care and feeding advice for my 7 weeks and 5 days old kitten

Her name is Shayla. Is she considered a domestic long hair tortoiseshell or calico? I got her Sunday and settled her in around 5 p.m. She is eating and drinking. She seems to only pee once a day so far. Yesterday, FINALLY, she had her first bowel movement. Around 10 p.m. last night, it was about 3 or 4 little marble size firm 'balls' of poo. is this normal.
I know having a kitten this young is not ideal, but the man I got her from thought he was taking care of his neighbors' cat for a few hours, she never returned and the cat was pregnant! He did a good job. I also realize that clay litter is ideal but he had her using cat's pride and so I continued with my fresh step so as not to confuse her too much [they look alike] ,and she is so finicky and she is a little baby so I don't want to stress her. When I am at work, she stays in my room with a litter pan, food, water, and besides her purina kitten chow, I softened some of the nutro canned, just in case . she is beautiful, and i am looking forward to a long life with her.

Also, this beauty has a LOT of hair!! and she is grooming already, and my 6-month old [siamese mix seal point] has already decided to give her some lovin' and groom also. should I fear impaction due to her being so young with all that hair, grooming herself?? This is really my number one concern right now. Is she too young for hair ball remedy or laxatone?

Thursday she will go to vet and get her first deworm/shots and frontline PLUS not topspot. The man I got her from had her on purina kitten chow. and right now she refuses sophie's kitten nutro natural dry kibbleand the nutro natural canned chicken and lamb/chicken and beef.

Please respond Here she is:

http://pictures.sprintpcs.com/share....tate=RETRIEVED

My word what a beautiful kitten. I have lil about the same age as yours and she is very happy on whiskars and doing very well but it is not ideal. I find that cysrtal litter is better then clay litter. I am not 100% sure but I would say that pretty healthy.

Good luck with your little kitten

We had a really hard time finding a food that my kitten Tucker would eat when he came home.After trying many quality foods we finally tried Fancy Feast and he wolfed it down. We fed him primarily that for about a month until his weight improved ( he gained 2 lbs that month!) and have now switched him to Chicken Soup Kitten wet and dry. He loves the dry but still only picks at the wet. I'm going to try some other wet's this week. The important thing at such a young age is that you find something that the baby will eat. The hard stool is probably partly because of Not eating enough, early weaning and immature digestive system. They lose weight really fast if they don't eat . She's a beautiful girl and is lucky to have such a caring person to look after her

Actually, the stool is firm but not dehydrated looking nor dry per se. She smelled the litter, but I haven't seen her eat it. She knows what to do in the box, thanks to Sophie making her presence known and being trained by her former owner. I am not against purina kitten chow per se, but I like nutro, but there is no way I can keep sophie from eating it. I know that greasy smell is way more tempting that nutro natural...

Oh good, sorry about that I thought that you meant that she wasn't eating I wouldn't think that hairball impaction would be a problem at such a young age but you might want to give the Vet a call and see if they have any ideas.

yup, I will. that's my main concern. that and the kitty litter. I really don't want to confuse her, but I also don't want to lose her to some clumping litter impaction...

What a gorgeous calico she is! I wish I had advice, but I just wanted to tell you how beautiful she is.

so, she's a calico? not a tortie? thanks.

Oh my. All kittens are beautiful, but... you have someone very special there. What a little doll she is! If only the person who abandoned her mother could see what she missed.

Yes, I would call her a calico, although the presence of some tabby stripes might make her a... tabbico? calitab? I have no idea.

But she's so gorgeous, I'll you can fund her care and feeding just by putting out Shayla Calendars every year! Shayla in January, knee-deep in snow... Shayla in June, reclining among daisies... Shayla in September, peeking out from under autumn leaves... I'm tellin' ya, she's a goldmine!

She is a Torti with white. Calicos are mostly white and have destinct black patches and distinct orange patches. When they are all blended together like that it is Torti.

Thank for the compliment, Carol Petunia! Thank you, everyone, for your comments. Yesterday and today wonderful big bm's

Here are more photos:

http://pictures.sprintpcs.com/share....tate=RETRIEVED

I plan on getting subscribed tomorrow and getting rid of all these links and start attachments [wink]

I am so in love with your kitten she is breath taking. I also have a short medium and a long hair cat. The best thing to do is get her use to the brush right now and when ya pet her use 1 hand with brush the other to pet. She is beautiful.

aww she is SO beautiful! Congrats on your new family member. Its great that your other cat gets along with her so well.

I would definitely brush and comb her often.

aww , she is a darling. i love her colouring

I combed her last night with about 80% success with a bone seamless rat tail comb. It went pretty good.

LOL Ya it is so hard to get mats out that why I said to do it now. My Runtz is so furry she looks like a lion.

Oh, you have to try a Zoom Groom. There's another thread about them in grooming. It is the best brush in the world for shedding Both of my boy's LOVE it Getting her used to being brushed, handling her feet alot to get her used to nail clippings and rubbing her ears around the inside to check for mite's/discharge are also good ( my friend works at a Vet and suggested all of those thing's to me when I brought my kitten's home) You can also practice "floppy jaw" now so that giving med's later will be easier. If you take a cat's head in your hand an slowly point it's nose toward the ceiling there will be a point where it's bottom jaw becomes "floppy" and you will be able to open it without resistance. Pop a pill in and run your hand down you cats throat. She is a STUNNING kitten, you are so lucky to have her

Sounds like I need to try the zoom groom.