Trying to decide how old these kittens are

I am confused, me and a friend took in 7 orphaned kittens that we are bottle feeding. They are all small in size. They have umbilical cords which tells me they are a few days old, but then the confusing part comes in they have their eyes open.

When we picked them up we were told they would not take to a bottle and we were probably going to have to syringe feed them. Well they do really well with a bottle and did so almost immediately after they got a taste of the formula. They were very dirty from not properly being pottied. They also were laying on a heating pad turned on high which was way to much. We have a suspicion that who ever tried to bottle feed them first forced their eyes open because they are not open nice and round like normal kittens but like they are constantly shutting (best way I can describe it). If someone did force their eyes open and they are as young as I think they are, what will happen to their eyes in the long run? Or is it possible that they could have umbilical cords and have open eyes?

I looked at the pictures and I would say they are around a week to 10 days old. I would not worry about their eyes unless they show signs of infection, but keep them somewhere quiet and dark to encourage them to keep them closed. Do you know your vet well enough to email a picture and get some advice? That would be the best course. Good luck with these little ones.

I can ask the vet for some advice on their age, I will probably need some more teramycine for their eyes anyways, a few of them have eye infections that we started treating immediately.

I agree, I'd say a week to 10 days as well. Poor little babes... They are lucky to have you!

Thanks, the kittens are doing well eating tons. They go through a bottle and a half to two bottles every feeding between them all. One little one who was lethargic when we picked them up ended up passing away. I did everything I could for her. They had gone 24 hrs without food before we got them, and I think her little body was already shutting down.