Keeping 5 week old kittens clean

[HeyKat]

Hi there, I recently started fostering kittens for my local shelter and am having trouble keeping my current pair of sisters clean.

They have their premolars in so I think they're around 5 weeks, but they're tiny (360 and 460 grams). I've been feeding them a mix of wet food and kmr in shallow dishes, as they still struggle with kibble. They suckle on the sludge rather than lap it up, but they're getting it down so I'd rather not try bottle feed (the bigger one won't drink the kmr anyway).

The problem is they are very fluffy and very messy eaters. The bigger one especially ends up covered with food from her cheeks to her toes. I wipe them down with a damp cloth, but their fur still dries glued to their faces, chests and front legs. I've tried combing them with a wet toothbrush too, but I think the water isnt doing much against the oil in the food.

They look uncomfortable and itchy, and they smell bad, even though I did bathe them on Tuesday. How do I keep them relatively clean without drying out their skins with soap or getting them soaking wet multiple times a day?

 

[Sarthur2]

I’m not sure there is much more you can do other than cleaning them with a warm, damp wash cloth as soon as they finish eating. Feeding on a flat plate may help to avoid some of the mess, but tiny kittens are notoriously messy. I would avoid the full bath unless absolutely necessary once a week.

How long have you had the kittens? How much and how often do you feed these two?

I’m concerned as to how small they are for their ages. One is the size of a three week old while the other is the size of a four-week-old. Are they gaining weight?

You may want to try giving them the soft pate on a flat plate, and the KMR in a shallow dish separately. Since they have their baby teeth they should be able to chew the pate and then lap the milk. If they are ready for this, they may begin to gain weight more quickly. Either way, you’ll want to feed them every couple of hours and leave dry kibble softened with KMR for them at night.

They WILL grow out of this smelly, messy stage before you know it! Thank you for fostering and keep us posted!

 

[HeyKat]

How long have you had the kittens? How much and how often do you feed these two?

I’m concerned as to how small they are for their ages. One is the size of a three week old while the other is the size of a four-week-old. Are they gaining weight?

I know, poor babies. I've only had them since Friday. Their mother was killed by a dog and the owner brought the 3 kittens to the shelter vet when they got sick, apparently with URIs. I have no idea how long after mom died that was, or what he was feeding them. One died at the shelter, but the other 2 recovered. They still had fleas (hence the Tuesday bath) and bellies round with worms (the vet treated them for hookworm and roundworm, but says they're too little to handle the meds for tapeworms and to bring them back in 2 weeks, so until then I'm feeding an entire ecosystem). So basically the odds have been stacked against them.

It took me a bit to figure out what they can/will eat. They won't chew anything and just suckle the food. The bigger one had one sachet of mashed up wet food yesterday, the smaller one about 20ml of kmr 4 times a day. They have constant access to kibble but won't eat it and if I added kmr or water to soften it, they'd just suckle the moisture out of it.

They have gained weight but it's too soon to see if it's a trend. Right now they're playful and love to explore, so I'm not TOO worried, but since I'm sure they have tapeworms I am keeping a very close eye on them.

Thanks for the reply! Luckily they purr away while I groom them so it's not exactly a hardship Hopefully they'll catch on soon and help me out a bit.

 

[vince]

Kittens eating their first soft food is a messy undertaking. Try the flat dish and expect them to walk in it and get it all over. It happens with all kittens, it seems. They should figure out grooming pretty soon though, and that will make life easier on you. Once they're eating some solid food, they should be introduced to the litter box. Kittens have a tendency to try eating the litter. Don't use clumping litter at first, because it will clump up in their guts if they eat it. Once they are regularly eating something solid, they'll give up trying to eat litter.. Putting something soiled with their scat and/or urine under the litter will give them a better idea what to do in the box. You might also have to give them a little digging instruction, odd as it seems. Most learn on their own, though.

 

[HeyKat]

Update: I took them to the vet this morning as Big Sis vomited during the night for the 3rd time in a row. Both were treated for tapeworms; hopefully they don't have a bad reaction to it.

I also found out that the owner had been feeding them cow's milk for a week or two since their mother died. The overwhelming misinformation about cats and milk is so frustrating.

Once they're eating some solid food, they should be introduced to the litter box.

They are using a litter tray. Besides a few misplaced wees and poos from little lost souls, so far I've found kittens pretty much toilet train themselves. Meanwhile, my nephew is 2 and a half and ...

 

[vince]

Cow's milk is better than nothing at all, I guess. It does give them the power poops, though, and that ain't good. They get dehydrated, despite taking in a lot of liquid.

Good that they've used the litter box. That's one thing you can cross off the list. Could you get a litter box for your nephew?

 

[HeyKat]

Since my last post, the kittens have been figuring out wet food and while they're still a bit messy, they don't soak their entire front halves in sticky sauce anymore.

They're also gaining weight like little champs! Little Sis went from 300g to 465g in 6 days and Big Sis went from 460g to 600g!!

I was planning on giving them another bath today (10 days after the first one), but now I'm not sure. They still smell a bit and they have food and sauce matted on chests, front paws and their faces - despite my best efforts to clean them after every meal! On the other hand, they're not as bad as before and they're slowly starting to figure out self grooming. Should I leave them to it, or give them one last quick bath to help them out?

Could you get a litter box for your nephew?

 

[Sarthur2]

A quick bath to clean the matted fur on their fronts won’t hurt.

 

[HeyKat]

A quick bath to clean the matted fur on their fronts won’t hurt.

Thanks! I ended up not having a chance to bathe them; they were passed on to another foster mom so that I could take in 5 new ones - 3 week olds the size of newborns. I'm sure I'll be posting about them in a panic soon enough.