Abandoned baby kitten behavior

[livs2laff]

My sister is fostering and bottle feeding a baby kitten (2 weeks old) who was found alongside her dead mother in the gutter. She wouldn't take to the bottle for a while, but has slowly begun to nurse on it for a short time. She is starting to try to crawl into my sister's mouth! Does she do this for warmth or is she trying to get nutrients? How will this baby know how to clean herself, eat, hunt, or do all the other things a mommy is usually there to teach them?

Please help explain the mouth incidents and other things you can explain to us.

Thank you so much!

 

[vittylane]

My kitten, Koopa, was 3 weeks old when we got him and within days exhibited classic failure to thrive and hypoglycemic shock symptoms.  He couldn't open his mouth to nurse from a bottle and had to be fed via a tiny dropper (not recommended as you can do more harm than good if you squirt too much in).  He is now a happy and healthy 6 month old, albeit very small for his age.  He, too, likes to try and burrow in either my mouth or nose occasionally, and has a sucky-blanket for his sometimes obsessive kneading/sucking.  Both behaviors kind of threw me off, but I figure it's some type of residual from being away from mama at an early age.  Everyone here has great advice, so I'd encourage you to search through the forums.  Right off the bat I'd say don't worry too much about that behavior and make sure you are keeping baby nice and warm.  Good luck!

 

[catwoman707]

Fortunately these things are natural born instincts.

Newborns up to 3 1/2 weeks can not hold body temperature, so the baby feels the warm breath and goes for the mouth.

About 4 weeks old begin to wean the baby onto food from a dish, starting with KMR second step, which is thicker and easy to lap up. Graduating to canned kitten, then my fave Babycat by Royal Canin. Always putting KMR milk in with the food in the dish. It's very messy at first, oh he will have it everywhere! Walk in it, etc. but by 6 weeks old it's done.

Once this is completed keep fresh babycat and water dishes, low sided for him.

 

[kushmama89]

My demon princess was 2 weeks when we found her. She never tried to climb inside my mouth but she did always try to get underneath my chin. Id say make sure she has a real fuzzy warm blanket and do you or anyone you know have a furry stuffed animal that would be about the size of its mama? Placing a blanket and a stuffed animal next to the kitten that it can cuddle up to will help a lot. My girl took to my daughters stuffed dog real well but since the little doll was a feral offspring she had fleas bad and we had a teddy we would switch out and id wash them. Just make sure that when your sister is feeding the baby that shes not feeding the kitten on its back like you would a human infant but on the kittens belly like it would nurse naturally from its momma or it could run the risk of aspirating (sp?) and does she know she has to stimulate its little privates with a moise wash cloth or cotton ball to make it poop and pee after feedings? If you have any questions just let me know. My little bugger just turned 14 weeks so i just went through this =]

 

[jennyr]

Everyone is right about keeping the little one warm as much as feeding him. One other thing very important to know is not to give him cows milk as it can upset kittens' stomachs to the point of death. Only use KMR (kitten replacement milk) from a vet or petstore, or goats milk is a good second. If you have a ticking clock to hide among the blankets or wrap in a towel in his bed that will imitate the mother's heartbeat and comfort him. Get any fleas off him by combing with a damp fleacomb and drowning the fleas in a bowl of warm water with detergent. Wash all his bedding daily. Do not use any flea products on a baby this age, but make sure he is free of them because fleas can easily kill a young kitten from anemia.

When I found my Dushka at three weeks she was sick and not thought likely to live. I made her a pouch of soft thick towelling that I wore round my neck so I could take her to work and she would never be alone. But I know this is not practical for everyone. Bless you and your sister for looking after htis little one, there is loads of advice here, and I wish you good luck with him.

 

[alex]

I am so pleased to see how you love animals and cats ( Unfortunately this is so rare here, in Georgia (country) ( I have 3 little kittens, they were about one month old when their mother disappeared, and I took them home, I had one big male cat, now he is daddy for kittens )) They bring a lot of joy, and they are so clever, funny, gracious. People let me express my deepest respect toward you, I wish we could have such animal-lovers in Georgia (

 

[jennyr]

I am so pleased to see how you love animals and cats ( Unfortunately this is so rare here, in Georgia (country) ( I have 3 little kittens, they were about one month old when their mother disappeared, and I took them home, I had one big male cat, now he is daddy for kittens )) They bring a lot of joy, and they are so clever, funny, gracious. People let me express my deepest respect toward you, I wish we could have such animal-lovers in Georgia (

Good for you in taking in these kittens! I had a similar situation when I lived in Bosnia - no-one cared about street cats and they thought I was crazy to rescue them.

 

[sudipa sarkar]

Good for you in taking in these kittens! I had a similar situation when I lived in Bosnia - no-one cared about street cats and they thought I was crazy to rescue them.

Same here in India, at least in the part I live in .... I have 19 cats at my home, and all are strays and they started coming in for last 1 year. My husband and me take care of them. While 8 of them are totally indoor kittens now, rest are inside-outside cats. We rescued a possibly 15-20 days old who was thrown out to the dump area from where my husband rescued him yesterday. Unfortunately, we do not have KMR or anything similar where we live, not even found any option to buy online. Not too sure what to feed him, currently he is on Whiskas Kitten wet food. He shivers a lot during his sleep which makes me pretty worried, I hope this is not convulsion, otherwise, he looks pretty much friendly and playful. We do not have experienced Vet near by, all those we have locally seem to have experience with dogs, but not cats - they use only trial-and-error method, not very impressive.

 

[jennyr]

Good for you for trying to rescue so many cats. I do understand how frustrating it can be. Can you get goats milk? I used that in Bosnia and raised several kittens successfully. I also found that a syringe without a needle (10mm size was easiest to handle) was the best thing to feed them with when very small. It is very low lactose so will not upset their stomachs like cows milk can. But if he is eating the wet food that is good - make it very soupy so h e gets plenty of liquid.

 

[sudipa sarkar]

Good for you for trying to rescue so many cats. I do understand how frustrating it can be. Can you get goats milk? I used that in Bosnia and raised several kittens successfully. I also found that a syringe without a needle (10mm size was easiest to handle) was the best thing to feed them with when very small. It is very low lactose so will not upset their stomachs like cows milk can. But if he is eating the wet food that is good - make it very soupy so h e gets plenty of liquid.

Thanks Jenny for your kind words. Yes, I am trying hard to get goat's milk. But I am not sure if I will get any. I am living in city area (Kolkata), we have only a handful number of pet stores. Even there is no person that I know has goats, but I already told someone to arrange, so waiting for him to get some good news. I have already ordered a pack of KMR from Amazon.com which takes nearly 5 times extra of the original price since I am ordering from a so far away country. I don't mind paying extra to save this little fella, but it will take a long time to reach. Thanks for the advice, it's indeed helpful, I was very worried, as I had no experience in assisting kittens of this age without a mom. I am making it as thin as possible, but it looks like he doesn't like it as much as he willingly tries to get the original wet food. So, I am using a 10ml syringe to feed him the wet food mixed watery solution, but letting him to eat the wet food alone as well and smashing it completely and also adding little water to it. BTW, can you please tell me what is the right amount to feed that watery solution per 24 hours? Please tell me in ml, because it will give me the right idea for syringe size. Currently he is having his wet food approximately 2-3 hours interval. He is following this type of routine, he wakes up, he poops and pees in his litter box (he looks smart enough, even without any training, he started using it when he found my husband was filling the box with litter - it's not that it's used by someone else, as we have kept him completely separated from others for now and the litter box is in an isolated area where no one goes), he plays for around 15-25 minutes, he eats, and again he goes back to sleep for 1:30hours to 2 hours on average (once he slept for 4 hours at a stretch). Thank you once again. :-)

 

[Willowy]

If he has teeth, he can eat solid foods. . .it's not the best thing for his immature digestion but it will be OK, you have to make some compromises when you take care of orphans. Goat's milk is usually sold for human consumption, do you think any human food shops in the area might have goat's milk, for people who have trouble with cow's milk?

 

[jennyr]

You are doing all the right things and it sounds as if the little one is fighting hard to live, which is good. At his age he should have as much food as he wants - when he is really no longer interested then you can stop for a few minutes to see if he is really full, then if he still does not want any more you can leave it till the next meal. He should have about 4 meals a day. Can you weigh him? If you can get a scale that weighs in grams then weigh him at the same time each day, it is very reassuring to know that he is gaining weight. It may be a different amount each day, but as long as it is going up then you have no need to worry.