Hi everyone!
I recently started fostering a litter of kittens and I honestly don't know much, so I have lots of questions, and any advice is appreciated!
Backstory of how their life began:
My sister has a stray cat she feeds that "lives" in her garage. The cat basically grew up in there which is why I assume it hasn't left, it was a kitten last winter with its mother, and now it's mother doesn't come around anymore. I don't even think she's a year old yet.Well of course, she got pregnant. We found a single kitten in the middle of the garage on the 15th, so we are assuming he gave birth that day. She was not attending the single kitten at all and was just sitting under the car. We made a little safe spot for the kitten and searched for more, there were 3 underneath some furniture so we put them all together and waited. She is a friendly cat to us, so it is really strange for her to stay under the car, but we weighed the babies and left them alone, putting a camera to check every now and then. Giving the benefit of the doubt that she's just tired and overwhelmed from the birth, we waited, but she not once attended the kittens. They would cry and she would just hide. She didn't seem interested in them at all, but she was also not acting normal so I assume she's in some sort of pain. My brother in law made the call and decided to bring them in after just over 36ish hours (they weren't crying the first day which is why we thought she was tending to them, but when they started crying she would avoid them) it is also very warm in the garage so maybe the warmth kept them content for that long? So that 2nd night we fed them with this bottle kit that honestly didn't work well and ended up using a syringe. The slept fine, and kept waking up to eat more. I ordered the miracle nipples to be next day delivered. The 3rd day, I gave up on the weird nippled on the bottles and just use syringes until the nipple came and it is amazing. The kitties love it. So the past 24 hours or so since I've had it, they have been eating great and all except one has gained weight already.
Some of my questions/concerns are:
I can't get them to poop. I called a vet about it and they said since they have probably barely started eating good meals, there isn't poop yet. Which makes sense to me, but I'm such a worry wart that I'm like okai so when is it a problem? They aren't fussy, they pee everytime I stimulate, they eat good, aren't bloated from what I can tell, so it's just the fact that they haven't done it is worrying me.
Side note to the poop thing, I thought we were using the KMR brand formula at first, but I realized it is a different brand that is thicker when mixed compared to the kmr brand, could that be plugging them up? I'm using the KMR brand now, so hopefully the extra fluid will get things going.
The kittens don't seem to wake up and cry to indicate they're hungry, is that normal? I assumed it would be like a baby, so I waited, but they stay asleep until I place my hand inside and they can smell me, then they fuss. They also don't seem too interested in eating every 2 hours, like I can maybe get 1.5ml in them before they fall asleep in my hand. But sometimes they eat 3-4ml, so it kinda evens out.
When can I transition to bottle? The syringes seem to keep getting stuck with the nipple on, so I feel like the bottle would be easier, but at the same time, I feel like I should constantly monitor how much they eat, or should I not worry too much because they are gaining fine?
I can't think of much else right now, but any tips or tricks are very much appreciated.
Funny random thing about this for me, I am not really a cat person. I am actually scared of them because my bestfriend had this mean cat that would bite me for no reason when I was little. So adult cats scare me, but honestly, who doesn't love kitties? I grew up a dog person, but cats are starting to grow on me, so I hope to be able to successfully raise these cuties.
ps.s. we are trying to figure out how to take mom to the vet, I am not comfortable grabbing her, as I am afraid, but I have reached out to an organization and we are waiting a response. Her butt is still soaking wet, so im assuming maybe she is in pain there or something.
I recently started fostering a litter of kittens and I honestly don't know much, so I have lots of questions, and any advice is appreciated!
Backstory of how their life began:
My sister has a stray cat she feeds that "lives" in her garage. The cat basically grew up in there which is why I assume it hasn't left, it was a kitten last winter with its mother, and now it's mother doesn't come around anymore. I don't even think she's a year old yet.Well of course, she got pregnant. We found a single kitten in the middle of the garage on the 15th, so we are assuming he gave birth that day. She was not attending the single kitten at all and was just sitting under the car. We made a little safe spot for the kitten and searched for more, there were 3 underneath some furniture so we put them all together and waited. She is a friendly cat to us, so it is really strange for her to stay under the car, but we weighed the babies and left them alone, putting a camera to check every now and then. Giving the benefit of the doubt that she's just tired and overwhelmed from the birth, we waited, but she not once attended the kittens. They would cry and she would just hide. She didn't seem interested in them at all, but she was also not acting normal so I assume she's in some sort of pain. My brother in law made the call and decided to bring them in after just over 36ish hours (they weren't crying the first day which is why we thought she was tending to them, but when they started crying she would avoid them) it is also very warm in the garage so maybe the warmth kept them content for that long? So that 2nd night we fed them with this bottle kit that honestly didn't work well and ended up using a syringe. The slept fine, and kept waking up to eat more. I ordered the miracle nipples to be next day delivered. The 3rd day, I gave up on the weird nippled on the bottles and just use syringes until the nipple came and it is amazing. The kitties love it. So the past 24 hours or so since I've had it, they have been eating great and all except one has gained weight already.
Some of my questions/concerns are:
I can't get them to poop. I called a vet about it and they said since they have probably barely started eating good meals, there isn't poop yet. Which makes sense to me, but I'm such a worry wart that I'm like okai so when is it a problem? They aren't fussy, they pee everytime I stimulate, they eat good, aren't bloated from what I can tell, so it's just the fact that they haven't done it is worrying me.
Side note to the poop thing, I thought we were using the KMR brand formula at first, but I realized it is a different brand that is thicker when mixed compared to the kmr brand, could that be plugging them up? I'm using the KMR brand now, so hopefully the extra fluid will get things going.
The kittens don't seem to wake up and cry to indicate they're hungry, is that normal? I assumed it would be like a baby, so I waited, but they stay asleep until I place my hand inside and they can smell me, then they fuss. They also don't seem too interested in eating every 2 hours, like I can maybe get 1.5ml in them before they fall asleep in my hand. But sometimes they eat 3-4ml, so it kinda evens out.
When can I transition to bottle? The syringes seem to keep getting stuck with the nipple on, so I feel like the bottle would be easier, but at the same time, I feel like I should constantly monitor how much they eat, or should I not worry too much because they are gaining fine?
I can't think of much else right now, but any tips or tricks are very much appreciated.
Funny random thing about this for me, I am not really a cat person. I am actually scared of them because my bestfriend had this mean cat that would bite me for no reason when I was little. So adult cats scare me, but honestly, who doesn't love kitties? I grew up a dog person, but cats are starting to grow on me, so I hope to be able to successfully raise these cuties.
ps.s. we are trying to figure out how to take mom to the vet, I am not comfortable grabbing her, as I am afraid, but I have reached out to an organization and we are waiting a response. Her butt is still soaking wet, so im assuming maybe she is in pain there or something.
so someone else pooped too. It was a hard little clump thing, but definitely looked like poop. It seemed dried out, and my younger sister has been feeding them today so im not sure how long it was there.
