I don't know if this new kitty is too young

I am a sure sucker for a cute face. I have three cats and hadn't really intended to get any more when my neighbor showed up with the cutest little calico kitten. She had gotten it from a friend who has barn cats with three litters of kittens to get rid of. She took the kitten home and then had second thoughts. She wanted to show me how cute she is and see if I might be interested. Silly me can't say no. I asked her how old the kitten is and she wasn't sure. She said it isn't eating solid food yet. Is this too young to be seperated from their mother? She told me they get rid of the kittens young because they get a little wild the older they get and are harder to get them used to people. I plan on taking her to the vet on Monday to have her tested for leukemia and get her shots and I know I could get info from him then but I just wanted to see if I could get some input here. The kitten is very clean...no ear mites or fleas. She sleeps a lot and wants to be on my shoulder or neck. I read here that she needs to be fed kitten milk not cow's milk. My cats were all about 2-3 months old when I got them so I don't know if she is old enough to use a litter box or what? I feel stupid asking these questions. What age do they usually get seperated from their mother and what do you feed them and how often? Any other advice is appreciated too. I know it is getting late so I probably won't get any help tonight and it might be a long night of cat crying. My other cats are not too happy about the addition either. They seem scared of her but they hiss and growl and her when she tries to get closer to them. PS. if this is any indicator of her age she still walks kinda wobbly. I could probably take a picture tomorrow and post it.

It sounds like the kitten is way to young to be away from mommy. I have kittens with wild mothers and they are fine. I just have to spend time with them daily. It would be best if the kitten could stay with it's mom until it is ATLEAST eating solid foods. Most people recommened 12 weeks with momma cat. Maybe the person should look into some low cost spay and neutar programs so that they don't have to keep getting rid of kittens. I hope your little one is okay. Depending on how old it is, it should eat every two hours and need speical kitten food. It might also need help going potty and needs to be kepted warm. I have never had to hand raise a kitten, so i don't know much. I'm sure someone on here will be able to help you more.

If you had a picture that would help to try and determine the age. Usually at 4 weeks old the kitten is starting to just sample mom's food but still nursiing actively as well. The mom's milk is steadily declining and she starts to teach them litterbox manners, and grooming etc.. Anything younger than that should be bottle fed 3 hours a day at least and the bum and tummy stimulated with a warm cloth to help the kitten eliminate waste. It must be kept very warm and cozy as well. But no human heating pads because they burn if used improperly same with heat lamps

if the kitten hasn't gone potty yet you may want to take a warm damp papertowel and softly rub it's bottom. This should cause it to expell any waste.

Powdered kitten milk is a better buy than ready to feed. The milk should be warm and can be fed through an eye dropper. (The ones in the baby isle of the grocery stores work well.) If you don't have a snuggle kitty you can purchase one through Meowhoo.com

I hope the kitten is healthy and older than you think. Does it have any teeth? Does it try to eat anything on it's own? Best of luck as this will be an interesting experience for you both!

Here are a couple of links for you:Snugglekittie

If you do the wise thing and buy a snugglekitty mention thecatsite.com


Kitten Glop

Yes, she has teeth and she seems to groom herself. She hasn't gone "potty" yet but she has only been her a few hours. I can't get her to a vet until monday to be checked out but I may have to take her back to my neighbor and have her try to return it if she is too young. But she is so sweet so if she is going to do okay I would be happy to keep her.

Oh my she is sweet! Is she eating and drinking?

She drinks but seems to be new to drinking from a dish as she gets her nose in it and then sneezes. But she seemed to be getting the hang of it. I haven't gotten her to eat any solid food yet. I just put some in some water to see if I could get her to try it wet.

i got my cat mickey when he was 5-6 weeks old, he was walking wobbly, but he was eating solids ( whether or not he was still on his mothers milk as well i don't know) but i found that he learned alot of his habits and equttique off my other cat charli ..

also he seemed new to the concept of drinking water as he used to accidently dip his head in the water too low..heheheh

what a sweetie!! From the pics i'm guessing around 4 weeks. Here is a pic of one of my babies at four weeks old.

Well as much as I wanted to keep the kitten it wasn't ready to be away from its mama. She was not eating the food, only drinking milk and she hadn't gone potty since she was here yesterday afternoon. This morning she cried and cried and kept trying to burrow her head under my arm. My husband drove down to the farm where my neighbor got the kitten and told them that we thought she was too young. They agreed and let him put the kitten back in with her mama and siblings. Hopefully when she if fully weaned and eating solids we will go back and get her. We were not looking to get another cat now but once we saw her we wanted to keep her. Thanks everyone for all the suggestions.

That is wonderful to hear! I hope you will get her back- if not I want her- she is sweeeet! LOL

Well we stopped down at the farm to check on the kitten and the mama cat had taken them all up in the rafters. We are guessing that they are about 6 weeks old now and they are eating dry food. My husband climbed up and tried to get the kittens out so we could see them and one of the others was VERY fiesty and bit him. It was hissing and was very mad. When he picked up "our" kitty she just mewed but didn't make a big fuss. I don't know if it was because we were "familiar" to her or not but my hubby was afraid that if we left her there for a couple more weeks she would not be a very friendly kitten. I held her in my lap and held some dry food out for her. She immediately ate it, calmed down and fell asleep. So we brought her home. She ate again tonight but wouldn't drink any water. Is that normal for a kitten her age? Also, after she ate I put her in a small litter box hoping she would take the hint. She didn't go in the litter but hasn't gone on the floor either so that was good. She is now sleeping on my bed and seems quite happy to be here. Should I keep her seperated from my other three cats for awhile or let them get to know her right away?

I would keep her apart from you other kitties atleast until you get her tested for felv and fiv (just to be safe)

ALSO make sure you hubby gets to a doc!! Cat bites are nasty and get infected fast. My hubby got bit by a kitten and the doc said it was a good thing he came right in. He got put on meds and didn't have a problems. If it goes untreated it can cause big problems though!

Definitely keep them separated for now, until you get an all clear from your vet. Outdoor kittens can pick up all kinds of little nasties, from fleas to upper resperatory infections, so it's best to keep everyone apart.

With the litter, she probably has no idea what in the heck she is supposed to do in there! She's never seen anything like it except when you brought her home the first time. Try putting organic only potting soil in the litterbox. She's used to going in the dirt, so that will be familiar. Once she's going in the dirt, start slowly adding litter to it until you've done a gradual change to all litter. (Great tip for helping outdoor kitties adjust to litterboxes from Mary Anne!)

Congratulations on your new addition! She is very sweet!

Yesterday I took the kitty to the vet to be tested for leukemia. Her test was a negative and that makes me very happy but they told me that she is not 6 weeks old now as we had thought. She is only 4-5 weeks old. I bought some weaning formula and some soft kitten food but she does eat the dry food quite well. So far she won't even try the soft food but I am so happy my baby used the litter box last night. She has not messed on the floor at all. I kept sitting her in the box and dragging her paws through the litter and sure enough she took the hint. I was thrilled. She loves to play and is quite active. She loves to sleep on or near my lap and seems right at home here. We decided to name her "Candy" because we really didn't need her but couldn't resist the temptation.

I don't know how to post more than one picture at a time so here is the first one