Feeding an orphaned kitten - 4 weeks old

[Heather Micaela]

I did kittens WITH a mama, but this is new. Any advice?

He was found with his litter at a week old - no mama returned. :( He had KMR for the first two weeks after that and then goat milk last week. We were givin a bottle and the rescuer suggested continuing though he will eat some kitten food.

Someinternet sites just say wean, but if kittens will nurse for 81-2 weeks, why not bottlefeed an orphan that long? We are at 3 bottle feedings a day, but not sure if it should be more or less.

We are giving him goat milk as the rescuer suggested. Here he will not eat the dry kitten food, so we are using the gerber chicken baby food with the kitten food sprinkled on top. We did that with my kittens and they liked the transition.

Any suggestions for canned kitten food/
He has dd's whole closet (With toy box in front as a half-wall) as his room when he is not being handled. There is room for a litter box, food, bed and room to run becaus he is the size of a rat. His bed of blankets is over a heating pad for warmth. He his held a lot to keep socilization up.

We will introduce the other cats later. Right now he is afraid of them. So he has kitten sized stuffies to wrestle with :giggle

Any other advice?

[Atsirk]

We took care of an entire litter that was abandoned a few years ago. We had to feed them every 3 or 4 hours, but we were using kitten formula.

Are you helping the kitten with it's bowel/urinary functions? Or is it eliminating on its own already?

As far as weaning from the bottle, we started by giving the formula in a bowl. Then slowly added wet food in with the formula. I hope this helps.

Feel free to ask me any other questions. It has been a while, but DH might remember if I don't.

[believer]

Continue feeding the kmr as long as you can afford too - the nurtition is good/necessary for him. You can grind up the dry kitten food and mix it with the kmr and/or w/ canned food and if he does not gain weight well, there is some stuff in a tube that is high calorie stuff for sick tiny kittens - nutrical - that can be added to food or formula.
If he will eat and drink the formula on his own, that is better than bottle feeding because kittens can get spoiled by the bottle feeding and then not want to eat on their own - we have had that happen in the past.

[Heather Micaela]

Rescuer said he aldready could drink forumula and water from the bowel but preferred the bottle. And that he would even eat some dry food. She was doing every 3-4 hours, but then some sights said you could wean completely at 4 weeks :scratch So we compromised with wake-up, midday, and bedtime with the food in between. But I am not sure

I have read sites that said goat milk is fine and others that said not to. This org says it is fine in later weeks :crazyHe is already used to thegoat milk before we even took him, but I could mix it with the KMR for extra nutrition. :think

3 times is less than the former people gave him so it seems gentle enough weaning. I do not want him to have issues later because he did not get enough sucking time. I had a cat that would suck his tail or the blanket :giggle

He uses the litter box well :yes

[believer]

Even when we have had tiny kittens, we have always done syringe feeding rather than bottle feeding. They still suck it down. I have not heard of using goat milk for kittens. It is difficult for them to learn how to lap milk from a bowl. Have you tried it with your kitten? Can he do it? We usually do the syringe feeding then put a spoon from the bowl to the kitten's mouth to help them learn to try to lap up the formula.
We just feed our kittens as often as they are hungry and if they can eat on their own from a bowl, it is best to offer that first, then offer the syringe or bottle feeding afterwards.

[Heather Micaela]

Even when we have had tiny kittens, we have always done syringe feeding rather than bottle feeding. They still suck it down. I have not heard of using goat milk for kittens. It is difficult for them to learn how to lap milk from a bowl. Have you tried it with your kitten? Can he do it? We usually do the syringe feeding then put a spoon from the bowl to the kitten's mouth to help them learn to try to lap up the formula.
We just feed our kittens as often as they are hungry and if they can eat on their own from a bowl, it is best to offer that first, then offer the syringe or bottle feeding afterwards.
OK we can do the food first - I like that idea. Since he came to us used to the bottle, we will do that for the milk for a while more.

I can see if he will lap. The rescuer said they would try but then "give up" but he ate the baby food :shrug3

[itzj]

Is he cleaning yet? My 4 weeker needed help so I used to get a warm, damp washcloth and do short brisk strokes to mimic mom. I phased it out once he seemed to get how to do it.

Science diet has some canned kitten food. It's a little pricey but it's a 5.5 oz can so it lasts a while (we even found it at tractor supply of all places). I thinned it with formula (or you could do the goat's milk). It seemed to make it easier and aided lapping. I would be concerned if he isn't getting at least something formulated for cats because of the taurine.

I think it's good to go slow with the weaning - my 4 weeker is very needy and I have another who I think wasn't done when we got him who is also very clingy.

[Heather Micaela]

[QUOTE=itzj;4274294 I would be concerned if he isn't getting at least something formulated for cats because of the taurine.

[/QUOTE]
good point. :yes we currently are putting the cruchy kitten foon ON TOP of the baby food and have canned cat food as well we can try.

I may mix the KMR with the goat milk and I do need to kitten canned food for kittens. For now I need to see what is at target to get through a few days. There is a feed store here with great prices and I can shop more specifically this weekend. :)

[Love is...]

1 cup of goat's milk + 1 egg yolk (no white) + 1 tsp.olive (veg.) oil + 1 TBS. Karo Syrup + 1 TBS of plain whole fat yogurt (if you have it)

Cheaper than KMR, and makes an excellent replacement.

We bottlefed our 4 rescues until they were 6 weeks old, and 2 of them still wanted the bottle after that, but I was just done.

I transitioned them to Nature's Variety canned food about a tsp. each, with goat's milk on the saucer as well.

Then transitioned them to a raw food diet, so I have no idea about the kibble. Sorry about that.

You can cook the white part of the egg and give that to them.

This recipe is preferable to the Hartz brand kitten formula which is a cow's milk based formula which often causes constipation, or so I've been told.