4 week old kitten - Help!

A children's plastic swiming pool makes a great play-place for young kittens, they can't climb the plastic sides but mom can hop in & out at will.

I'm not sure about litter training.

You should start with just a little wet food (water it down if it's too thick) before trying kitty kibbles .

Best of luck!

I'm no expert, but I believe the mom will teach the babies to use the litterbox. As for safety, I would be inclined to keep them in a high-sided box that mom can access but kitties cannot get out of. I'd put a litterbox in there for them. Heck, I'm not sure, hopefully some of our long-time knowledgeable folks will be along soon to give you some much better advice than I'm capable of.

Make sure the first litter you buy for the kitten is edible (dirt or corn-based litter) they have a tendancy to snack on it.

Yes you should get a bigger box & still keep the litter & food in it.

You can get special kitten wet food, but I'm not sure it's really necessary at this point, he should still be getting most of his nutrients from mom . You can also water down and microwave (10 seconds or so) kibbled food, that will soften it up - but BE WARNED IT SMELLS!!!!

You shouldn't need to teach anything. Ginger taught her babies everything--litter box usage, eating real food, drinking water.

They ate wet food much better than dry (except one who only wanted gingers dry to start), and refused moistened dry. I fed kitten wet food--with 5 kittens it became very costly. Ginger and her kittens were contained to a large dog cage enclosure outside about 8 ft by 3 ft by 3 ft. They had everything they needed inside there. But at 4 weeks I started to allow the babies out of the cage to explore the front porch supervised--by 7 weeks this was quite the experience for me--Ginger stayed in the cage at all times, d/t needing spayed and being in heat starting when the babies turned 5 weeks. Ginger didn't really start weaning at all until 6 weeks and still wasn't forceful with them. By 6 weeks the 3 bigger babies were nursing very little, the other two still nursing quite a bit. The last kitten Sage who didn't leave until she was 10 weeks, nursed until she left, but I think it was more for comfort than for milk.

Leslie

I've watched 3 litters grow up in house (strays I took in), and the mom usually teaches them everything. A bigger box will help and make sure it is big enough to put a litter box, food for the kitten and water in. The higher the sides the better. For starting cat food we always too kitten dry food and wet it down good with warm water. After about 10 minutes it becomes like a mush that you can smash with a fork or spoon.

At 4 weeks old he's still trying to get his legs under him and get around so he doesn't need a HUGE playing area right now. You will know when he wants out because he WILL be out! It's like overnight (around 6 wks) they becomes superman and can leap anything (or claw and climb their way up) in a single bound. Our four barn cat kittens (she decided to have them in our basement ) were out of their high sided box at 6 wks and taking over. Our basement is unfinished also but has a LOT of stuff stored in it. After a while they came running when they heard the door open because they knew they were getting their mush. Around 8 wks old, they learned how to jump up the stairs and squeeze under the door. We were watching tv one night and all of a sudden there was a little kitten standing in the doorway crying for his dinner!

I'm sure the mother is edgy about you picking up her baby, but honestly, you have to handle it as much as possible to get it used to human contact. What I would do is take the kitten and sit on the floor with the kitten on your lap, and mommy beside you. Pet both of them. At first, mommy won't take her eyes off you and if she starts getting too agitated put the kitten back and give moms lovins. Do that a few times a day and she will finally relax because she will realize you aren't going to hurt her baby. As I said, you don't really need to train the kitten to do anything, but she has to get used to being handled if she's going to be a good pet, for you or anyone else.

BTW....got any pics?

Yup, and that's how the kitten will learn from watching it's mother. She won't starve her baby, when it's ready she'll teach it what to do with the food. Humans would do well to be as devoted to their young as cats are.

I don't know your situation, but is there any way you can bring them upstairs? Its only one kitten. This way you can keep an eye on them b/c the baby is gonna want to get out & explore. I used to keep mine in a drawer w/fresh linens every day(yes-I do spoil them). I don't know how others are, but I had to teach my girls litter how to use litterbox. It's not that hard. They catch on pretty quickly. Please try & bring them upstairs-it also will help to socialize baby.

I found that i only had to help momma with her first litter and after that she soared just fine on her own.

Teaching the kitten to eat will be easy once he's ready. The best technique I had was with pate wet kitten food heated up a bit so it was nice and smelly then putting it on a dish in front of the kittens and getting a little bit on their muzzle so they had to lick it off.

Man once they got that taste they were all over that plate.

As far as litter box training. Just put them in the litter. =O They naturally like to dig and bury poo and observing momma using the box will prompt them to use the box as well. Not to mention the box will probably become a plaything for a while.


I know it's bad but I'd love a litter of kittens to raise again. I guess it's a good thing I've resigned myself to only boy cats from now on.

ok so you are afraid of kitten getting hurt from your unfinished basement.... easy fix. there are a few routes to go from here. first you will want to clear a good sized space. next you will want to get either a pet pen ( i will look around for a link to where you can get one of these... or you can inquire about them at your local pet supplies shop. or you can get these shelving unit kits from walmart and stores of the like. they are wire squares that get snapped together using plasting connector discs. as long as the shape of the pen you build is square, you can basically make the pet as big as you want. I will take some pics of my guinea pig cage to give you an idea of how they look and roughly how to peice it together. then you want to put a comforter or moving blanket down on the floor so the kitten doesnt get cold while roaming around. in the pen, you place the box the kitten has been living in thus far, the house hold litter box ( so that mommy will be using it aswell to teach baby) and a bowl of moistened kitten food, or soft kitten food and a bowl of water. make sure the sides of the kitten bowls are low enough that the kitten can get at the food and water, then just let nature take its course.
Shim

Ok so here is the guinea pig cage idea for a kitten pen

And here is what the pet pen would look like, and you just put an old comforter or a moving blanket down before setting up the pen/ using the guinea pig cage Idea and for the cage idea, dont worry so much about creating the bottom of the cage as you want it to be more like a pen than a cage
http://i746.photobucket.com/albums/x...dea/petpen.jpg

there ya go, hope this helps

Shim