Advise On 3 Week Old Kitten

[Bonito]

Hello all

Late two nights ago my Fiancee brought home a tiny little male kitten he found in a parking lot. He initially left it alone, thinking mama cat would come back for it, but when he returned to his car later that night it was still there stumbling around under the cars and meowing loudly, and so he decided to bring it home.
We took him to the vet the next morning and he is healthy and a good weight, estimated to be about 3 weeks of age. We got him kitten milk, food, and the vet gave him a deworming treatment. We are to bring him back for a second treatment in about a months time.
He eats his kitten 'gruel' well on his own. (Ingredients are goats milk with a bit of chicken) And we were taught how to help him eliminate as well. We do this routine once every four hours.

We had to put our beloved Jane to sleep in January due to an inoperable tumor in her head, and our hearts and home were feeling so empty with her gone. We weren't in any hurry to get a new cat, as Jane was very special to us. But here we are, and we find ourselves so happy to have little Bonito with us now. In under 48 hours we are already in great danger of becoming helicopter cat parents. My Fiancee is especially attached to him, and almost without fail, Bonito meows extra loudly when he hears his voice nearby.

Jane was already full grown when we took her in and we have no experience caring for kittens, especially such a young kitten that should still be with his mother.

The initial idea was to keep him close in between feedings, but he gets extremely vocal and excited as soon as he hears our voices or feels our touch. He will not settle down to sleep unless we leave him alone in the carrier. The carrier is warm and covered so its not too bright for him. He has a soft toy companion which he kneads and snuggles against and baby blankets as well. he settles down to sleep very quickly once we walk away (but of course i only pretend to go away, i usually sneak back to peek) Is it normal for him to be almost alarmingly worked up around us and calm when he is alone?
First couple feedings he only ate about a teaspoons worth (5cc), but he is eating a tablespoon of the milky gruel each time now (15cc). He urinated a lot the first few times, but he barely peed the last two feedings. Also he has yet to poop once in the 34-ish hours he has been with us. Is this normal? could he be eating too much or too little?

Any advice or suggestions are very very much welcome and appreciated.

 

[Kieka]

Sounds like Bonito is one lucky kitten to have found you. The sleeping when alone is fairly common in my experiences. Kittens are very much on then off. It makes sense for him to be wide awake and active when you are there. I remember Link used to do that too. He'd be completely wound up and bouncy one moment, passed out the next. He adapted fairly quickly to my schedule; he would sleep when I did and when I was gone.

I'd try to up his food at feedings each meal. Don't force it but do offer food until he is ready to stop. There is no such thing as too much food for a kitten.

Link was 5 weeks old when I got him, so he was pottying on his own. I haven't had to stimulate a kitten myself for more then a day but I have heard that young kittens can have
more like dark smelly pee then poop. However, it is always best to be safe and follow up your vet.

 

[Bonito]

Hi Kieka!

Thanks for your reply, Will definitely offer him more food at his next feeding. He peed loads the last round so no worries there, the urine was a normal colour and smell. Still no poop, however. A trip to the vet might be due if he doesn't go soon?
Here are a couple pictures from the first night, and this morning.

 

[talkingpeanut]

You can add a few drops of olive oil to each meal to see if that helps.

 

[Kieka]

What a little cutie!

Take lots of photos, unless I miss my guess he is a pointed cat so his coloring is going to change as he gets older.

 

[di and bob]

He looks a little underweight, so he may not have eaten for awhile. Thus no poops. But i wouldn't let him get past three days with out going. Call your vet and see what they advise. Pumpkin puree (no spices) is a very good fiber and can be mixed with their food, you might try unflavored yogurt too. I would get kitten formula and make sure the kitten is drinking plenty of that and water. I use Miralax (human) for my cats, but they are adults and only use 1/4 teaspoon, so a vets advise would be needed. i mix it either in a very small amount of food or you could put it in the kitten's formula. When you are stimulating, make sure you are using warm water on the cotton ball or cloth and rubbing the anal area too. You might try introducing him to a litter box, it might get him going. He is absolutely adorable, bless you for helping him. Keep us posted!

 

[Bonito]

Hi all, thank you for taking the time to reply!

Have just given him a round of food with some powdered probiotic and a couple drops of olive oil mixed in. He has a couple more feeding rounds due before the vet opens in the morning, and we will take him in if there is still no poop by then. I have both sweet potato and butternut squash in the kitchen, will the puree from either one be suitable? Can easily pick up some pumpkin tomorrow if not.

I think what we are most at a loss over is how much and what to feed
Vet instructed us to give him a tablespoon of the kitten gruel at every feeding. But honestly it seemed a very small amount and we have been giving him over a tablespoon at each feeding. In a few days we were to switch over to kitten kibble softened in water.
If we were to give him water and/or kitten formula in addition to the gruel (which is made from goats milk and chicken) how much and how often would be best? We tried leaving a tiny dish of water in with him on the first night but he just kept stepping in it so we took it out.
Is overfeeding possible at his age? or should we continue to let him have as much as he will take?

*praying for poop*

 

[Kieka]

If you have extra goats milk, assuming we are talking raw, give him that. Raw goats milk is actually a better supplement then forgotten formula. Otherwise offer him kittens milk. I’d actually start mixing the goats milk with wet kitten food in a few days and hold off in kibble until he is 8-9 weeks old at least. Baby kittens have tiny teeth and wet food is a lot easier as a transition from liquid to solid. Solid enough to chew but liquid enough to suck or lick. At this age he won’t drink much if any water because all his moisture is coming from his food.

We found Nightfury when he was about the same age and he did a gruel of kitten formula and wet food for several weeks. When he was about 8 weeks old we started reducing the kitten milk until it was justness wet. To add in kibble we actually mixed the kibble with the wet and slowly reduced the wet until he was on kibble only but that was about three months old. We still feed wet once a day.

You do want to specifically use pumpkin purée. It has a good amount of fiber plus water content that can help with both too loose and too firm poops. Given his size you only need a tiny amount, I give my adults a tablespoon a day so I wouldn’t give him more than a teaspoon. You can do homemade or canned so long as it is unseasoned and not pumpkin pie filling.

I would up the feeding amount. There really is no such thing as overfeeding that young. Their little tummy’s should get rounded after each meal. We always offered Fury as much food as he wanted and left the bowl down until he decided he was done.

 

[Bonito]

Thank you Kieka for your reply, its exactly the kind of transitional feeding info we will be needing in the days to come. Just gave him his fill of the gruel again with probiotic and a few drops of olive oil.
He was very calm and content after. This is the first time he has been this calm while we are around. I think he was so vocal previously because he was still hungry T_T poor little guy.
Will pick up the raw goats milk as well as a wet kitten food tomorrow.

*still praying for poop*

 

[di and bob]

Oh my goodness, THAT explains why he was so noisy! I have never heard of feeding a kitten too much, I always fed as much as they wanted several times a day. Now you have to concentrate on getting him to poop! And I would think that if he is eating as much as he wants,and is calm and still eating,(meaning he is feeling well and is not in distress) that will be soon!

 

[Kieka]

The potty problem might be related to the food, his body using what it was given so there was too little left to notice. Hopefully he has a change in the next 24 hours as he is eating more.

And don't feel bad, you follow vet direction. It happens to us all. What matters is he is eating more and will hopefully turn into a chunky kitten soon.

 

[Bonito]

Just dropping in to let you know we have poop! whoopee!
lots and lots of it too! D:

 

[Kieka]

Just dropping in to let you know we have poop! whoopee!
lots and lots of it too! D:

Yayay!!! You never knew you'd be so excited for poop.

 

[Kieka]

How is Bonito doing today?

 

[Bonito]

Hi all!

Bonito is doing good! hes eating his fill of a mixture of kitten milk and kitten wet food (couldn't get raw goats milk, only saw pasteurized at the store) and he pooped again this morning
Had a busy day yesterday so i didn't get to explain that his first poop was actually not while we were stimulating him. He went in the carrier just as we were on the way to the vet. We knew instantly from the smell lol. This mornings poop was also after he was put back in the carrier. I think Di and Bob is right and he is ready to be introduced to a litter box.
I ordered one of those mesh fordable pet playpens on Friday and hopefully it will arrive tomorrow. Once it does we will move him out of the carrier and into the playpen and can introduce him to a litterbox. We already got a small plastic tray thingy that is low enough for him to get into and some non clumping litter yesterday.

 

[10009891]

Is he pedigree? Looks like a diluted blue Siamese of some sort.

 

[Bonito]

Is he pedigree? Looks like a diluted blue Siamese of some sort.

Hi Troy Rag!

He does look like he could be some sort of Siamese type mix. Many people in this area let their nice cats outdoors and they end up breeding with the local strays, so we get a lot of fancy looking moggies.

 

[10009891]

He will look more gorgeous with the proper care.

How can people "willi nilli" let their intact cats outside? not realizing the cats will breed and contribute to the over population. I was on the fence whether or not I wanted kittens from my beautiful pedigree Ragdolls. I was too busy at work and every time I called to make an appointment to have the male neutered, they told me they were booked, now my cat recently had 5 cute kittens. The good thing about it is, 2 are already spoken for within the family. I will keep one, and the others I might sell.

 

[Bonito]

I agree, i also don't understand why they are not worried about their pets getting run over, contracting some illness, or my ultimate nightmare, running into one of those sick people that likes to hurt animals. Pedigree or not i wouldn't let my pets have free run of an urban environment.
Ragdolls are so lovely <3

 

[Bonito]

We left a small container filled with litter in his carrier overnight and he peed in it!