5 day old kitten care tips.

[handsome kitty]

The kittens weight will fluctuate throughout the day.  It is recommend to weigh at the same time every 12 or 24 hours.  Otherwise you are going to go crazy with all the ups and downs. LOL

 

[crystal dawn]

yeah I know their gains per 24 hours is good. They tend to lose over night but gain again the next day. I usually weigh them around 1-2 pm each day though I do need to move the time as I wont be home to weigh them Saturday.

 

[Sarthur2]

You don't need to move the time. Just weigh them when you get home, or on Sunday.

 

[nansiludie]

I think the mother cat may not have any milk at all or very little, and what she does have the older, stronger kittens are getting it and not the littlest ones. Do try to get up to feed the littlest ones, they must eat and gain, its critical with them being this young, little kittens grow so rapidly at this age.

 

[crystal dawn]

Okay

Also they are switching nipples around. The four higher ones on mama don't really have anything where the four lower ones do. So sometimes they nurse on the nipples that don't have anything and sometimes they don't. I am super tired. I will update again tomorrow.

 

[crystal dawn]

The babies are doing well. Not sure if mom's takeing care of potty duties though. As i don't watch her it makes her stop and look at me like " Go Away now" But they seem happy and aren't bloated

Weights from last night and this morning.

10:30pm 9/9   9:30am 10/10

Two   321         334   +13

Spot  333         340   +7

Tux    335         341    +6

Dag   313         329   +16

I am aware that Two lost 20 grams. I am working on correcting it. As you can see they all gained over night and more than before. Yay.

 

[handsome kitty]

Good work! 

 

[Sarthur2]

They did great!

Was that just from mom's milk or were you up supplementing?

 

[crystal dawn]

I supplemented  Two,spot and Tux.right before I went to bed  I kinda passed out before I got to dag. I also slept through all my alarms. Dag did good anyway. The other three I think the supplementing helped out a lot.  I will do the same thing tonight. I will try to get Dag this time too.

 

[crystal dawn]

Okay so here's the 1pmish weights for today

Two  331

Spot 344

Tux  344

Dag 335

I'm concerned about two here's her weights from yesterday into today

Two        10:30am 1:00pm 10;30pm  9:30am    1ishpm

                 341      342      321         334           331

Everyone else is doing wonderfully now. I will of course continue to keep an eye on them. But it looks like Two needs a little extra attention.

On another note they are Three weeks old.

 

[Sarthur2]

Hurray! Three weeks old!

It does look like Two needs attention. I suggest you continue to supplement them all until they are eating mush since they are struggling to get enough from mom.

 

[crystal dawn]

Okay, Two tried to steal a bite out of mom's canned food the other day  but it was the kind that was chunks in gravy  and she wasn't sure how to handle the chunks. I will continue to supplement them of course.  Two prefers mom over all though and won't take much of anything else. Got two nursing on a full teat right now. Hopefully that helps. It seems only two teats have milk in them now so who ever doesn't get one of those loses out on a meal.

 

[Sarthur2]

That's why you're supplementing! Kittens can't afford to miss a meal .

You might want to try the bigger kittens on mush. Mix the wet food with KMR. Even chunks can be mashed up. It tells me at least one is ready, maybe more. The sooner they begin eating the better. Two might even eat mush. You never know. If not, he needs the milk.

Can't hurt to try. Once they do start eating mush, they'll need it several times a day.

 

[crystal dawn]

I know. I was thinking about trying them on mush but I thought it might be a little to early. But I can try it out and see how it goes. The mush will be easier than feeding them with a dropper. I'm the only one that can do the dropper feedings but the mush my fiance can make after I show him how to do it and he can feed them too then and it will take some of the pressure off  me.

Edit. I just realized all the canned food in the house has fish in it. Need to go pick some up without fish. I was excited for a moment there. Will try out mush tomorrow with them and see what happens.

 

[nansiludie]

 
I know. I was thinking about trying them on mush but I thought it might be a little to early. But I can try it out and see how it goes. The mush will be easier than feeding them with a dropper. I'm the only one that can do the dropper feedings but the mush my fiance can make after I show him how to do it and he can feed them too then and it will take some of the pressure off  me.

Edit. I just realized all the canned food in the house has fish in it. Need to go pick some up without fish. I was excited for a moment there. Will try out mush tomorrow with them and see what happens.

Do use smooth, pate food or fully blend with a blender the food with chunks, very early on, I lost a kitten due to choking, it was very sad, I lost him right before my eyes, I do not want that to happen to any kitten.

 

[crystal dawn]

Yeah i know. I will.

 

[crystal dawn]

9/10                                                                     9/11

         09:30am      1pm  8:30ishp    10:30pm       9:30am      1pm     

Two       334           331      342          345                351        342

Spot      339           344      349          349                352        352

Tux        341           344      351          351                360        363

Dag       329           335      338          340                354         357

Seriously two you where doing so well

Also the kittens tried mush today still perfers milk though. I will give them another taste and see what happens mom enjoys it too.

 

[Sarthur2]

They are doing well. Are you still supplementing Two?

 

[crystal dawn]

I backed off a bit on supplementing as everyone got going really good. But I'm picking it back up since two dropped some grams she should pick those back up pretty easily though. I'll make sure everyone gets a good meal before i got to work and before I go to bed.

 

[crystal dawn]

Weights for today 9/12

          9:30a       7:15p

Two     358         355

spot     363        363

tux        369        373

dag      343        350

On a good note they are learning how to lap a small amount of KMR from a shallow dish. Tux has it down pretty much took several attempts and sneezes. Two tried sneezed and didn't try again. Spot walks in it and that's about it and Dag won't do much more than sniff around the edge of the bowl. I am staying close to them while the bowl is in their reach just in case. They didn't care for mush to much just yet we're going to attempt that again next week.