hand rearing and weighing newborn kittens

Sarthur2

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Take your curs from the kittens. As they are all 3 already over the average in weight, they may eat less until their next growth spurt. As long as they gain 6-10 grams most days and are not losing significantly, they will be fine!

I do understand your concerns! Fragile kittens can be worrisome, especially when one is not getting enough sleep due to overnight feedings. You should be feeding about every 3 hours for now.
 
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kimmycup1

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The girls are gaining plenty, just have to work on the boy. I just weighed him a little while ago and then fed him, he gained 2 grams since the last feeding and now ate 6ml, and also had a good sized poop so I'm happy.

I feed every 2-3 hours, depending on how much they ate in the last feeding. If they didn't eat a lot I'll go for 2 or 2 and a half. At night I've been doing 3 so that I can get some sleep.

One of the girls has not lost her umbilical cord yet so I'm just waiting on that. The other 2 lost theirs days ago.
 
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kimmycup1

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The boy has been having loose stool, I wouldn't call it diarrhea yet but the orange girl just had some diarrhea and made a bit of a mess so I had to clean them up and change their bedding. I assumed the boy was due to being backed up for days and the olive oil probably thinned it out, but now since the girl has it I want to figure out how to help them. They are all still on pedialyte so I will continue with that. Any other suggestions? Could it be as simple as overfeeding? The tortoiseshell hasn't had a bowel movement in about a day. It seems like I went from constipation to diarrhea for the other 2
 

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What do you mean when you say they are on pedialyte? Are you using it instead of water to mix the powdered formula? Which brand formula are you using? Are you “overfeeding”?

Stop using the olive oil in the meantime.
 
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kimmycup1

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I've already stopped using the olive oil yesterday. I use pedialyte instead of water and I use petag kmr. I can't really say whether I'm overfeeding or not, I let them eat what they want but don't let them go past 9ml per feeding, they may eat the 9 or only 3 or 6, depends on how hungry they are. I am going to cut them down a bit to see if it helps.
 

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It does not appear that you are overfeeding. Since you just stopped the oil yesterday, give it 24 hours to see if the stool forms more. Formula stool should be the consistency of toothpaste.
 
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kimmycup1

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None of the babies have had the right form of stool yet. Every time someone looks like they will start having toothpaste consistency, their next bowl movement will be different. I was thinking of buying a probiotic to see if it helps. After calculating how much formula the kittens should be getting, if I feed every 3 hours, the orange girl will need 10ml at every feeding, which seems like so much because no matter how much she eats, she grows like a weed. I'm not near my notepad right now where I keep track of everything but I think she weighed 291 grams, which is just over 10 oz. She can gain 20+ grams in a day.

Do you think probiotics would help since no one has had good stool yet?
 

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I am not in favor of giving probiotics to kittens this age. How is their stool when they are neither constipated nor having diarrhea?
 
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kimmycup1

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It always seems to change every time. I can't say for the boy since he was constipated for days, but once he finally starting pooping, it started off hard then gradually got softer and now its loose but I feel like he is pooping a little less so I'm hoping it will clear up. The last time the tortoiseshell had a bowel movement was about 27 hours ago and it was a mixture of hard and loose, and before that she is always back and forth. Sometimes it's hard, sometimes it's soft and a little runny, for awhile she had a weird cottage cheese thing going on but that seemed to have stopped for her. The orange girl is the same way, it always changes. She had some hard ones a couple of days ago, then it started to get sticky and loose and today started the diarrhea. Other than their poop issues, they are doing great, but I know that constipation and diarrhea can become deadly for them so I would love to get their poop to the right consistency
 
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I'm looking to buy or even make a diy enclosure for my 15 day old kittens once they are around 3 weeks. I have them in my bedroom and have no other room to put them, so I'm looking for something that my dogs can't jump into. My dogs are small, 9 lbs and 15 lbs, and they love the kittens but I don't allow them any interaction yet. Jace is a chihuahua mix with long legs who I think would jump into an enclosure if given the chance. There are a lot of foldable, soft sided enclosures that I am considering, but I worry my dogs will try to get to them through that. Any enclosures with panels that I've seen are all under 30 inches in height and that's too low for Jace.

I'm hoping someone has experience with this or at least knows about some enclosures I can look into
 
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kimmycup1

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Have you tried looking at any of the soft-sided enclosures like this one?
Yes, that's the type I was looking into but I worry the dogs can easily get to it and move it if they want to. My dog is a little obsessed with the kittens and just wants to be with them
 

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I have used our dog playpen panels. Depending on how much room you have, you can use 4-6 panels to create a rectangle or square area for the kittens to live in. We have big dogs so the panels are about 40" high. I then use cardboard about halfway up from the bottom all the way around the inside so the kittens can't squeeze out or climb the wiring.
 

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Do you have somewhere you can isolate your Dogs for the time being? Maybe an outdoor enclosure for them if the weather isn't too cold yet?
 
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kimmycup1

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Do you have somewhere you can isolate your Dogs for the time being? Maybe an outdoor enclosure for them if the weather isn't too cold yet?
My dogs are never outside unless going for a walk and there isn't anywhere else they can sleep, especially my dog Jace who has separation anxiety. He loves the kittens, they are just too young to be introduced to dogs yet. I'm looking at plastic, clear panels but I worry if my dogs lean on it to look in, the panels could break.
 
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kimmycup1

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I have used our dog playpen panels. Depending on how much room you have, you can use 4-6 panels to create a rectangle or square area for the kittens to live in. We have big dogs so the panels are about 40" high. I then use cardboard about halfway up from the bottom all the way around the inside so the kittens can't squeeze out or climb the wiring.
I thought about doing this also, I have one or two old metal playpens, but I remember them easily being moved and I don't want the dogs to be able to push them. I also worry about the kittens being able to climb out when they are older, even with cardboard I think once old enough they could jump up if they really wanted to. I'll have to look into the taller playpens, the ones I have are definitely shorter
 

Talien

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My dogs are never outside unless going for a walk and there isn't anywhere else they can sleep, especially my dog Jace who has separation anxiety. He loves the kittens, they are just too young to be introduced to dogs yet. I'm looking at plastic, clear panels but I worry if my dogs lean on it to look in, the panels could break.
You could try polycarbonate sheets, they're clear, light, and quite strong. Certainly strong enough to not be broken by small Dogs.
 

Margret

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I believe the playpen Mr. Meow Mr. Meow linked to has a mesh roof that zips closed; I think that zip top is the second door. I really think that should be enough to keep kittens in and small dogs out.

You'd want to verify this with Chewy before ordering, of course.

Margret
 

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Before you know it, your kittens will be able to climb or jump out of nearly any enclosure without a top. I find that the soft sided enclosures with a top are the most effective in containing kittens.

Soft sided enclosures don't last forever, it's possible for animals to chew or scratch holes in them eventually, but you don't need the enclosure to last forever. They are fairly sturdy, probably plenty sturdy enough for the amount of time you will need to use it.
 

Margret

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Yes, that's the type I was looking into but I worry the dogs can easily get to it and move it if they want to. My dog is a little obsessed with the kittens and just wants to be with them
You mean the dog could push it around the floor while trying to play with the kittens? Easy solution. Put on your mask and go to the Dollar Store. Look for shelf liners. You'll find one that looks like a sort of puffy mesh; that's the one you want.

Get a roll of this for $1 and cut out a piece just bigger than the floor size of the play pen. You'll probably need to cut 2 pieces because the roll isn't wide enough, but it's plenty long enough for that. Put your pieces under the play pen and they'll keep it from sliding. Use left over shelf liner to keep area rugs from sliding, or to grip twist-on lids that are on too tight, or even as shelf liner (!).

If you don't have a Dollar Store near you, or they don't carry it, or you want something wider or thicker, try Walmart where it's sold as something to keep rugs from sliding, but it'll cost a bit more.

Margret
 
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