New Kitten

[Optatus Cleary]

I’m new to this forum, and to be honest it’s not a forum I ever thought I would join. My wife and I are both allergic to cats, and have been married for nine years without a pet.

On Wednesday I was taking out the trash and saw a cat with what I thought was a dead gopher. She didn’t run like cats normally do, so I approached a little closer. She ran, and to my surprise the “dead gopher” started meowing and hid under a flower pot.

I waited a few hours and the mother never came back. As it was getting dark the kitten started approaching me and meowing. I have never had a cat so I didn’t know what to do at all: I grabbed a box, put a towel in the box, and picked her up with my rose trimming gloves (thinking she might scratch or bite...as a matter of fact she was very gentle.)

We took her to the vet the next day. He says she is healthy, about six to eight weeks old, a girl, and doing fine. We named her (and for forum purposes we’ll call her Blossom. My real name isn’t Optatus, either). We bought some kitten formula for her, which she ate. The vet recommended placing some dry food in with the formula, and we tried it but she wouldn’t eat it. We tried wet food today and she ate heartily.

Our only concerns so far are that she doesn’t drink a lot of water (I put a dish of water in the box with her and she walked right in to it and then started licking her paws) and that she hasn’t defecated much. The vet gave us a kitten enema for her, and we used it and she was able to go immediately after. That was yesterday. She hasn’t gone since despite eating a bit, and we aren’t sure if we should give her the enema again or just let her wait. We don’t want her to suffer or feel constipated, especially with all the eating she’s doing, but she also hates the enema and we don’t want to give it to her unnecessarily.

Thank you for any help: my wife had cats growing up but I’ve never had any experience with them. I’m sure I’ll have lots of questions and I thank you in advance for your assistance.

 

[tabbytom]

Optatus Cleary, welcome to TCS!

Thank you for taking in Blossom and for taking her to the vet for a check and also a big thank you for giving her hope and a fur-ever warm and loving home.

Here are a few articles for you ton read too get you started :-

bringing-home-a-new-cat-the-complete-guide.29657
first-time-cat-owners-guide.33669
how-to-help-a-new-cat-adjust-to-your-home.32804
common-foods-that-are-harmful-to-cats.30181
household-chemicals-and-your-cats.29641
first-aid-for-cats.22464
cats-lilies-avoid-the-danger-lurking-in-your-home.33397
the-litterbox-what-every-cat-owner-needs-to-know.33457
how-to-choose-the-right-litterbox.32515

Since Blossom is still a kitten, best is to feed her wet food (canned food) that is meant for kittens as it is full of nutrients to help growing kittens. Or you can buy wet food labeled 'For All Life Stages'.
Also wet food will keep her hydrated as she may be too young to know how to drink water for a plate.

Feed her as much wet food as she can eat in one sitting and once she's full, she'll walk away and you can never overfeed a kitten.

At this age, a kitten just eat, sleep, play, pee, poop, eat, sleep, play, pee, poop...............

Get a stainless steel or ceramic shallow lip plate to put the food in there to feed her as plastic will encourage bacterial growth on the plate and will cause Blossom to have feline acne.

Feel free to ask questions if you have any and start a new thread of your own and post them under the appropriate forum headings and do check out the many informative articles we have here in Articles | The Cat Site

Enjoy your stay and see ya around

 

[Maria Bayote]

Thank you for taking in this kitty into your home and hearts. You will very soon discover that life with a pet (especially a cat) works a lot of wonders! Everyday you will be entertained and amused by this little bundle of fur. Get ready with her unlimited energy.

And btw, welcome to TCS!

 

[Optatus Cleary]

Thank you for the quick response! I will read the articles; they look very helpful.

To update, we did end up giving her an enema and she was able to go. We cleaned her up (she of course decided to frolic and lay in it afterwards) and she’s now sitting cozy on the couch with my wife.

When we were feeding her kitten formula she was hesitant, but she gobbled up the wet food! Hopefully that’s keeping her hydrated enough. The food I found for her doesn’t specify an age, but does have instructions for how much to feed kittens. The next can I but will be specific kitten food. I’m just happy she’s eating and has gone to the bathroom: she’s a sweet little thing and I want to make sure she’s happy and comfortable.

 

[tabbytom]

When we were feeding her kitten formula she was hesitant, but she gobbled up the wet food! Hopefully that’s keeping her hydrated enough. The food I found for her doesn’t specify an age, but does have instructions for how much to feed kittens. The next can I but will be specific kitten food.

You can also get milk replacer called KMR milk for kittens and add to her wet food to further boost her nutrients intake as she could have missed out from her mommy's milk. Do not give her cow's milk or milk meant for human consumption as cats are lactose intolerant.

Best is you can get kitten wet food if not like the one I mentioned 'For All Life Stages' which is easier as you don't have to switch to adult food when she grows older.

My boy was a rescue when he was around 6 weeks old and I fed him KMR for a month or so as he was very scrawny and mixed with wet food 'For All Life Stages' and till now he's on the same wet food and he's already almost 3 1/2 years old.

You don't have to follow what's on he can on how much to feed the kitten. Just follow the kittens stomach which is more accurate and kittens need to be fed 4 - 5 times a day and feed as much as they can eat.

 

[Sarthur2]

Kittens who nurse mom or eat wet kitten food will not drink water, but she will learn to eventually. Leave a dish of dry kitten kibble available 24/7. She will learn to eat this between wet food meals also.

Her system may be adjusting and that’s why she’s been slow to poop. Have you shown her a kitten-sized litter box yet with non-clumping litter? She’ll need to learn. After meals put her in and take a tiny paw and show her how to dig.

Rather than enemas you can try stimulating her bottom by rubbing gently for a minute with a soft, warm cloth. You can also shave a tiny sliver from a glycerin suppository and insert it. This usually brings on a bowel movement in a few minutes. I have a feeling she will learn to go on her own soon.

Thank you for taking her in!

 

[Optatus Cleary]

The food I have right now for her is a kitten formula called “PetAg Milk Replacer Plus” and a wet food called “Taste of the Wild.”

We live in a moderately small town, and there’s no dedicated pet store so I was limited in the immediate term to what I could get from the vet’s office, Walmart, the grocery store, and a feed store. I can order anything she needs online or go to a larger city nearby for it, but in these first days I’ve had to use what I can find.

I know not to give her cow’s milk or anything like that. The first thing I did when I found her was get the kitten formula from Walmart. The Taste of the Wild food is from the feed store: I looked it up and it gets good reviews. It doesn’t say “for all life stages” on it: it doesn’t really specify. It DOES mention feeding it to kittens in the directions. I’m not following the directions to the letter (I put out a little more food than I think she’ll eat and let her stop when she’s full) but I felt encouraged by the directions mentioning kittens at all. And she does gobble it up eagerly. If a kitten food would be better I’ll certainly get one for her, but I couldn’t find any wet kitten food when I looked so I just got what seemed best from what I could find.

Sarthur2, thanks for the advice about leaving a dish of dry food for her to snack on. That might work well. So far she seems to think the pellets are too hard, but she’s getting more adventurous every day (she can climb out of her box now) and so she might try it.

As for her bathroom issues, we’ve tried the moist towel thing and nothing happened. She seemed to dislike it almost as much as the enema. I’m just worried by how little she is going: she eats four times a day, but so far has only gone once per day with help. I don’t want anything to become impacted. She eats eagerly so I guess there’s room, but I don’t know if it’s dangerous to keep feeding her if she’s not going to the bathroom regularly. I do know she needs food, so I err on the side of feeding her.

I might try adding some of the formula to her wet food next time. I wonder if that would help her go to the bathroom at all.

 

[war&wisdom]

The food I have right now for her is a kitten formula called “PetAg Milk Replacer Plus” and a wet food called “Taste of the Wild.”

We live in a moderately small town, and there’s no dedicated pet store so I was limited in the immediate term to what I could get from the vet’s office, Walmart, the grocery store, and a feed store. I can order anything she needs online or go to a larger city nearby for it, but in these first days I’ve had to use what I can find.

I know not to give her cow’s milk or anything like that. The first thing I did when I found her was get the kitten formula from Walmart. The Taste of the Wild food is from the feed store: I looked it up and it gets good reviews. It doesn’t say “for all life stages” on it: it doesn’t really specify. It DOES mention feeding it to kittens in the directions. I’m not following the directions to the letter (I put out a little more food than I think she’ll eat and let her stop when she’s full) but I felt encouraged by the directions mentioning kittens at all. And she does gobble it up eagerly. If a kitten food would be better I’ll certainly get one for her, but I couldn’t find any wet kitten food when I looked so I just got what seemed best from what I could find.

Sarthur2, thanks for the advice about leaving a dish of dry food for her to snack on. That might work well. So far she seems to think the pellets are too hard, but she’s getting more adventurous every day (she can climb out of her box now) and so she might try it.

As for her bathroom issues, we’ve tried the moist towel thing and nothing happened. She seemed to dislike it almost as much as the enema. I’m just worried by how little she is going: she eats four times a day, but so far has only gone once per day with help. I don’t want anything to become impacted. She eats eagerly so I guess there’s room, but I don’t know if it’s dangerous to keep feeding her if she’s not going to the bathroom regularly. I do know she needs food, so I err on the side of feeding her.

I might try adding some of the formula to her wet food next time. I wonder if that would help her go to the bathroom at all.

Adding some plain pumpkin puree (no added spices) can help with constipation. You can also add a few drops of olive oil to her food.

 

[Optatus Cleary]

Big developments today! I went to the grocery store and got her some more food. I stuck with “grain free” and got some Petite Cuisine with Tuna and Pumpkin. I mixed it with the Taste of the Wild that she’s been enjoying and she ate it all eagerly. About twenty minutes later she started having a bowel movement! It was pretty significant, more than she had had with the enemas. She also approached a cup of water and drank from the cup (she sort of perched on my wife’s leg and I held the cup.). I put some water out on a dish and she lapped up some of it (but not a lot.)

 

[war&wisdom]

Big developments today! I went to the grocery store and got her some more food. I stuck with “grain free” and got some Petite Cuisine with Tuna and Pumpkin. I mixed it with the Taste of the Wild that she’s been enjoying and she ate it all eagerly. About twenty minutes later she started having a bowel movement! It was pretty significant, more than she had had with the enemas. She also approached a cup of water and drank from the cup (she sort of perched on my wife’s leg and I held the cup.). I put some water out on a dish and she lapped up some of it (but not a lot.)

If she's mainly eating wet food, she won't need much water, since she's getting the bulk of it from her food.

 

[EmersonandEvie]

Blossom sounds so sweet! I'm glad you and your wife took her in. We also love picture here, if you are willing to share.

You have gotten fantastic advice from everyone already. I wanted to offer letting her try the Fancy Feast Kitten cat food, available at Walmart/other common stores. That's what I fed Dexter when I first found him and he flourished on it. Don't worry about the lack of drinking water. My three cats, all fed only wet food, rarely drink water. I'm talking once every 2-3 days- they get all their moisture from the wet food.

 

[Optatus Cleary]

This is where and how I found her. You can see her little body between the fence and the flower pot.

Cozy Blossom! We love how her face is two colors, and how it continues to her mouth.

My wife holding Blossom. She is more inclined to be cozy with my wife than with me...she will sleep on her lap and often licks her hand. It’s very cute, but my wife worries a bit about what it might mean. Does anyone have any insight into this behavior? My wife wonders if it has something to do with no longer nursing from her mother.

We bought this pod for her so she wouldn’t have to live in a box. She had been sleeping and eating in a cardboard box in a bathroom. It seemed a bit small so we bought this, which I realize will soon be too small. We feed her and give her play time in here, and also take her out to play with.

Exploring a step stool and looking adorable.

Does anyone have any thoughts on how you would describe her coloring? She seems to have stripes as well as tortoiseshell coloring. There are a lot of stray tabbies and tortoiseshell in the neighborhood, so she’s probably related to them I’d guess.

 

[Optatus Cleary]

By the way, she is very tiny. When the vet weighed her on Thursday he said she was about 11 ounces. I weighed her in a bowl on a kitchen scale today and she was 12 3/4 ounces. So she is gaining weight but she seems so light. My first attempt at weighing her, by weighing myself and then weighing myself while holding her, indicated that she weighs nothing!

I’m not too worried at present about the slowish weight gain, as it took some time to get her eating and the kitchen scale could be a little off from the vet’s scale. Any thoughts about her weight? Her behavior seems perfectly healthy to me: she practices pouncing, plays with toys, grooms herself, eats, goes to the bathroom (finally!), and loves to be held, pet, and snuggled.

 

[EmersonandEvie]

About her weight: As long as everything else is normal, just offer her as much food as she wants (scheduled wet feeds and have kitten dry available at all times) and she will probably catch up. That being said... she may just be a petite cat. Some cats just don't get bigger than 6 or 7 lbs. It's a wait and see.

As far as the licking: my Evie (we got her at 4 months) still exhibits some "taken too soon from mama cat" behaviors, like kneading vigorously and suckling on a little ball that she has had for years. It isn't uncommon.

She certainly is a gorgeous kitty! Her facial markings look like one of my mom's semiferals. Very Phantom of the Opera.

 

[Optatus Cleary]

Another question we’ve had: the vet said not to start with a litter box until she’s had her shots in a month. I wasn’t sure exactly whether he thought it was dangerous for such a little kitten to have one, or if he just didn’t think she’d be likely to use it yet. Do you all have any thoughts on this?

Also, any recommendations for toys? Right now we have a little feather ball and a fish on a string. I don’t let her play work then when one of us isn’t there because I worry about choking. Any toys you guys would recommend that she could play with unsupervised?

 

[EmersonandEvie]

I don't know what to make about the litterbox. I know that with very young kittens, non-clumping litter is preferred over clumping in case they eat it (clumping litter clumps in their stomach/intestines and can cause blockages), but I've never heard to not use one relating to not having shots. It is weird either way because...where is she to go to the bathroom?

For toys: it's cat-dependent. I have one cat that goes bonkers over a laser light, one who gets kind of excited, and one who could care less. Another cat loves the little poofball toys and one of those Purr-fect Arch things. My last cat would die for the chance to play with a bouncy ball...he hops through the air in tandem with the bounces...lol! You should be fine to leave her alone with a bigger crinkly toy that she can bat around and chase on her own, but no strings or anything she could chew and eat, like feathers.

 

[Optatus Cleary]

The way I interpreted the vet’s statement about shots was that a kitten too small to have had shots would be too small to use the box. If that’s all he meant I might start trying. So far, she goes to the bathroom on a paper towel (usually) and then tries to cover it with the other side of the towel. It would be easier to have her use a box.

How do I train a kitten to use a box?

 

[EmersonandEvie]

That's so sweet! Her instinct to bury is already starting to appear. Sweet, smart girl.

Get a low box. Our local shelter uses the cardboard pallets that you see when you buy Fancy Feast or Friskies in Walmart. The store should have zero problems with you taking the old boxes. Alternately, if you have a low and shallow box around the house or can cut the top off of a regular box, that would work just as well.
The box should be low enough that she can get in and out with ease. Get a small bag of non-clumping litter and put about 1.5 inches of litter and then place her in the box. You can even kind of take her paw and show her that it's an ok place to dig. As she gets older and bigger you can upgrade to "adult cat" litterboxes.

 

[Optatus Cleary]

Another question: we have an already-scheduled and paid for family trip to Hawaii coming up in about five weeks. We are going to arrange for a neighbor to watch her (what we’re hoping for is to give them her pod and explain to them how we care for her. The neighbor loves cats and I’m sure will follow our instructions for her.)

We will be gone about two and a half weeks. Thankfully I’m a teacher on summer break right now, and my wife is at home year-round, so we are able to spend most of the day with her now. Our routine has been to snuggle and play with her, feed her, let her rest, and repeat. We can tell she recognizes us: she purrs, grooms herself, plays in our laps, etc.

My wife is very worried that she will forget about us while we’re gone, or become unaccustomed to us. I feel that she will have about five weeks more of knowing us, during which time we will care for her and consistently talk and interact with her. Does anyone have any advice on this? The trip really can’t be cancelled (it’s a whole extended-family trip on top of being paid for) but the thought of leaving her for so long is very sad to both of us.

I’m not too worried about a little bit of readjustment time, getting used to being in our house again, etc. but I am worried about the idea of being seen as new people entirely when we have done so much with her already.

 

[EmersonandEvie]

My opinion- I think she should be fine. She seems to already have imprinted (I know that isn't the right word, but it works...lol) on you and your wife. Maybe you could have the neighbor start coming over occasionally for little visits, so that Blossom gets used to them being in the house? Have the neighbor do exactly what you do with her.

I really, really doubt she would forget you. She is also still such a little baby that she may not even be typical "pissed off, aloof, "you left me alone so now I'm ignoring you"" cat! Enjoy your vacation and schedule anything major (a spay, etc.) after you get back so she won't be by herself during a recovery period.