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- Jul 30, 2020
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Hello everyone, on Tuesday 7-28-20 I came across a newborn kitten in my barn. It’s typical for me to come across kittens as their mothers move them around in the hay but this little guy was sitting in the middle of the barn floor and kind of cold.
I let him be for another hour, hoping to see the mom at least show up but she never did. I took him home and set him up in a box 75% is heating pad with a towel over top of it, 25% is just towel. I did add a little washcloth in with him and he likes to snuggle up with it. I started feeding him KMR every two hours after he warmed up. Started with ~2ml as he was literally born that day.
I had to start feeding with a syringe because I couldn’t find a bottle at the store in my town. I got a bottle yesterday and he does great! Latches and sucks great. It’s just a little hard to tell how much he’s drinking since the bottle is in 15ml increments(goes to 45ml) I let him eat until he stops and then try and get him to take it again, he usually does once more and I can see he’s drank at least 2ml. He does seem to want more as after I put him back in his box he tries sucking on the towel or my hand if I put it in there.
His first pee with me was very very dark so I knew he hadn’t eaten barely any, if at all. Later in the night the color eventually became clear. He had a couple tiny hard poops Tuesday and Wednesday and today he had a huge solid but mushy one, like at least an inch long.
I don’t have a scale yet, it’s coming tomorrow in the mail. But at work we have a mail machine that gives oz. (not sure how super accurate tho) He weighed 79.3 g on Wednesday and 83.2 g today. I’m assuming maybe he was the runt of the litter and maybe that’s why his mom left him out.
My main questions are, should I be feeding him until he stops searching, am I feeding him enough? How much should he poop a day and what should it look like?
Any other tips would be greatly appreciated, this is the first kitten I’ve ever had to take care of. Thanks!!
I let him be for another hour, hoping to see the mom at least show up but she never did. I took him home and set him up in a box 75% is heating pad with a towel over top of it, 25% is just towel. I did add a little washcloth in with him and he likes to snuggle up with it. I started feeding him KMR every two hours after he warmed up. Started with ~2ml as he was literally born that day.
I had to start feeding with a syringe because I couldn’t find a bottle at the store in my town. I got a bottle yesterday and he does great! Latches and sucks great. It’s just a little hard to tell how much he’s drinking since the bottle is in 15ml increments(goes to 45ml) I let him eat until he stops and then try and get him to take it again, he usually does once more and I can see he’s drank at least 2ml. He does seem to want more as after I put him back in his box he tries sucking on the towel or my hand if I put it in there.
His first pee with me was very very dark so I knew he hadn’t eaten barely any, if at all. Later in the night the color eventually became clear. He had a couple tiny hard poops Tuesday and Wednesday and today he had a huge solid but mushy one, like at least an inch long.
I don’t have a scale yet, it’s coming tomorrow in the mail. But at work we have a mail machine that gives oz. (not sure how super accurate tho) He weighed 79.3 g on Wednesday and 83.2 g today. I’m assuming maybe he was the runt of the litter and maybe that’s why his mom left him out.
My main questions are, should I be feeding him until he stops searching, am I feeding him enough? How much should he poop a day and what should it look like?
Any other tips would be greatly appreciated, this is the first kitten I’ve ever had to take care of. Thanks!!