<1 week old kitten: orange diarrhea-y poop - Please help!!!

I have a kitten that is about 6 days old. A woman found it on the ground by itself with no mom or siblings in sight, and she said it looked about two days old when she found it. The next day she came into the shop where I work with it and we got to talking and she can't take care of it, so long story short I adopted it! For the last four days I have been feeding it every three hours, and lightly rubbing its anal area with a warm damp towel after every feeding. There were two instances where I slept through my alarm and the kitty didn't get food for six or seven hours straight - Eeep! I feel terrible and I solved this problem by switching to a louder alarm clock.

Anyways, it pees every time I rub its anal area (the pee is clear with a very light yellow color). The first 1 or 2 days I had it, it pooped once daily with dark brown, toothpaste-consistency poop. The last two days however, it's been pooping 1-3 times a day with soft browny-orange poop (which smells terrible)! It's hard to describe the consistency - it's much softer than toothpaste but not really watery...maybe like cake batter? I've limited the volume to 4 mL per feeding, mixed some pedialyte with the formula, and even tried putting some powdered acidophilus in the formula, but it still is the same!

BTW I'm using canned KMR (thinking of switching to powdered form). How long can that stuff stay good outside the can? Perhaps its just old?

Thanks so much for your help! My kitty and I really appreciate it

The first poop, brown thick consistancy is from lack of fluids, kitten poop is normally a yellow-brown soft smelly consistancy.

Mustardy color.

Premade kmr is good for I believe 48 hours once opened, and yes, for cost as well as waste, I would go to the powdered.

Use an empty gatorade or that type bottle with a wide mouth and mix the powder this way, once mixed it should be used within 24 hours, but you are able to control the amt made up according to how much you feed him in a 24 hour period.

It sounds like you know this already, but at this age they are soooo tiny they are delicate, and are unable to store nutrients/glucose etc yet.

So literally, when the last fed formula has digested, their organs become dormant until the next feeding, so they will go downhil quickly if they don't get fed AT LEAST every 4 hours, but at his age it should be every 2 1/2-3.

Please be able to get a weight in grams or ounces, to be certain there is an adequate gain everyday. This also tells you if you are feeding enough each time.

LOVE that you will care for this baby!

Be sure to feed him on his tummy and on all 4 paws, NEVER in a human baby feeding position, this will cause even a tiny drop of formula to be inhaled, causing pneummonia and sure death.

I am happy to help you with any questions or issues.

Oh, one more thing, soon enough, the rubbing will cause a red/irritated butt, after all the newborns I have raised, the best/fastest/cleanest way to poddy them is before and after feeding, simply run warm water in the sink, stick babie's butt under the warm water and tap tap tap. It's enough stimulation without rubbing. Just be sure to dry well and keep warm through 3 weeks old, after which he will be capable of holding his body temp better.

At this point, can't at all.

NEVER feed a cold baby, their organs are shut down and it will kill him.

No matter how starving, warm up first.

If there is a heating pad, then this won't happen

Thanks so much! I'm so happy to hear that this is the right poop, and the brown one was the wrong one lol. I'm sure it was dehydrated - who knows how long it was just sitting there on the ground by itself before that lady picked it up?

Thanks for explaining why the regular feedings are so important! I promise I will never ever miss one again.

It has a heating pad covering half of its box with a towel over it (which I change regularly) and he loves curling up on that lol. I also started microwaving a rice-filled sock and putting it in there so he'll feel like he has siblings to snuggle with :/

Also, thanks for the "tapping" tip - he hates it more than anything when I rub his anal area! I'll do that from now on.

And lastly, what exactly is the correct feeding position? If he's on all four paws, then I still ahve to hold the bottle at a significant downward angle so that he can get the milk out, but then doesn't that put a weird strain on his neck?

Thanks again so much for your help!

Picture a momma cat with all her babies nursing, they are on their tummies with their heads up a bit.

You can also roll a small towel to elevate the front of the baby a bit, that will help.

The heating pad setup is perfect! Nature tells the baby if it's too warm and it will be able to scoot over to the unheated side to cool down if needed.

Is the kitten nursing from a bottle well yet? Or are you syringe/eye-dropper feeding still?

The bottle's nipple should be cut carefully, so that if turned over it won't drip, but if you lightly shake it downward then a drop will come out.

This is perfect.

About 2 1/2-3 weeks old he will get hungry pretty often it will seem, and then you can add just a bit of baby rice cereal in it, cutting the nipple hole a bit larger. This is excellent to keep him full longer so you can sleep longer! You will sure want it by then

Not sooner though, the digestive system won't be ready before that age.