what to feed abandoned kitten - 2 days old

Gonzales

A cat gave birth to 2 kittens in my garden. one kitten is gone & no sign of the mother. one kitten has been left behind, eyes shuts, chord still attached . what tshould we feed her to keep her alive?

Is human baby formula suitable?

advice appreciated.

ynotdu

oh lord You have a real problem,very slim chance it will survive even if you could give it attn 24/7.

any chance you can find a cat already nursing?she might accept it as her own.neighbours, vets,?notice in your local shops?.

a chemist will proably give you a syringe with no needle so you can at least give it water for a few hours.it will not live for more than hours without one of the above.

I wish you luck and fair play to you for your gentle nature.

hadook

You should be able to pick up some kitten replacement milk in any petshop or vets. At that age kittens can't go to the loo on their own so you'll need to wipe his/her bum after every feed.

Best of luck to you.

Munster Gal

Here's a link http://www.feralcat.com/raising.html
It's American but all the info is there. Lactol is a good kitten formula to use. We have a 4 year old cat who came to us in very similar circumstances except she was brought to us by a builder who found her on the site with cord still on also. She's a bit on the small side but otherwise very happy & healthy. Good luck, it's alot of hard work in the beginning but it can be done!!!

star-pants

Other have given great info already - keeping it warm & giving it milk, and obviously helping it go to the loo.
But if you're able, I'd bring it to the vet in the morning, maybe just to check all is ok - I'm not sure about chords, don't the mothers usually chew it off? (or am I going looney) just so it doesn't get an infection.

Do it seem ok now?

The Sweeper

Gonzales, it's probably too late for this, but for future reference:

Never assume a new kitten is abandoned. If the mother and the other kitten are missing, it's because she's moving them to a safer place. She can only carry one at a time, so could have left the kitten you saw while she moved the other one. The best thing to do for the first couple of hours is observe the kitten and see if she comes back for it. I assume she gave birth in a reasonably sheltered area of your garden, but then may have decided it wasn't safe and she needed to move.

When a new kitten is separated from its mother, its chances are very slim. You will need to contact a vet in the first place, for suitable formula milk - cow's milk can kill a kitten that size. The vet may also be able to put you in touch with someone who's fostering or has a nursing queen at the moment and she may take on the new kitten - though if the abandoned kitten is two days old there's a good chance the existing litter the queen has will be bigger and will bully the newcomer out of the way.

It's also a good idea to see if the vet knows an experienced foster carer who has done this before and can either take the kitten or advise you. It's round the clock feeding with a new kitten that size, and while it can be done it often doesn't work. The kitten really needs the colostrum from its mother's milk to get it through the first few days and if it hasn't had even one feed from her before she went to move them, it really has no chance.

Gonzales

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

Gonzales, it's probably too late for this, but for future reference:

Never assume a new kitten is abandoned. If the mother and the other kitten are missing, it's because she's moving them to a safer place. She can only carry one at a time, so could have left the kitten you saw while she moved the other one. The best thing to do for the first couple of hours is observe the kitten and see if she comes back for it. I assume she gave birth in a reasonably sheltered area of your garden, but then may have decided it wasn't safe and she needed to move.

When a new kitten is separated from its mother, its chances are very slim. You will need to contact a vet in the first place, for suitable formula milk - cow's milk can kill a kitten that size. The vet may also be able to put you in touch with someone who's fostering or has a nursing queen at the moment and she may take on the new kitten - though if the abandoned kitten is two days old there's a good chance the existing litter the queen has will be bigger and will bully the newcomer out of the way.

It's also a good idea to see if the vet knows an experienced foster carer who has done this before and can either take the kitten or advise you. It's round the clock feeding with a new kitten that size, and while it can be done it often doesn't work. The kitten really needs the colostrum from its mother's milk to get it through the first few days and if it hasn't had even one feed from her before she went to move them, it really has no chance.

thanks, we did observe for 4-5 hours before moving in.
The kitten seemed strong y'day evening & she pi$$ed like a mare when we did the wipey thing as advised :P. let see how it goes...

star-pants

Sounds good :-) maybe ask your vet for the best formula etc. Are you guys going to keep the kitten?

louliewan

Same happened me few years ago, goats milk is universal(a vet told me) so, that should be ok.

jen_23

My brother found a kitten in similar circumstances a few years ago.
We used a kitten bottle and kitten substitue milk. Unfortunately though our itty bittey (what we called her) died a few days later in my arms (was very sad:( ) after we tried our best and I had been with her round the clock (I think i had been on school hols).

It's hard work but there are success stories and I hope yours is one of them.
Let us know how the little fella is doing

Gonzales

jen_23 wrote: »

My brother found a kitten in similar circumstances a few years ago.
We used a kitten bottle and kitten substitue milk. Unfortunately though our itty bittey (what we called her) died a few days later in my arms (was very sad:( ) after we tried our best and I had been with her round the clock (I think i had been on school hols).

It's hard work but there are success stories and I hope yours is one of them.
Let us know how the little fella is doing

so far so good - day 4 & she is still looking ok - feeding & pi$$ing & making noise. seems more mobile also.

jen_23

Gonzales wrote: »

so far so good - day 4 & she is still looking ok - feeding & pi$$ing & making noise. seems more mobile also.

That sounds really promising! Yay!! fingerscrossed she keeps getting stronger and stronger!!
Oh just a thought have you taken any pics:D

Gonzales

no pics yet, maybe tomorrow, if I'm not too lazy - still going strong though. When can we expect her to open her eyes?

paddyc

keep us updated please, same thing happened to me, found a female kitten hit by a car, called her "wee man"... well I am from the north... she had sexuality issues so ran away 7 months ltr:)


fair play to you


paddy

boomerang

Eyes begin to open from roughly days seven through ten... but each kitty is different.

At the moment she should be getting two-hourly feeds and keep her very warm.

If please god she makes it, you can start weaning her onto very sloppy, mushy kitten food from approx. five to six weeks onwards.

Really hope the little mite thrives for you. Fair play to you for doing all you can.

I've always found Lactol works best, you can get it in the vets.

jolo

Best of luck to you!

We did something similar years ago with an abandoned litter. 4 out of the 5 died which was very traumatic. We used Whiskas kitten milk which used to come in little cartons. We warmed it a little by placing it in a glass inside a cup which had warm water in and fed it with a little syringe - no needle. One little fighter survived.

It's also very important to make it poop often. So on the vet's advice we rubbed down it's tummy to the bottom with a little cotton wool pad dipped in warm water and squeezed out well. It just needs to be warm and damp. This is to simulate the mother licking it this way. Always down towards the bottom. It's important to do this after every feed at least. They poop a lot too.

Gonzales

Sorry to say the little kitten died during the night .

GAAman

Gonzales wrote: »

Sorry to say the little kitten died during the night .

you tried your best thats all you coulda done

Suzannem

please take my advice and dont over feed the kitten with milk, i havent read through the whole thread. but if you havent seek advice from a local vet on how much and how many times per day you give it milk!

all the best!

The Sweeper

Sorry to hear it Gonzales - it's a heartbreak, but you did what you could.

Suzannem

aw sorry to hear that.

you defo did the best you could!

jolo

Sorry to hear that Gonzales. You tried your best for the little sweeetie. Well done!