How To Bottle Feed Orphaned Kittens

Get a step by step guide to doing it right in this short video.

How to bottle feed orphaned kittens. Preparing to feed a newborn kitten 1. How often should you feed him. Try to find a nursing mother feline queen. Kitten positioning for feeding is very important.

Mother cats take care of stimulating their kittens to urinate and defecate. Part 1 of 2. By the end of the first week the ear canals of a kitten will have opened. How do you get a kitten to drink from a bottle.

Consult with local veterinarians and shelters to find out if there is a nursing mother cat who may be able to take on the kitten. Stimulating an orphaned kitten to urinate and defecate. It includes information on feeding weaning medical care developmental milestones and more. Feeding a newborn orphaned kitten is a challenge but can be fun and rewarding.

How do you know if the nipple flow is too fast or too slow. How do you know if the nipple flow is too fast or too slow. Different people have different styles of bottle feeding. This is very time consuming for someone who is bottle feeding a newborn kitten so if at all possible you will want to try to keep the kitten with its mother or a surrogate lactating cat who can nurse it.

Orphaned kittens will need extra care for survival to compensate for the loss of their mother. Young kittens especially orphaned ones who don t have the benefit of antibodies transferred from the mother s colostrum to the kitten are particularly vulnerable to infection so care must be taken when preparing formula. Kittens must be kept warm very clean and fed frequently using an appropriate amount and type of formula by bottle or less often tube feeding. We first need to determine how old they are before we try to start feeding.

This is where the crucial surrogate mom bonding happens. This resource provides instructions for caring for bottle feeding kittens bottle babies very young kittens who have been abandoned or orphaned. Feeding orphaned kittens can feel like a full time job especially in the beginning when they need to be fed the most. Kittens that are bottle fed should consume about a tablespoon or 15 ml of special kitten formula at each feeding.

Careful consideration and preparation will make bottle feeding a kitten a soothing and comfortable experience and help result in a happy healthy pet. Kittens are most comfortable in a position like the position they d be in if they were nursing from a mom cat. Here are some guidelines to follow when assisting orphaned kittens. The feeding protocols below are provided by the kitten nursery of salt lake county animal services in partnership with best friends animal.

Table of contents 1 warmth and bedding 2 feeding 3 weaning 4 weight and hydration 5. If you are sure the mother cat is unable to care for them congratulations you have a new and challenging responsibility. To ensure nutrition is adequate daily weight checks should be performed for the first 4 weeks then weekly thereafter. Bottle feeding an orphaned kitten.

One position is simply to place the kitten on its stomach on a. Carefully follow directions on the box of formula or directions provided by your vet to determine the proper temperature and amount to feed your kitten.