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Newborn kitten not feeding
- Thread starter moffatcat
- Start Date
this one can't find a nipple and if we put her directly on the nipple she doesn't suck what is this normal ???- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #2
I hope someone can answer this as I came on here to ask the same question.
I have three little kits and one does not seem to feed - exactly as you described, she just doesn't want to latch onto the nipple and the other two kits are stronger, so she spends a lot of time cuddling mum. She is almost two days old. I weighed the kits yesterday and will do so again today and see if she is gaining weight, but don't know what to do.
Mum seems fine and appears caring and well which is such a relief as she is only about 9 months old herself. We rehomed the cat and she must have been already pregnant!
Thanks to anyone who can assist us.
I have three little kits and one does not seem to feed - exactly as you described, she just doesn't want to latch onto the nipple and the other two kits are stronger, so she spends a lot of time cuddling mum. She is almost two days old. I weighed the kits yesterday and will do so again today and see if she is gaining weight, but don't know what to do.
Mum seems fine and appears caring and well which is such a relief as she is only about 9 months old herself. We rehomed the cat and she must have been already pregnant!
Thanks to anyone who can assist us.
It might be jumping the gun, but its been long enough without enough fluid. I would keep trying to get her to nurse, but start the bottle as well. Its easier, in my opinion, to get them to drink from a bottle or medicine dropper before they start to show signs of dehydration. If she figures out the nursing you can always back off.
I agree with above. start immediately with manual feeding, if you hadnt done it yet.
Not suckling more than some hour is NOT normal. It may be some serious wrong with the kitten, but if you do want to give them at least a chance, you must help them manually, at least, to begin with.
Be sure they are warm enough. they are also prob dehydrated by now...
continuing.
Exactly what you do depends on what gear you do have, also how near you have to your vet, and if the vet (or someone else knows) how to tube feed, and can show you.
Suitable bottles you can buy in pet shop.
An injection (edit: syringe) - without needle of course, may be such a plastic dosage injection (edit: syringe) you can get in pharmacy.
A medical dropper...
Some type of kmr-milk, may be the KMR brand. Goat milk is also OK, but not cow milk.
Basic pedialyte you make of:
1 litre water
2 soup spoons dextrose/glucose sugar (other sugars are OK but dextrose best) 15-18 gram
1 tea spoon kitchen salt. Minerale salt is best, but common kitchen salt OK.
Cook up, let is swallow to body temp. Dont spare too long, better make a new portion.
Useful for children, kittens, adults...
If they are already weak, you can boost up the energy by setting in a little wet dextrose sugar or white caro syrup on their gum... Make sure they are warm but not too warm.
You can also massage a little.
What the vet can do: injection some pedialyte, as they get dehydrated very easily.
Begin feeding by tube directly into the stomach. Very effective, the problem is, even many vets dont know how to do it. and it is too dangerous and difficult to begin and try out on your own.
Somebody MUST give you good lessons and instructions.
Hope that helps some....
Good luck!
ps. If they survive, do weigh them every day at the same time.
Beigin the weighting as soon as you can.
This is often the only good way to follow the development. If they do gain as they should, or stand still or even loose weigh...
Use a common kitchens scale, preferably graded in grammes. You dont need any fancy and costly.
Buy a such or borrow from some neighbour.
Not suckling more than some hour is NOT normal. It may be some serious wrong with the kitten, but if you do want to give them at least a chance, you must help them manually, at least, to begin with.
Be sure they are warm enough. they are also prob dehydrated by now...
continuing.
Exactly what you do depends on what gear you do have, also how near you have to your vet, and if the vet (or someone else knows) how to tube feed, and can show you.
Suitable bottles you can buy in pet shop.
An injection (edit: syringe) - without needle of course, may be such a plastic dosage injection (edit: syringe) you can get in pharmacy.
A medical dropper...
Some type of kmr-milk, may be the KMR brand. Goat milk is also OK, but not cow milk.
Basic pedialyte you make of:
1 litre water
2 soup spoons dextrose/glucose sugar (other sugars are OK but dextrose best) 15-18 gram
1 tea spoon kitchen salt. Minerale salt is best, but common kitchen salt OK.
Cook up, let is swallow to body temp. Dont spare too long, better make a new portion.
Useful for children, kittens, adults...
If they are already weak, you can boost up the energy by setting in a little wet dextrose sugar or white caro syrup on their gum... Make sure they are warm but not too warm.
You can also massage a little.
What the vet can do: injection some pedialyte, as they get dehydrated very easily.
Begin feeding by tube directly into the stomach. Very effective, the problem is, even many vets dont know how to do it. and it is too dangerous and difficult to begin and try out on your own.
Somebody MUST give you good lessons and instructions.
Hope that helps some....
Good luck!
ps. If they survive, do weigh them every day at the same time.
Beigin the weighting as soon as you can.
This is often the only good way to follow the development. If they do gain as they should, or stand still or even loose weigh...
Use a common kitchens scale, preferably graded in grammes. You dont need any fancy and costly.
Buy a such or borrow from some neighbour.
Last edited:
Have you checked for cleft palete? If it has one pts is the best thing for it, sadly.
Kittens MUST be warm when you feed them, and you MUST feed them in the position they nurse in - if you feed them on their backs the milk will go down the wrong way and cause pneumonia which is nearly always fatal. It will also need toileting before and after each feed.
If you use a powder milk, you also need to mix it very carefully - too strong and it causes constipation, too weak and you are underfeeding the kitten. Cows milk should not be used - KMR, Cimicat or goats milk are OK. Suspect sheep milk would be as well, but it's rare to see it on the shelves.
It also needs to be hydrated before you feed, hopefully the normal way of checking a cat (lifting the scruff) works with tiny kittens. A few drops of oral rehydration fuid from a syringe would do the trick - you can find lots of online recipies for it and whilst they make a litre or a quart and you want a couple of teaspoon fuls at the most, the ingredients cost pennies. You can keep it in the fridge, warm in the syringe before feeding and pour a little out to draw up so you don't put the syringe into the bulk of it.
Are you weighing it each day at about the same time? If not you need to start doing that. A set of electronic kitchen scales that weigh in grams is ideal, as for the kittens feeding from mum 10g or more a day most days is a good number, and it's easy to calculate and remember unlike the decimal points of ounces you would otherwise be dealing in.
However it outlook is probably not good - mother cats seem to sense when there is something wrong with a kitten and put their energies into the other one. Good luck.
PS mum can get pregnant again while she is nursing so keep her in until she has been spayed.
Kittens MUST be warm when you feed them, and you MUST feed them in the position they nurse in - if you feed them on their backs the milk will go down the wrong way and cause pneumonia which is nearly always fatal. It will also need toileting before and after each feed.
If you use a powder milk, you also need to mix it very carefully - too strong and it causes constipation, too weak and you are underfeeding the kitten. Cows milk should not be used - KMR, Cimicat or goats milk are OK. Suspect sheep milk would be as well, but it's rare to see it on the shelves.
It also needs to be hydrated before you feed, hopefully the normal way of checking a cat (lifting the scruff) works with tiny kittens. A few drops of oral rehydration fuid from a syringe would do the trick - you can find lots of online recipies for it and whilst they make a litre or a quart and you want a couple of teaspoon fuls at the most, the ingredients cost pennies. You can keep it in the fridge, warm in the syringe before feeding and pour a little out to draw up so you don't put the syringe into the bulk of it.
Are you weighing it each day at about the same time? If not you need to start doing that. A set of electronic kitchen scales that weigh in grams is ideal, as for the kittens feeding from mum 10g or more a day most days is a good number, and it's easy to calculate and remember unlike the decimal points of ounces you would otherwise be dealing in.
However it outlook is probably not good - mother cats seem to sense when there is something wrong with a kitten and put their energies into the other one. Good luck.
PS mum can get pregnant again while she is nursing so keep her in until she has been spayed.
Figaro, how is it going? Moffat, is it OK now? I think I saw in your other thread she began to suckle after awhile, and is suckling good now? Correct? If so, excellent. But dont forget to weigh them and her especielly.
Good luck!
Good luck!
Thanks for the kitten advice.
It was a difficult night as queenie decided to be violently sick several times. Luckily she had followed me into the kitchen so easy to examine and clean up. However, she did ask to go outside and I let her - she was sick again once outside. When she came back in she used the litter tray and had diarrhea. I know I should not have let her out but she seemed to want to go so much and she only stayed outside until she had stopped being sick - the door was open all the time. I think that maybe eating 4 placentas may have upset her as she does not eat anything other than dried kitten food.
She then came and sat on my lap and then went back to the kits. I weighed them this morning and they are the same as yesterday including the small kitten. Are they like human babies - los
Maisie seems fine today and has been eating and drinking water. She leaves the kits for 20 minutes at a time but responds if they call. She toilets them before settling down to feed.
How can I check to see if the third kitten has cleft pallette? Should I give all the kits a little goats milk in syringe or wait a little longer. Any suggestions gratefully received.
It was a difficult night as queenie decided to be violently sick several times. Luckily she had followed me into the kitchen so easy to examine and clean up. However, she did ask to go outside and I let her - she was sick again once outside. When she came back in she used the litter tray and had diarrhea. I know I should not have let her out but she seemed to want to go so much and she only stayed outside until she had stopped being sick - the door was open all the time. I think that maybe eating 4 placentas may have upset her as she does not eat anything other than dried kitten food.
She then came and sat on my lap and then went back to the kits. I weighed them this morning and they are the same as yesterday including the small kitten. Are they like human babies - los
Maisie seems fine today and has been eating and drinking water. She leaves the kits for 20 minutes at a time but responds if they call. She toilets them before settling down to feed.
How can I check to see if the third kitten has cleft pallette? Should I give all the kits a little goats milk in syringe or wait a little longer. Any suggestions gratefully received.
Stefan, when you say you should cook up the [color= rgb(24, 24, 24)]pedialyte, do you mean heat it up in a saucepan? If so, do you need to make it boil and then let it cool? I'm trying to learn everything I might need to know in case there are any problems when my cat has her kittens.[/color]
[color= rgb(24, 24, 24)]Moffacat and Figaro, I hope your kittens are doing better.[/color]
[color= rgb(24, 24, 24)]Moffacat and Figaro, I hope your kittens are doing better.[/color]
Yes, I mean to heat it till it boils like you would boil your soup. The boiling perhaps not really necessary, but it always does kill off some bacterias, And also does stir up the ingrediens completely.
Yes, eating much placentas may give loose poo, even diarrhea and some vomiting. There is in fact a recommendation, to not let mom eat more than 4 placentas if the litter is big... Otherwise, it is very nourishing as such.
If they dont loose weigh, it is the same as they do suckle, probably also even the smallest one. They tend to lose some the first day, so probably they did lost some, and immediately gained it back.
IS the third kitten suckling and otherwise OK? If not you must help it manually if you want to try and save it.
Look up with the next day... If they gain, any extra probably isnt necessary. But good if you do have goat milk ready. The problem with giving extra is, it is easier for them to get from syringe, than from moms tits, so there is some risk they will prefer the syringe... But if they dont gain, or even lose - you must give extra... So it is somewhat a balancing of risks... That is also why it is so good to weigh them. You dont need to guess.
Cleft? If the little one does suckle, it is probably all right. You see it they are very bad at suckling, and the milk tends to run back through the nose... If you feel with your finger inside their mouth, the upper gom, you can feel a cleft, an opening into the nose hole there...
Such kittens can sometimes be saved, by giving them food by syringe. Or even - tube feeding into the stomach. But usually they are pts.
Hope my post did helped you.
Good luck Figaro and your protegées!
Tx Kris. Your words are warming me up, I do appreciate them! Tx!
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #14
Thank you so much for all your help! Mini Mof started to suckle very well on her own after birth. I weighed the babies last night at 2100..then this morning at 10 AM o see if they had lost weight. THEY ALL GAINED!! Mini mof is the smallest of the litter.
Mini mof went from 103 grams to 108..is that good??
the rest of them wnt from114 grams to 122...
Mini mof went from 103 grams to 108..is that good??
the rest of them wnt from114 grams to 122...
Thank you to all who have posted here.
I will wait and watch the kits and mum today and if they have not put on any weight tomorrow will try the goats milk (I drink it myself) just to supplement mummy. All kits are pushing and climbing at the milk bar, but little kit is always on the bottom. I did try to latch her on today and this was successful.
As their weight seems roughly the same as yesterday, I think you must be right about her getting something from mum. They weigh around 150 grams with little kit around 140.
All seems quiet at the moment and I am trying to give them as much space and peace as possible, especially as mum was so poorly last night. She has only eaten half a bowl of food but it is within easy reach and I think she wants to sleep as much as she can, poor mummy.
I will wait and watch the kits and mum today and if they have not put on any weight tomorrow will try the goats milk (I drink it myself) just to supplement mummy. All kits are pushing and climbing at the milk bar, but little kit is always on the bottom. I did try to latch her on today and this was successful.
As their weight seems roughly the same as yesterday, I think you must be right about her getting something from mum. They weigh around 150 grams with little kit around 140.
All seems quiet at the moment and I am trying to give them as much space and peace as possible, especially as mum was so poorly last night. She has only eaten half a bowl of food but it is within easy reach and I think she wants to sleep as much as she can, poor mummy.
Yes, it is entirely OK, esp as the beginning was so shaky. Yes, I would say it is good.
They do lose a little in the beginning you know, so she both lost AND gained back and got even surplus.
She is a runt here, but the weigh 103 as such is very OK, shouldnt be problems because of the weight as such.
Those are all good-size kittens. A small one would be 70g or so at birth, all yours must have been at least 100g.
Glad it's working out well.
Glad it's working out well.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #18
She will probably be OK, but it's a long road from newborn to ready to leave with a number of rocky places. Her chances are very good now, though.
Keep weighing them and checking their gains.
Keep weighing them and checking their gains.
I weighed the three kits today (day 3) and they have all gained about 15 grammes from yesterday. Even allowing for toileting and taking into account responses from experienced owners, I think they are doing fine. Mum is out of her box for longer periods now and has started to feed better after the v&d episode on day 1!
Thank you to those who responded; I am sure I will be asking questions as they develop.
I will put up some pictures soon.
Thank you to those who responded; I am sure I will be asking questions as they develop.
I will put up some pictures soon.
