Kitten advice Needed???

I'm no expert, but it might be smart. The same thing happened with my one of my dog's pups and we fed him the formula from a bottle. He turned out just fine and I'm sure the situation is similar with kittens. c:

If all else fails, take him to the veterinarian. You can't go wrong there.

The little one is probably the runt of the litter, but if he seems content and not crying, I would think he's ok. You can purchase some KMR and a bottle to keep on hand. I would invest in a kitchen scale so you can weigh him each day to see if he's gaining. As long as baby is gaining, all should be fine

You can supplement feed now if you think there is an immediate need.

We have a very small one if you watch your little one may be getting food when the others are alseep Echo spend 98% of her time with the babys and I thought my little one was not getting enough.

She gets it when Kujo the biggest is asleep. Myne are 3 or 4 days old. they where born friday during the day.

Hope that helps weight will be the best I have weighed myne 2 times a day everyday so far. She is half the size of her bothers and sisters but gaining weight at the same rate as them.

When you weigh dont look at she/he is half look at over a few days if they gained 3 ounces did she gain 3 ounces.

I only have four so there are more nipples to go around

I had the same problem two smaller ones, and thought they needed supplementing but they really didn't need supplemented because they gained everyday. And now at 3 weeks they have caught up to the point where their is little to no difference between their weight and their siblings.

Just weigh them each day, at the same time each day and as long as they gain they are fine.

Leslie

Just be careful, because sometimes Mom will ditch the kittens if you start supplimenting....

You can keep trying. A syringe may work or a medicine dropper.

I've just been through something similar, two of one of my cats three newborns died within the past 2 weeks, one of whom the vet said had a congenital heart problem and was the "runt of the litter", and another because cat flu got her and nothing we or the vet did could save her.

Both kittens were small, and dominated by the third surving kitten, the smallest who died first, I had to start on food early (which she took to with gutso) and give her milk because she was a third the size of the largest and had always been small, as well as having bad eye discharge which I had to keep treating but they always managed to close again.

So in a way, my situation, is similar to yours, but hopefully you can have a happy ending. The reason I'm bringing this up, is that I do have some advice, since I had to "intensive care" the two kittens I lost.

Be VERY careful force feeding the kitten. Aspiration is when milk or solids gets into their lungs, when they don't have proper suction or a cleft pallet making it difficult for them to suckle and when your force feeding and it's not ready to take it in and you do it too fast, it could get into the lungs and aspiration can be fatal to neonatal kittens - it can cause breathing difficulty and also a secondary infection.

Go very slowly with the feeding, a small tube syringe with some warm vet recommended milk should do the job, make sure you give the kitten plenty of time and patience. If in doubt get your vet to show you. Also get to them to show you how to check for dehydration. Dehydration will kill kittens mercilessly, it doesn't take long to take your baby, and it's the boogie man you have to keep an eye on.

Keep them in a sanitary place, the smaller they are, the weaker their immune system will probably be. Keep them warm, Mother cat should be keeping them warm, but if she's roaming, your kitten can't regulate its body temperature properly.

My cat used to roam a lot and the youngest diddn't have much energy to follow her, so we constantly had her up on the bed with us, laying against my partners warm, bare skin, and she loved it, snuggling up to him, finding just the right place where he was warm enough as his skin is pretty warm to the touch compared to mine.

A heating pad would keep your little one toasting, vets sell them, or a nice warm hot water bottle, warmed regularly to a temperature your vet suggests.

It's going to be hard if you go down the intensive care route, and I classify bottle assistance as intensive care, as it's full time, and also all the other stuff you'll have to keep an eye on, and you will stress, and at the end of the day hopefully your kitten will survive, but even with the hardest work, for instance I spent 8 weeks on eggshells only to loose 2 of them and fear for the last, and after spending $500+ on 4 days intensive care for my last whom I'm still currently grieving for and died last night.

However, it can all be worth it, even with the most negative story, if you follow your vets intensive care advice (small kittens are fragile and delicate), it could be a happy story like my older cats whom were small babies, and with care have grown up to be boistrous adult terrors lol.

Good luck.

I've never had this problem before in 13 years of breeding

No, neither have I, but someone at our shelter warned us to be careful when we asked about supplimenting our fosters- it's probably pretty rare. They also probably said that bacause our mom wasn't very good, and very confused