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Hand raised 10 day old kittens

post #1 of 7
2/7/11 at 3:52pm
Thread Starter 
Hi I was wondering if anyone can give me some advice on my orphaned kittens. Their mum died shortly after birth due to complications. We had 7 kittens to bottle feed from day 1. Most of them seem to be doing fine. This is the first time dealing with kittens. We have had one die and I am becoming quite worried about another one. We pee them after every feed but they don't always poop. The one I'm worried about had quite a large poo yesterday and became fairly black around his bottom area. (Not sure what sex they are yet). So now I am worried that its all bruised and sore, so I moved him to his own little box last night so that he wouldn't get sucked on or hassled by the other kittens during the night. He is still eating and his tummy is still pretty hard. The other thing with him that worries me is he doesn't seem to be growing much hair like the others. He looks like a baby bird with down feathers but the skin is showing through. The kittens have all gained weight but not heaps. I heard somewhere that they are supposed to double their birth weight in the first week this hasn't happened they have gained between 47 and 61 grams per kitten. I would appreciate any advice anyone can give me. Thanks
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post #2 of 7
2/7/11 at 5:02pm
I'm so sorry you lost the mother and one little kitten. that the others continue to do well.

What are you feeing them? How much and how often? http://kitten-rescue.com/ has a lot of good information on hand raising kittens.
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post #3 of 7
2/7/11 at 7:08pm
I'm so sorry the mother, and 1 of the kittens died. I'm sorry another kitten is sick. I hope s/he gets better. I don't know anything about kittens that young. They are lucky to have you to take care of them!
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post #4 of 7
2/7/11 at 10:59pm
You had apparently done a excellent, marvellous job!
7 kittens to handraise...

There are almost always losses if no mom around. Often heavy losses. Even for folks who do have experience with hand raising.


Do you have a decent vet to consult? Phone at least?


Welcome to the Forums,

Good luck!
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post #5 of 7
2/10/11 at 5:40pm
Was this a planned or an accidental litter? My point being: do you know when the mom was mated and for how many times and within how many days? Sounds a bit like this kitten could be younger than the rest of them which can happen if the mom has randomly been mating with a male. How much did they weigh when they were born?
I don't have firsthand experience of hand raising kittens, but I'd suggest you keep rubbing his/her tummy gently and maybe use a warm wet cloth or sponge for this purpose. I would'n isolate the kitten from the others unless you have a warm place for him because kittens usually pile up together to keep each other warm, specially now that they don't have mommy to keep them warm.
And of course a call to the vet is in place.
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post #6 of 7
2/12/11 at 7:36am
I hand raised 5, though they were 3 weeks old when I started. I recommend a few things. Keep them very warm, if they aren't the proper temperature they won't digest their food correctly and you'll have big problems. Also weigh them every day at the same time. You need to be sure they are gaining, or at the very least not losing.

Are there are rescues or shelters around that might have another nursing mom who could help feed them?

I wish you all the best. It's the most work I've ever committed to raising those 5. They were severely malnourished and two of the five only weighed 5 ounces when I brought them home, which is about the weight of a one week old.

Mine also dealt with an upper respitory infection and until we started treating that with antibiotics nobody gained weight in fact the smaller two lost weight.

Leslie
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post #7 of 7
2/13/11 at 11:42am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack31 View Post
I wish you all the best. It's the most work I've ever committed to raising those 5. They were severely malnourished and two of the five only weighed 5 ounces when I brought them home, which is about the weight of a one week old.
That sounds a lot like the litter I raised, I found a litter of 7 feral kittens at about 3 weeks old and three of them were much smaller and skinny, one weighed 6 oz and the other two 5. The rest of the litter varied between 9-11 ounces so much bigger.
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