hand rearing and weighing newborn kittens

[kimmycup1]

I have 5 newborn kittens, they are three days old. The mother gave birth in my garage, and she was not taking care of them, so I am hand rearing with no mom. They are getting fed at least every 2 hours with KMR. The runt is very small so I want to make sure for especially him that I get an accurate reading when I weigh him. Any advice on weighing or raising neonatal kittens in general would be great. They are doing well, I have been weighing them the same time every day but my main question is should I weigh them before or after they eat? I feel a little silly for asking, but after doing some searching I couldn't find an answer anywhere and I want to be sure I am doing it right.

 

[Sarthur2]

Where is the mom? Can you trap and spay her?

It doesn’t matter whether you weigh before or after feeding as long as you weigh at about the same time each day. Since they are newborns, you can even weigh them every 12 hours the first week, say 6am and 6pm.

Are the kittens gaining? How much per day?

Here is a helpful video:

Syringe Feeding — Kitten Lady

 

[kimmycup1]

unfortunately 4 of them didn't survive. The one left is the biggest so I hope he has a better chance. I have not seen the mom in a couple of days, which is unusual for her since shes usually here everyday. I live in a rural area and there are many feral cats, just last year I took in a pregnant momma that was friendly and she also had 5 kittens. They all did wonderfully and are 9 months old now.

This new litter had a really rough start, mom had given birth in a workbench about 2 and half feet up instead of on the floor. the area was not flat, and all the babies fell behind, four fell a few inches to the floor after getting stuck for a while behind the workbench, the 5th kitten(the one i still have) was too big and got completely stuck so we had to pull him out. after cleaning babies up, we put them in a carrier and waited for mom to go to them. she finally did, but eventually left and it was too cold in the garage to keep them by themselves so we took them in, warmed them up and tried one more time to give back to mom. We put them back in the carrier hoping she'd go in and we can close the door, but she took them into a corner on the cold garage floor and wasn't really doing anything with them, they were freezing and near death so we took them in again and all were doing pretty good for a couple of days but yesterday they slowly started to fade. I am hoping this last kitten can make it, he just had a pretty good sized meal and is sleeping. He doesn't seem to be as active today as he was yesterday so I'm keeping a close eye. He does a lot of suckling on the towel or blanket, but when I feed him he doesn't really suckle, just sort of chews on the syringe and a few times he did spit out a bit of milk, but last feeding was good and he was swallowing most of it.

 

[Tinkz89]

unfortunately 4 of them didn't survive. The one left is the biggest so I hope he has a better chance. I have not seen the mom in a couple of days, which is unusual for her since shes usually here everyday. I live in a rural area and there are many feral cats, just last year I took in a pregnant momma that was friendly and she also had 5 kittens. They all did wonderfully and are 9 months old now.

This new litter had a really rough start, mom had given birth in a workbench about 2 and half feet up instead of on the floor. the area was not flat, and all the babies fell behind, four fell a few inches to the floor after getting stuck for a while behind the workbench, the 5th kitten(the one i still have) was too big and got completely stuck so we had to pull him out. after cleaning babies up, we put them in a carrier and waited for mom to go to them. she finally did, but eventually left and it was too cold in the garage to keep them by themselves so we took them in, warmed them up and tried one more time to give back to mom. We put them back in the carrier hoping she'd go in and we can close the door, but she took them into a corner on the cold garage floor and wasn't really doing anything with them, they were freezing and near death so we took them in again and all were doing pretty good for a couple of days but yesterday they slowly started to fade. I am hoping this last kitten can make it, he just had a pretty good sized meal and is sleeping. He doesn't seem to be as active today as he was yesterday so I'm keeping a close eye. He does a lot of suckling on the towel or blanket, but when I feed him he doesn't really suckle, just sort of chews on the syringe and a few times he did spit out a bit of milk, but last feeding was good and he was swallowing most of it.

Poor babies, how much does the surving one weigh?

 

[kimmycup1]

Poor babies, how much does the surving one weigh?

he weighs just less than 3 ounces, which is more than yesterday but a little less than his birth weight so i was not happy with that. i also weighed him in grams, i just forgot what it was. in the last 4 and half hours hes eaten quite a bit so hopefully that will help. hes also started purring today while we use a toothbrush to gently groom him. he was the biggest of the litter, but still a bit small for his age. i'd say the mom probably weighed about 6, maybe 7 pounds so with 5 kittens, they were all small. i'm worried that his weight has gone down since the first time i weighed him, but at least hes more than he was yesterday.

 

[kimmycup1]

it also takes me awhile to feed him, maybe 40-45 minutes for a full meal. he'll eat a little, then maybe get a little fussy but then start suckling on the towel so I try for more and he happily takes it. i've been using a 1 ml syringe since hes small, i do have a bottle but the nipple is a little big for him right now. i also have started writing down what time he eats and how much. the last meal was about 2.7 ml and the one a couple hours before that was about 2.4 ml

 

[kimmycup1]

i also was wondering about the feeding schedule. most say every 2-3 hours, should i calculate from when i start or when he is finished, since it takes him so long? ive been changing my alarms every night to work it out as evenly as i can. for example if i start a feeding at 2 am, but he doesn't finish till 2:45, ill set my next alarm for around 5 am. if i have to start from when i start feeding him then i will change my alarms to fit that.

 

[kimmycup1]

i also was wondering about the feeding schedule. most say every 2-3 hours, should i calculate from when i start or when he is finished, since it takes him so long? ive been changing my alarms every night to work it out as evenly as i can. for example if i start a feeding at 2 am, but he doesn't finish till 2:45, ill set my next alarm for around 5 am. if i have to start from when i start feeding him then i will change my alarms to fit that.

 

[Sarthur2]

Normally it is timed from when you start feeding, but since he eats for such a long time I think you can continue as you have been doing. If he begins to eat more quickly, then you would need to use the start time.

 

[kimmycup1]

he ate 3 ml in about 20-25 minutes so hes definitely improving. I get a little confused about how much he should eat and I'm worried I will underfeed or overfeed. the most common i see is 8 ml per ounce per day. that would put him at a little less than 24 ml. I think that's also the directions on his formula so hopefully it is correct.

 

[Sarthur2]

8 mLs per ounce is a minimum. If he wants more give him more.

 

[kimmycup1]

he's been eating 3 ml per feeding now. he weighs a little less than 3 ounces(he's 84 grams), so is it okay to give him more than the 3 ml every 2 hours? he always has a good belly but i want him to feel full without being overfed. earlier today the most he ate was 2.7 ml so im glad to see him eating more.

i'm sorry for all of my questions, i'm just really hoping I do everything right so that he can make it. so far he's looking good and i'd like that to continue

 

[Tinkz89]

Give him what he will take without having to force him I'm currently hand rearing 4 tiny kittens the smallest was 49g!!

 

[Sarthur2]

Yes, he needs at least the minimum, but more is fine if he takes it without forcing him.

So if he’s 84 grams, you are correct that he needs 24 mLs each 24 hour period. When you divide that by 12 feedings ( every 2 hours), he needs to eat 2mLs at each feeding.

If he eats the 2mLs and wants more, he can have it. He is so tiny right now that his tummy can’t hold much more than that at each feeding until he grows a little bigger.

Has he been gaining at all, or just maintaining? How many days old is he today?

All your questions are welcome! That’s what we are here for, and you are doing an excellent job so far!

 

[kimmycup1]

Last time I weighed him, which was in the middle of the night, he was still 84 grams, but my mom said she weighed him this morning and he weighed 86. I will weigh him again later. We have gotten him to eat 4 ml in one feeding, spaced out again to at least 40-45 minutes. He's still a slow eater, he will fuss when he's had enough of the syringe being in his mouth then will try suckling the towel or my shirt, so I give him some more. The feedings take awhile because of this, when he is not eating I cuddle him and brush him with the toothbrush, he absolutely loves it and it encourages him to eat more.

He is now 5 days old. He's been a little more vocal and responsive. Last night he moved himself off his heated bedding, so I was glad to see that. Half of it is heated and the other half is not so he must have been a little warm and went into the other side of his blankets. I am feeling very hopeful that he can make it since he is doing so well right now

 

[kimmycup1]

Now that he's eating better, I'm going to try the normal 2 ml every 2 hours timing from when he starts eating. He's a fairly quiet kitten, doesn't cry unless he's being handled. Barely wakes up until I touch him. He does move around occasionally when I'm not around. Is it normal for him to be this quiet? I figured since he's so young and now alone, he doesn't have much to disrupt his sleep.

 

[Sarthur2]

It’s normal. Most kittens only cry when they are hungry!

You can try feeding him what he wants for about 15 minutes, then try again in 2 hours. He might be hungrier than giving him 45 minutes to eat at every feeding and it won’t hurt him to do this here and there to see if he begins eating better.

Also, when he sucks on the blanket it does not necessarily mean he’s hungry. Kittens have a normal urge to suckle, and he does it to comfort himself.

You can soak a corner of his blanket in formula and let him suckle that for comfort. Orphan kittens often enjoy it. (It’s not to feed him but just for suckling comfort.)

Also, putting a soft plush toy in with him to snuggle against is often comforting to lonely onlies!

 

[kimmycup1]

he ate his last 2 ml in about 20 minutes, and right as I was putting him down he decided to go potty on me so I was glad he had a normal bowel movement even if it was little.

He also has plush toys, I gave them right away when I first brought the kittens inside. For my litter from last year, I still have some baby stuff so he has 2 plush toys made for kittens and he also has 2 cuddle pals(I'm not sure if thats what they are actually called), they have a pouch of buckwheat in each to microwave and keep the baby warm. I already had one from about 5 years ago when I had a 5 week old who had warbles. After we brought in this new litter, my parents ran out and bought another one from petsmart, so now he has 2. I microwave them often so they are warm enough to cuddle with, he loves them.

he still has his umbilical cord so hopefully that falls off soon now that he's 5 days old. I can't wait for his eyes to start opening, my last litter was anywhere from 6 to 9 days. I am attaching a couple of pictures of him that were taken yesterday, I hope they go through as I've never done it before.

 

[Sarthur2]

How sweet!

 

[kimmycup1]

i'm still a little worried about him not waking up to feed when hungry. I think I overfed him overnight, so i did a feeding at 11 pm, 1 pm, and 3 pm. the first 2 he ate 2 ml, the third he only ate 1 ml. it is now almost 6 pm, i thought i'd give him an extra hour because he has ate quite a lot today and he hasn't been crying. i think it was 1 pm when i checked on him to make sure he was warm enough, and when i left he started crying so i knew he was hungry. i was hoping he would do this again around 5, a few times he woke up when i was in the room, let out one little cry, moved around and then fell back asleep. im going to go see if he wants to eat now since its been 3 hours.