Newborn Kittens
Are you wondering when is the best time to start litter training your kitten, and how to go about doing it? You may also try putting the towel-dried kitten in a pet carrier and aiming the blow-dryer into the carrier where the warm air will gently circulate to dry the kitten. After each feeding handle each kitten and gently massage them. Prolonged feeding of kibble to cats may eventually lead to serious health problems.
Just keep in mind when you start this that there is a very high likelihood that you may lose some of the kittens along the way – it is not your fault, you are just not a cat, and there are things that you just cannot provide to a neonatal kitten that only a mother cat can provide.
For the first 24-48 hours, kittens will need around 1ml of milk per house and this increases each day by 0.5ml per meal until they are taking 10ml. At about eight weeks of age, kittens are ready to leave the mother. Some kittens prefer to nurse standing on their hind legs while holding the bottle.
A kitten’s instinctive need to suckle (frustrated by the lack of a mother’s nipple) may cause the kitten to suckle its littermate’s ears, tail or genitals, causing irritation. It is instinct for the mother to consume all birthing waste to impede other animals as she recently delivered a litter of defenseless kittens.
Warm the formula in a nursing bottle or medicine dropper by placing the bottle or dropper into a cup or bowl of hot water. The following information addresses some of the most important issues however, the RSPCA strongly recommends that you seek veterinary advice to ensure that your cat and her kittens receive the best cat treats care possible.
When you remove the nipple, listen for a popping sound—like pulling a cork from a wine bottle—which indicates the kitten has nursed properly. Newborn kitten care does involve some effort on your part. Don’t be surprised if you find your kittens sleeping in the litter.