Newborn Kittens

[+Melissa]

For those of you that don't know the non fish side of me, I will straight up admit I am an animal nut. I know my husband gets that look on his face whenever I start shouting, " Stop the car! Stray!" I foster when I can, mainly cats right now, since we are in an apartment. But in our old house we always had a foster dog somewhere. I just placed my last foster cat a couple months ago and was taking a little break. So..

I responded to a plea for help from a wonderful lady who found 2 itty bitty kittens in a hole near her home yesterday. She waited all day for Mama cat to come back, but no luck. I went North and scooped them up last night and went into instant mommy mode. I had just got off of work, and was unprepared for the transport. No carrier, towels, nothing. So... into my shirt they went to keep warm. One was very lethargic, with one little eye open. I call him Cyclops. The other has both eyes closed still. We hustled over to Petsmart to pick up bottles and formula and some supplies.

I get home and start inspecting them. I believe they are about 6-9 days old. One solid dark grey with a little white belly patch and pink toes. The other is lighter grey with tiger stripes coming through when he stretches, and a brown and white tiny head. I pierced the nipples, sterilized everything, heating the formula and then settled in to referee the "Battle of the Nipple". They put up such a fuss!! Cyclops just wanted to keep looking at me with his one eye, and not face away. It was like he was seeing light for the first time. Just kept turning his wobbly little head back to me crying. At least he's crying though. He finally latched on and drank a 1/2 tablespoon of formula. I burped him (yes you have to burp them like a baby) and put him back in the blankets. Then I worked on his brother, but he wanted nothing to do with that thing. But he liked what came out of it. He just wanted to suck it off my pinky finger for a bit instead. I tried offering the nipple again, and he ate a little. Not much, but something. After that I put them both down for sleepy time.

Each feeding is progressively improving, even just overnight. I'm hoping the one that is refusing it the most will come to accept it, but I think he's crying for mama. My fat 19 lb cat Big Boy is (for the first time) very intrigued by these two. The last few fosters, he wanted nothing to do with them. But I truly believe that he senses how young they are, and that they pose no threat (at least for now lol). He's more of a dog than a cat, and is very loud and vocal, yet he sat very quietly watching the feedings, so I plan to use him later to help them cope with the loss of mama. At least some cuddling done by another animal. Even my German Shepherd is getting antsy. She has been a surrogate to many of the pups and orphans we've encountered. The kitten we had fostered before was always groomed, scolded, and cuddled by her. The only thing she can't do is feed lol.

I will be keeping their progress documented so we can all (hopefully) watch them grow.

Oh! last night, I said thank you to my husband for letting me do this, and he said "well, I really didn't have a choice in it. You already called them and set everything up. " I said, "yeaa.. you are right. You had no choice" lol. He knows me

[chrisfowler99]

Keeping the progress documented requires pics!

Years ago I had some friends that fostered animals that were too young to adopt from the local animal shelter. We were over there once and they had a kitten that was under 2 weeks old. I was holding it in my lap. It managed to crawl up my shirt and into my pocket. It slept there for hours, through all of my movement.

[+o0zarkawater]

Good luck!

We currently have 5 cats, all of them rescues.

I hope they pull through and you are able to find them both homes, if you don't keep them yourself.

If you do end up adopting them out, make sure they are spayed/neutered before hand.

I know people always mean well, but its when people who 'forget' or 'i'll do it later' and end up with a whole new litter of kittens, and the cycle continues.

If you aren't familiar with Animal Trustees of Austin, Inc. (ATA), I would look into them. They have a low cost spay/neuter clinic which is WONDERFUL!

http://www.animaltrustees.org/

And like Chris said, PICS!

[+Melissa]

Oh the pictures will come for sure. I have them on another camera and am waiting to get home from work

[+Dena]

Poor little babies!!! So glad you were able to help them! I'm a rescuer myself also...on a short break after 11yrs of pretty much devoting "OUR" lives to it LOL. These little kitties sure are lucky you were called!!!! I can't wait to see photos. My last cat passed away just over a year ago...miss having a kitty around, but 8 dogs definitely keep me busy.

[+Melissa]

Well, I am having trouble making them go number 2. I started getting desperate. My weenie dog is an old female breeder my hubby got when he was 14. She got bit by a rattle snake when she was about 4 and needed an emergency spay, and surgery. She loves to eat field mice, so you can understand my concern. I let her sniff and she went right to town on being a mama. My shepherd just didn't get it this time. She "deflated" both of them, and groomed them just like a mama cat.

[+Melissa]

double post sorry

[+o0zarkawater]

Well, I am having trouble making them go number 2. I started getting desperate. My weenie dog is an old female breeder my hubby got when he was 14. She got bit by a rattle snake when she was about 4 and needed an emergency spay, and surgery. She loves to eat field mice, so you can understand my concern. I let her sniff and she went right to town on being a mama. My shepherd just didn't get it this time. She "deflated" both of them, and groomed them just like a mama cat.

I was kind of wondering about how people who rescue newborns deal with this problem. I know that momma takes care of the kittens bathroom needs for the first couple weeks. Ive been lucky in that both times I've rescued newborns I also took in the momma as well.

Glad to hear you have it all taken care of, and now I really want pics of the momma weenie dog with her new kittens.

[+KeeperOfTheZoo]

I've always had good luck getting newborns to 'go' with a warm damp rough napped wash cloth. Its never failed.

Sounds like the kittens were old enough to have nursed their momma, that always gives orphans a fighting chance. I never liked the kitten formula (formula in general is just nasty), I switched to a raw goats milk based milk for rescues and had much better results. Has to be raw and 'live' though to be really beneficial.

Our last orphan was a tiny possum that fell off his momma into one of our horses water buckets. He was so ugly he was cute! He's since grown into a big fat chicken egg thief!

Good luck with the kittens.

[+Melissa]

I'm happy to say that the twins are doing great today. I was ecstatic to see their towel soiled.The warm cotton ball did work, but only for tinkle. They wouldn't go #2 at all. We had a little clean up session courtesy of Cowgirl the 14 year old weenie, and a warm wash cloth to get the yuckies off. Cowgirl is really cut out for this. She just went right to town. First she waited for me to say "it's ok" then she didn't stop till they both were "emptied" and for the most part clean, but they still need a bath. The twins rotate out with eating. First the little one, Cyclops, then the bigger one. Then we start all over with rotation until they are done.

Cyclops has opend both eyes now, so the name will change lol. The other still has both eyes shut tight. I'm going to dig up my kitchen scale so I can weigh them. Anyhow, here are the promised pics

[lexiemc]

Well, I am having trouble making them go number 2. I started getting desperate. My weenie dog is an old female breeder my hubby got when he was 14. She got bit by a rattle snake when she was about 4 and needed an emergency spay, and surgery. She loves to eat field mice, so you can understand my concern. I let her sniff and she went right to town on being a mama. My shepherd just didn't get it this time. She "deflated" both of them, and groomed them just like a mama cat.

Well, glad to here that Mama Doggie has taken to helping you out so well. I have raised/fostered a fair number of kittens in my days. We are now down to just our last kitties and SW fish.

If you should have any more troubles we always run warm water and swab their end with the wet toilet paper until they understood the urge and let go if you will. They don't like it any more than when Mama cat does it so don't fret over all the squalling they will do.

Good luck and many blessing that you will all pull through this.

[+Melissa]

Thank you everyone for the kind words and warm wishes. I am loving being mommy! Yesterday, was bath day. There was just a little too much yucky to wipe off their coats, despite the washcloth and weenie dog tongue. So we got a warm bath ready in the sink, and they just sat on my hand in the water. I used baby shampoo to scrub them down and get clean. One at a time they went back into the basket, rolled in a towel, and on top of a heating pad.

Now here's the funny part. I had this idea that I could put my makeshift 5 gallon light (50/50) that is in a clip on socket, and I clipped it to the side of their basket, and let it shine on them. They scooted right under it and stretched out like they were sunbathing. It doesn't get warm, but I guess makes it feel like the sun

They have already gone thru almost the whole can of milk as of this morning, so I have to get more at lunchtime. I debated between the powder and liquid formula, but stuck with the liquid. I didn't like what the powder did to my foster pup. It seemed to have a hard time going to the bathroom and when it did, the powder was very visible in the poo. My two are doing very well on the liquid so I will keep them steadily on it. I also found a few kitten glop recipes that I am going to try out that are used by catteries, and vets when kittens don't want to nurse. I'm not too worried about their weight gain though. Each is a pig now, and eating almost 15 ml per sitting and increasing. Before it was about 6 ml, and 1-2 ml.

I will get some more pictures of the cuties up this evening.

[+Melissa]

New kitten pictures from yesterday

[+Melissa]