Stray Kitten

krrh

Last night i found a stray kitten in my garden - just one on its own - i left it there overnight thinking / hoping the mother would come back for it but this morning it was still there.

I phoned my vet and they said to bring it down to have a look - as it turns out the kitten is about 4 weeks old and it is a little girl. She is really healthy but very hungry.

She gave me formula for her and i got a bottle from the pet shop but for the life of me i cannot get her to drink it - anybody any ideas on how i can get her to suck on the teat?

lphchild

best bet is get a dropper/syringe rather that a bottle. Hold the kitten with a soft fabric to mimic mothers fur and slowly give it the milk with the syringe or dropper :-)

Eibhin

Good plan..a syringe is your best bet. And she will eventually take it if she's hungry. Also put out a litter tray 'cos the change in diet will definitely upset her stomach so be prepared.

Lucky you though....are you going to keep her? Or should I say is she going to keep you?!!
Photos and name yet??!!!

morganafay

Maybe if you dip the end of the teat into some of the formula, so she can smell it and taste it then she'll get to start drinking it.

Though if she's four weeks old there's no need. Just put the formula into a saucer and she should learn to drink it. Sometimes it takes them a while to learn to drink, so maybe just make it into a paste. Or mix some of the paste into some kitten food. She should have teeth by four weeks, does she? If not then maybe she's younger. A kitten with teeth might bite of the end of the teat and swallow it, it happened me twice! So I make them drink out of a dish from four weeks.

Have you been giving her kitten food? She should be able to eat wet food easily now. They seem to love the wet food more and start to eat before they drink, in my experience. They really start to thrive once they're eating.

Hand rearing a kitten is a lovely experience. I haven't had any young kittens around for years, I miss it. It's very sad if they don't make it, but you're lucky getting her at four weeks, because she should be quite strong by now, and she doesn't need feeding every two hours!

Good luck with her! And I'd love to see photos if you take any

morganafay

Also is she friendly, or did she hiss at you and act really scared? She could be feral and the mother just left her there, by accident or abandoned her. Or she could be abandoned by her owner. I doubt that she came into your garden on her own, unless maybe she belongs to the neighbours right next to you. You might want to ask them anyway. Four week old kittens are usually just leaving their house/basket/bed a little, though I had one litter who used to crawl all around the garden! They were leaving their basket before their eyes were open though!

The Sweeper

Age - check eye colour. Eyes tend to change from blue at just over four weeks. They turn murky and then go to green, or gold, or whatever, over the next few weeks.

With the formula, as morganafay says try a saucer, or a syringe barrel (but be careful not to squirt a load of formula into the kitten like some kind of fire hose if you're using a syringe barrel!). A teaspoon is often great because they'll start to lap as you're trickling and you can move them onto the saucer.

As a rule you shouldn't leave made-up formula sitting around, so read the instructions and take away what she doesn't drink. It's not like cat milk, you can't leave it in a saucer all day instead of water.

On that note, if she's not drinking enough milk make sure she's getting some water to keep her hydrated, and that's she's eating. If she's four to five weeks, she's good to go on to mushy kitten food. Don't use whiskas if you can help it, and if you can't help it, don't use a fish variety. Royal Canin do an excellent kitten mush in trays - you might be able to get it at the vet.

Little and often is the best rule with kittens - they have tiny tummies, so if you can get up to a teaspoonful into her a few times a day, that's a result. If she wants more at any one sitting, give her more - you can't make a kitten 'fat'. Don't skip a meal, though, just because she ate twice as much at the last sitting.

If she moves onto wet food you can keep trying with the formula or you can put out something like whiskas kitten milk or lactose free milk. Before anyone gasps at that - adult cats don't need milk and certainly not cow's milk, but the calcium in milk is useful for small kittens - either whiskas kitten milk or a lactose free milk for people (but be careful not to buy something with a load of other people-supplements like added vitamins). Try a little of it - if it seems to cause diaorrhea, stop, if not, keep going!

Buy a packet of make-up removing pads - the stitched cotton ones that don't leave fibres - moisten a pad with some warm water and gently wipe over the kitten's bottom with it after she's eaten. It'll encourage her to poo and wee and also help keep her clean - you're doing what her mum would have been doing.

They're gorgeous when they're that size.

morganafay

Sweeper, just wondering why not a fish variety of Whiskas? I usually buy the fish type for my cats (of dry or tinned food) because I thought fish is healthier than meat . . . or is it just that kittens shouldn't have it?

krrh

Thank you for all your replies!!

I think i will try the formula in the saucer and see if she drinks it and then i will soften some food for her as well. The vet gave me a bag of the hills for her (chicken flavor i think) and she has her teeth alright!!

She is friendly enough - this morning first thing she hissed at me but hasnt done since - she is walking around and when i lift her she just wriggles around. No cats around me - all dog owners so i know it doesnt belong to anyone i know.

Also Sweeper, no i need to rub her with e cotton wool after every feed and also how long after the fee do we do it?

Not going to keep her myself because i have two pups at home along with two kids - i am going to nurse her for a while and then my mum is talking about talking her but either way she will be well looked after and loved that for sure!!

One other question - is it ok to mix my two dogs with the cat, i put her down earlier with them and theolder one who is 9 months just ignored her and the little one who is 5 months is crazy about her - just licking her and minding her - kinda sweet really but i just want to make sure that its ok to mix them or should i keep them separate.?

Thanks again for all your replies and advice and i wil try and get pics up later.

morganafay

If she is friendly enough, then I'd guess somebody did own her. Maybe the mother was moving her and left her there by accident, or sometimes the mothers abandon them. Or maybe her owners abandoned her.

You should wipe her bum after every meal, just after, but she'll probably start cleaning herself in a week or two.

It's fine to mix her with the dogs if you're sure they won't hurt her. I'd watch them though because they're puppies they might be too playful and accidentally hurt her. I wouldn't really leave them alone together unless you're sure that they're good with each other.

She's a really lucky kitten that she found someone to look after her

anniehoo

The Sweeper wrote: »

Don't use whiskas if you can help it, and if you can't help it, don't use a fish variety.

Just wondering Sweeper why you dont recommend the fish Whiskas?

The Sweeper

Re the whiskas fish varieties, there are a number of reasons (some personal opinon, some factual).

The fact bit:

Cats can get a condition called yellow fat disease, or pansteatitis.

It comes on when they have a diet too high in polyunsaturated fat, and not high enough in vitamin E. It causes fatty lumps under the skin, and can be very painful. It can also cause fever, anorexia, lethargy and the cat wil be very unhappy being moved or touched.

It's usually caused by a home-made diet high in fish, like too much tuna. In the past, the shelter I work with has had problems with pansteatitis with fish-based commercial catfood (and the shelter owner nearly killed a six week old kitten about 10 years ago with fish based cat food causing pansteatitis). It usually happens when the cat is fed fish based food to the exclusion of all else - but I'll explain later why that's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

To be fair to whiskas, they most probably add additional vitamin E to their fish varieties to counter the possbility of pansteatis, but with a small kitten I wouldn't like to take the risk of causing an imbalance in such a young animal - it doesn't take much when they're very small.

Another fact bit - cats are very strongly smell-driven in food. In addition to the argument on a previous thread, the same research that showed cats are physically incapable of tasting sweet things also found that they can show a preference for foods containing certain amino acids. Cats have to have taurine in their diets - taurine is present in muscle meat. They cannot create taurine themselves, and without it they can exhibit symptoms like blindness and wasting and eventually they'll die if their taurine deficiency is serious enough. Pet food companies also have to add a lot of taurine to fish-based food, because there's not as much present as there would be in meat and muscle organs (e.g. the heart, as opposed to the liver - the heart's a muscle and is rich in taurine).

This is the opinion bit, based on experience and on the above facts - this smell driver means cats and kittens find fish-based foods extremely palatable - but being cats, they can develop a taste for fish-based food to the exclusion of anything else they're offered. If you give a kitten fish-based food when they're very small, and that's most or all of what you give them, it can be nearly impossible to get the little buggers to eat anything else once they hit six months of age. That's the self-fulfilling prophecy - next thing you know they'll eat nothing but fish-based food, and won't touch anything else they're offered because nothing else smells as good.

Also - and this is pure opinion, but I've seen it work over and over - if you get your cat too used to fishy food, you're depriving yourself of a brilliant secret weapon when puss is ill. A cat with flu, or a respiratory tract infection, or sniffles, will often go off their food entirely because they can't smell it. Warming their usual food can help, but that's not great if they're kibble eaters. However, the novelty waft of a room temperature saucer of fish-based food can often get through all that bunged up mess, and they'll eat - and it's very important for a sick cat to eat!

anniehoo

Very good Sweeper. Never heard of pansteatitis so going to read more about it. I knew about taurine alright but i was under the impression it was always present and/or added to cat food for that reason.

Agree, that strong fish smells when a cat is sick tends to be effective. I think ill alternate flavours from now on so