Your personal experiences on hand-feeding orphaned kittens, please.

For the past few months, I've had the desire to foster and bottle feed a kitten or two. In my mind, it's more than just the pleasure of watching them grow and gain personality and finding them new homes. I also envision myself waking up every 2 hours to feed them, taking them to work and to my parents to keep them fed!

Also, what's really stopping me is Monet. I know he won't be happy!

I've read guides on how to take care of them, so I pretty much know what it entails and how to (I'd think.. lol), but I want to hear YOUR experiences. The pros and cons. The bad, the good and such. Your experiences, thoughts and words will help me make that final decision.

I love bottle feeding. There can be lots of good and bad. Its amazing to watch them grow, and thrive. You also have to be prepares to possibly loose a kitten.

My first time bottle feeding was not planned and I was not prepared to do it, but it was an experience I wouldn't trade for the world. Granted I kept my first bottle babies I got so attached. Be really prepared to not sleep. I remember the first night I had them in bed with me, by the time I would finish one feeding and would dose off for no more than 15 min, I would have a tiny pile of screaming kittens who were hungry again. I got the hang of it after a while and started getting a little more sleep but until then I was a zombie. If you have someone who would be willing to feed them a few feedings so you can sleep is incredibly helpful.

After them I have taken on a handful more litters of kittens with mixed feelings, some were healthy and thrived and then there were a few litters who were super sick or the two premature litters I took on who just didn't survive. If they are healthy hand raising is easier, it's just the sick one that may or may not make it that get me. I cry everytime I have lost a kitten.

Monet may not get as mad as you would expect. I find my cats respond better to the helpless little newborns than they do to a new older kitten or adult.

If you have the ability and will power to take on a newborn, I would say go for it. The good from it outweighs the bad for me. I would take on 2 for the first time if I was you. Kittens need lots of comfort and having that second kitten to snuggle with and when older to wrestle with will make it easier on you, and will be good for both of the kittens.

You may be able to imagine taking them to work, but what about your co-workers?  They are nice and quiet for the first couple of weeks but then start getting more active and noisier.

It's also best to be shown how to bottle feed - do it wrong and the milk goes down the wrong way, the results are usually tragic.

And don't underestimate how sapping having to wake up every 2 hours is.  If you did this, taking some holiday for the first week or two might be the way to go.

thanks oriental, that's the cold hard truth! I didn't think about the kittens getting more active and noisy as time goes by. that'd be hard for work!

and Thanks for sharing, Panda!

Maybe when I have some vacation time, I'll consider it more

There's not much that's romantic about raising orphans. It's plain hard work! Yes, truly rewarding at times and unbelievably frustrating at others.

It is not unusual to lose one, which in turn can be emotionally draining as it is hard not to blame oneself.

It is better to keep orphans separate from Monet as they generally carry a wide variety of diseases and illnesses. Although, I am the first to

admit, as they get older and have been treated ... I tend to let them interact with mine. \

I have three dogs and three cats of my own and they are quite comfortable around my endless parade of fosters.

I don't work and couldn't imagine having to do both.

Edited to add, I once raised 5 orange tabby's ...all boys. All identical. I almost had a nervous breakdown. They all started suckling on each others

privates so I had to separate them when I wasn't in the room. I ended up losing one.

I once had 3, 2 week old blue kittens found in a dumpster.  It was as intense as a human baby, but they grew up a lot faster.  Now that I work full time I couldn't ever imagine doing that again. 

My experience was finding 6 kittens in a box when I was 20 3 died.  It was hard as 2 I thought would die due to shape and the 3rd was a shock.  I also bottle fed a baby my sister took from petsmart who died-he was left under a bush, and last is a 2 week old all black who did great then started to go down hill fast and ended in an er trip cause she was seizing.

Would I do it again.  YES.  Not enough ppl to deal with the lil ones.  But go into it knowing it may not work out.

If you need to buy the milk get it online as alot cheaper.  also some syringes(turn tip up and keep flicking the syringe and expeling air then offered the kitten will suck the syringe and it will pull just milk at its own pace.

I also had the issue of one sucking on the privates.  and an eye infection while the lid was closed(healed fine with terramycin in the crack of the eye)

Go in with a group who will pick up the med cost or let you have the option to pay a bit of it to continue treatment.  Some pick up milk cost too.  You are in a better spot because you can stock pile some supplies such as heating pads(always give them a place to escape the heat within the box/crate) and toys/litter pans for when little older.

I also agree to the working and raising kittens.  it would be 2 ft jobs that dont have set hours!

Maybe go in with an older pair who are eating less often then work backwards to a point of comfort.

I think the easiest is a queen with her kittens.  She does the looking after, the toilet training and so on.

You get to scope the litter - mountains of it - feed them and play with them.  And also to weigh them each day for the first 3 weeks or so.  (I stopped at 3 weeks last time as they stopped fitting on my scales then!)

But even with the queen it can all still go wrong and be heartbreaking.