Some Bottle Baby Questions

[christinesfosters]

I don't have any yet, but I'm signed up to foster and one possibility is bottle babies. Can newborn kittens be fed every 2.5 hours? That would work best with my work schedule (coordinates with breaks and lunch). How often do you sterilize (boiling in water) the nipples/bottles? What's the best way to quickly warm up the formula (for instance when I'm crunched for time at work)? Thanks!

 

[Sarthur2]

Newborns really need feeding with a syringe initially. Here’s Kitten Lady demonstrating and answering some of your questions:

Syringe Feeding

 

[StefanZ]

Every 2,5 h is OK with healthy kittens. Even every 3h may do. (its too seldom on some kmr bottles which may even mention every 4-8 hours).
But with weak ones, whom manage just a little at a time - you must instead give more often, perhaps down to every hour in Red Alert cases..

the best warming up is in water bath. Micro is possible, but may be dangerous - because the heat tends to spread unevenly in the bottle.
So IF you do micro kmr or goats milk, be sure you shake and mix the contents thoroughly...
I presume in a pinch you can warm up with your body warmth. Perhaps in your arm hole [ie arm pit], or in your bosom (here some women have an advantage over men and some women. )

If you can get raw goats milk, its very often an advantage. Canned or powdered goats milk is OK to use, but no real plus over a good kmr. For example, KMR in powder by PetAg.

Having home glucose sugar / dextrose is good. Useful in many situations, including to make homemade pedialyte. Or smearing a sweet solution on lips and gums on a weak or lethargic kitten.
If you have difficult to find it, you can use honey or white caro syrup. Both do contain much glucose sugar.

Minerale salt - or a bottle of good minerale water - containing many different salts.... Its too to make homemade pedialyte, or to give in diarrheas.

Coldpressed cocoa oil, or coldpressed olive or canola oil are useful when having constipation - two drops with each meal. Also useful on minor skin irritations outside.

A scale of course. Best measuring in grammes electronic one. There are cheap ones...

If you happen to get a premature or weak and sickly kitten, an IR-warming lamp may become extra useful.
IR-lamp is in itself an alternative to heating pad.

 

[lacy2000]

I've heard of foster moms using hand warmers to warm up a bottle if they are on the road or in a hurry, but you would have to stir the milk to make sure there are no hot spots.

As for sterilizing, I run nipples under steaming hot water after every feeding and boil them once or twice a week. If the kitten is sick, I boil almost every feeding. Having multiple nipples really helps in that case. Miracle Nipples work wonderfully. They're all I ever use.