improvement not only with the way they are eating but also the confidence will be increasing also.

If kittens are the same as puppy's they should have started to be weaned from mum at 3-4 weeks old! So the story about mum not having enough milk is not totally true the original owner should have been weaning them more like the poor things just got left to fend for themself.

As I said I occassionally bread dogs and start weaning them around 3-4 weeks old by the time they are 6 weeks they are totally non dependant of mum and have been seperated from her for a good few weeks before I will even consider letting them go to new homes.

I take it you never visited the home before you offered to take it on? I do hope it makes it, as it sounds like you are already attached to it, thankfully it has a good home now and will be loved

I would also suggest that you go to the pet shop and buy some Lactose it's a milk formula simular to what you would give a baby, this will help to build it up


Feeds little and often are what it needs now along with loads of tlc, which I am sure won't be a problem.


Do you know what happened to the other kittens?

liney

I am certain the poor things have been left to fend for themselves, so my opinion of the person is best kept to myself as it is most definately above PG rating. I think perhaps the mother hasn't been given enogh food to keep her link supply going.

No i didn't collect the kitten myself; good job really or id have ended up with five! Two of the kittens have since been put to sleep i hear, and the other 2 have been medicated. I do wish people would have cats spade if they aren't prepared to take care of the kittens properly.

Kitten now thinks my fingers are very tasty. Owch ) I am using the food and milk which the vet recommended, i just need to teach her to eat from her bowl.

Dani85

I would seriously consider reporting to the RSPCA, the owner should have noticed if the mum had dried up!!

liney

You would think so wouldn't you. I suppose at least they have been seen by the vet now, although they should have been taken much sooner and perhaps those 2 would have survived.

I dont actually know the person or there would have been some very choice words by now. I'm just glad the workmate brought the kitten to me despite it being poorly; if anything happens to it know at least i know we did our best.