Advice from fellow breeders please?

Hello dear fellow breeders,
My adopted stray kitty gave birth to a litter of five. All is well and healthy. Really I just want some advice on how to ensure that these little kittys and mama kitty keep healthy. Also when do I start to introduce solids to these kittens? Also I understand that at the moment no physical contact with them unless needed, when do I start to touch them and to socialise with them and to get them socialiaing with my other cats and my young daughter. Any advice is helpful. First time looking after kittens

The mom will introduce them to solids/they will find it on own if left out close enough in a few weeks.  Wet is easier for them but it can get messy!

Not much you can do health wise except limit anyone from coming who has sick cats and feed them good food and plenty of it.  Mom should be on kitten food as long as nursing.

To ensure longterm health look into spaying mom and kittens as soon as they are eligible in your area-look into programs for assistance as they tend to have some wait time to them.  Near me 8 weeks/2 lbs kittens can be done, even a tad lighter

If Mom is not bothered you can hold them a bit A trusting mom is usually ok as long as they are not crying and you stay near nest.  It may take longer depending on daughters age/how she is able to hold kittens.  Start by holding a kitten and letting her pet it.  Be careful as if told no at some point she may go try and hold them when your occupied(I know that is how I was around kittens! no one taught me that you have to hold them special way so I would take them from mom and go into another room agitating mom then she would give me a well deserved smack on hand)
 

Thank you for the advice, my mama cat is still on kitten dry food, I think ill introduce wet food to the kittens in five weeks time, there all going to be spayed, having their vaccinations and being wormed and my daughter is fifteen months so I wouldnr allow her to hold one, id just keep a close eye on her. Thank you

Also just wondering whether anyone could recomend a good non clumping cat litter?

izzyrobinson said:

 Also I understand that at the moment no physical contact with them unless needed, when do I start to touch them and to socialise with them and to get them socialiaing with my other cats and my young daughter.

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Now, you SHALL touch them every day, as you shall weigh them every day, to see if the do gain their 10+ grammes a day.

Do it respectfully, so the mom sees what you are doing, and sees the kitten is OK, do it quickly.

At the same time you have a quick look see everything is ok with the kitten.

You must also change the bedding now and then.

The first ten day you dont touch them much more, if not necessary. After the first ten days, you touch and handle them more and more as the socializing begins for real.

I think the others answered  your other questions.

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Btw, a Breeder is someone who is breeding her cats purposefully and with plan, usually pedigree cats.  Whose are being breed in the meaning of this word.

Most here arent no breeders.  Some are rescuers / fosterers, other got oops litter with their home girls.  Sometimes this oops was wanted, but it is still very seldom breeding.

So, "fellow caretakers of moms", or possibly "fellow caretakers of queens" is a more accurate title here.

If you call on breeders, you will get adequate help in the end, as most of them are helpsome to rescuers, but seeing the title, these breeders expect quite another sort of questions. 

Tidy cats is always what I used for the little kittens.  I got the red stripe on the bag(they have blue green and red)  I never had issues with that non scoopable and I raised a litter from birth and had them in there very young(supervised)  Also have had moms and babies and they all took to that fine.  I use fresh step for my adult but thought it to perfume/additives for new babys

Thank you for the advice everyone and I apologize for the poor accuracy of the title.
I have got a weighing scales for them and they have all been weighed as they will be every day. Bedding has also been changed and I will continue to do so thank you for telling me good litters for the cats c

 Re starting weaning 

It depends a lot on the mom.  She decides when to start letting them nurse less and that will encourage them to try eating on their own.  You can start around 4 or 5 weeks to offer some wet food.     Some will just start right in on their own.   others you need to keep encouraging them,   try putting some on their mouth gently etc 

 Then it is usually a long process where they gradually eat more and nurse less over a month or so.  

If you have some info for me please go to this link:http://www.thecatsite.com/t/260700/i-can-see-kittens-moving-how-much-longer#post_3368344

Thank you very much for all the information, just womdering if im doing this right.
As the kittens poo and urinate I change the sheets regulary, is this the right way to do it, I try not to disturb the mama and kittens as much as I can. With gloves I place the kittens into a warm clean box and the mama cat will follow, I will then quickly scrub the box im holding them in with water and soap and dry it with clean towels and then Ill put clean towels and sheets down and out the kittens back and Izzy will then get in and feed them. They dont seem bothered when I do this. How would you do it?

You do it as in the manual.   

Some comments: You dont need gloves for the kittens, as long as your hands are clean.  But I presume you dont want to take in these body wastes and liquids with bare hands - quite understandably! 

You seems to have quite much visible kitten poo and urine?  Mom usually eats it, so owners are often not bothered by it much. Some breeders havent even never seen kitten poo. Rescuers do see it, as they have orphans or very young moms who are inexperienced.  So I presume Izzy, although good mother, isnt so eager on eating it up every drop.

Last comment follows from the second. Most simply do change their bedding, few bother to wash off the whole nest every day.  But as you have much liquids it is not enough with changing bed.

Possibly you can lay something down under. Perhaps used newspapers.   So you just change them too, and dont need to wash of the nest every day.

Last, but not least: keeping the nest clean and tidy helps very much the mom isnt changing the nest every few days, and moving them kittens back and forth the whole time.  So the extra work here spares you much problems in other ends.   

Good luck!

 That sounds like you're doing great.   I would use a cleaner with bleach to disinfect.   then of course rinse well.  

One other comment is I would try to avoid using bedding that they can easily catch their little claws in.  Very young kittens can't retract their claws yet ( as I am sure you've noticed) and if they catch a claw in a loop of a woven fabric  they can injure their toe.   That happened to a friend of mine's kitten and the kitten then never was able to retract the claw,  and it  was also very sensitive and it hurt her to have it clipped.  so they couldn't even keep it clipped short.  So before the kitten went to her new home,  she had to have surgery to remove the one claw.    (  which is the only sort of situation that I would ever have that done,  for health reasons.  and only the claw that has a problem) 

If you are using sheets that probably would not  have that risk.  That is what I use, soft cotton or flannel sheets or fleece baby blankets ,  with a tight weave.   

Ive only seen two tiny bits of poo but I havent seen urine. Putting newpaper underneath is a good idea which I will do, the mum hasnt been looking around for any nests yet but its early days. Somehow I noticed one of the kittens have fleas even though all of my other cats aredefleed often, I popped to the vets and they gave me flee spray wgich I can use kn two day old kittens, im hoping it works and I just hope that it doesnt harm the kittens in any way which the vets ensured it wouldnt. As I need toflee the mum cat too for obvious readings apparently I need her to stay from the kittens for a while, im a bit worried about doing that. Any advice how to do it, they need to stay away from the kittens for an hour

izzyrobinson said:

Ive only seen two tiny bits of poo but I havent seen urine. Putting newpaper underneath is a good idea which I will do, the mum hasnt been looking around for any nests yet but its early days. Somehow I noticed one of the kittens have fleas even though all of my other cats aredefleed often, I popped to the vets and they gave me flee spray wgich I can use kn two day old kittens, im hoping it works and I just hope that it doesnt harm the kittens in any way which the vets ensured it wouldnt. As I need toflee the mum cat too for obvious readings apparently I need her to stay from the kittens for a while, im a bit worried about doing that. Any advice how to do it, they need to stay away from the kittens for an hour

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This was an elegant example why daily handling of them, meaning also look see, however short, is useful and necessary.  You could discover these fleas.

We had a forumite who lost his litter to fleas. Gross negligence? No, she heard the crazy advice of  "dont never touch the kittens before they are at least two weeks"...

Tell us, please, what was the flea spray, harmless also for small kittens?   It is a quite often recurring question for some safe preparate for small kitten-babies. Usually it it necessary to help them manually at this age.

Kittens manage to be one hour, or even longer, alone. In the wild they often are, as mom must get out and get some food.  Make sure they are comfortable, warm, and had just got moms food, so they are contendly sleeping.   If mom hears them squeking she get worried and wants back.

If the sleep contendly, Im sure she will let herself be away for one hour, even a good mom.

Pretend you are doing a new game with her.  

Good luck!

I totally agree, if I wasnt weighing them and looking at them, I would have never seen the fleas, ive only seen them on one kitten but will be treating them all.
The local vets doesnt do this spray so I picked up the prescription and will be going to main vets tomorrow to pick up this spray will let people know what it is tomorrow.
My kitty has been so good with them thankfully, only seen little poos but there easy enough to clean and it only happened once or twice. I hope I dont lose my litter due to fleas, really worried me now but they seem healthy and I will be treating it tomorrow.

izzyrobinson said:

I hope I dont lose my litter due to fleas, really worried me now but they seem healthy and I will be treating it tomorrow.

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Some few fleas quickly taken care of is nothing much, if they are otherwise healthy and warm. After all, in the wild they do often have fleas, and most survive.   We dont want them, they suck blood, but lets not panic.  

Fleas are also inbetween host for tape worms, so much fleas = deworming for tape worms also necessary, not just deworming of round worms.

But massive flea infesting is directly dangerous for kittens, that was what happened to this unlucky forumite.

Oh that;'s good, I only saw one and I ahve been checking for more but cant see any but Iw ill be treating them. I will be worming them when there two weeks old as I believe that is the correct age? Yes the worming solution the vets give thankfully treat both tapeworms and roundworms.

I think I worry too much about these kittens but I just want them to have the best start as possible, I feel ashames that they have somehow caught these horrid things and I hope there not being irritated by them.

Just a quick update, the vets gave me frontlineflee spray. I sprayed eight of my cats including the kittens. If im honest I have never seen any of the adult cats itch however I felt the need to flea them all. I havent seen any fleas since I saw the first one however I will be checking every day

I just wanted to echo the sentiments that it sounds like you are doing a great job, and wanted to throw my two cents in on a few things: 

- Other popular brands of non-clumping litters are Yesterday's News and Worlds Best. World's Best is made of corn and therefore doesn't expand the way clay litter does if ingested. However, the packaging still says for use specifically in kittens 8 weeks and older. I have used it with all my foster kittens and never had a problem, but be aware of that if you do decide to use it and watch them closely. 

- You mentioned Mom being on dry kitten chow and that you would add in wet once the kitten's are a little older. If you can I would go ahead and start giving it to Mom now 2-4 times a day. Not only does she need the extra calories but cats are not naturally prone to drinking water as they would normally get their fill of fluids through the meat of their prey. Keeping her hydrated is key to keeping her healthy and the easiest way to do that is with the addition of wet food!

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maewkaew said:

 That sounds like you're doing great.   I would use a cleaner with bleach to disinfect.   then of course rinse well.    

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I do agree that every once in awhile it's good to give their area a good scrub down with a disinfectant like bleach. However, don't do this every time you change the nest, especially since you are doing it so frequently! Cleaning chemicals walk a fine line between being great for disinfectant purposes while being highly toxic. So, use sparingly and rinse and air dry really, really well. I actually really like the new disinfectant wipes that they have- very easy to use and not quite as potent in terms of smell. If you do decide to go for old fashioned bleach use a diluted solution; 1 part bleach to 10 parts water.

You could also put puppy potty training pads down underneath the bedding to absorb any spills. This is what I do. Then, every day or every other day I move them all out of the nest for a minute, put in a new pad and blankets and put them right back in. Then I wash the soiled stuff for later use. If you have a few sets of bedding it's much easier as you can just swap and wash versus having to scrub. Your way sounds absolutely fine, just trying to offer some alternatives to make things a little easier for you. 

Oh, and I use the puppy potting training pads for everything: under food dishes once they start trying to eat wet food (since more gets on them than in them), and as a lining surrounding their kitten litterboxes to help collect strewn litter and absorb accidents. Can't live without them! 

Keep up the good work!