In the absence of a kitten milk replacer you can easily make your own homemade kitten formula substitute using ingredients found in your kitchen. People find these babies in their garage barn flowerbeds and many other places where the mother felt safe from.
Knowing how to take care of newborn kittens ensures that you raise a healthy litter working in harmony with the mother cat.
What to do with newborn kittens without mother. Orphaned neonatal kittens need help urinating and defecating. Generally a mother cat would do that with her rough tongue. Without the mother available use a warm damp cotton ball or cloth and rub gently over their genitals and anal area.
Newborn kittens need round-the-clock care and monitoring but can be raised by a human caregiver. Before attempting this however take the kitten to a veterinarian for a thorough examination and to enlist their advice to select a kitten milk replacer and create a plan of care. A kittens weight should double in the first few weeks.
Be sure that the area where you have placed the newborn kittens is safe from other pets and children. If the newborn kittens are chilled warm them by holding them skin to skin against your bare chest or stomach for 30 minutes next to a warm water bottle not too hot. An orphaned kitten will sleep most of the time when he is very young.
Factors to consider when taking care of newborn kittens without the mother. When taking care of a newborn kittens without the mother there are a number of things you need to do. Access the situation to determine if they are really orphaned.
Take them to the veterinarian for a check up. House them in a warm draft free area away from other animals. How To Take Care for Newborn Kittens Without a Mother.
A newly born kitten without a mother is an easy prey for all the wild animals. If you found an abandoned or orphaned kitten wait for some time for his mother to come back as a mother can take care of his kids like no one in the whole world. To feed a baby kitten without a mother feed it a kitten milk replacement formula using a sterilized feeding bottle.
For a particularly small kitten you may want to use a syringe. Feed the kitten after every 2-3hours to ensure it stays strong. Also as time goes by visit a veterinary to deworm and vaccinate the kitten before 6weeks are over.
This is because without a mother they dont get the nutrients from maternal milk that is important for their growth. Answer 1 of 15. The mother probably wont come back if its been a whole day.
She may have been hurt or gotten lost or not realized she had another kitten to move. Sometimes moms abandon kittens that are sick or have congenital defects. Newborn kittens need three things.
Newborn and young kittens need help eliminating body waste. Mother cats will lick kittens genitals and the surrounding area to stimulate the bowels and bladder. You will need to help promote the discharge of waste for the kittens by using a warm moist cotton ball or tissue or warm damp washcloth.
Animal shelters and veterinarians generally do not take in newborn kittens since they do not have the staff to feed and stimulate them for elimination around-the-clock. Newborn kittens without a mother to provide milk should be fed a kitten milk replacer. The exact amount per feed will depend on the brand so be sure to follow the manufacturers instructions.
As a rough guide newborn kittens will need roughly 2-6 milliliters per feed increasing to 18-22 milliliters by the time that they are 5 weeks old. Chilling is one of the most critical dangers to newborn kittens. 1 Provide blankets a heat lamp or a heating pad to ensure the kittens stay warm.
Use a large enough box to comfortably hold the mother cat and her kittens. Stack clean towels to line it. The towels will become soiled quickly as the kittens defecate.
If your kittens came without a mother however things are more complicated. Now you are the mother and must provide the kittens basic needs to ensure their survival. This requires round-the-clock care at first as if you just brought home a newborn baby.
Kitten milk replacer KMR is specially formulated for kittens raised without their mother. In the absence of a kitten milk replacer you can easily make your own homemade kitten formula substitute using ingredients found in your kitchen. Young kittens have special nutritional requirements.
Furthermore during their early stages of development they do not have teeth. With mother cat they get required warmth quickly but taking care of a newborn without a mother isnt easy. You can manage it by using the hot water bottle wrapped in a towel so it can give warmth but dont burn the skin of tiny kitten.
It may do it for quite some time until it gives up and abandons the kitten to take care of the surviving ones. It may sound gross but some mother cats eat their kittens when they seem to be dead. Eating their dead kittens will provide nutrients that will be dissolved in the mothers milk and will be beneficial for other kittens.
Is it normal for mother cats to eat their. They can drink their mothers milk to get the nutrients they need. The kitten will rely on you to survive if their mother isnt around.
You can feed your newborn kitten a nutritional substitute thats called kitten milk replacer. Its essential that you avoid feeding a kitten the same milk that humans consume. Newborn kittens need special care and attention up until around four months of age.
Knowing how to take care of newborn kittens ensures that you raise a healthy litter working in harmony with the mother cat. In some cases you may find yourself facing the emergency of a newborn litter without a mother to provide the kittens basic needs. Raising Orphaned Kittens.
What do I need to take care of abandoned kittens without a mother. The most important elements to consider for kittens aged 1-4 weeks without a mother are as follows. Provide newborn kittens with a clean warm and dry environment.
A suitable enclosed bed or nest is essential to keep the kittens safe and together. Each spring the Yavapai Humane Society receives many kittens too young to survive more than an hour or two without a mother. These kittens are called neonates Sadly most of the neonate kittens YHS takes in are orphans.
People find these babies in their garage barn flowerbeds and many other places where the mother felt safe from.