Newborn Kittens

OMG the kitty's SO cute!!!

My main piece of advice with the kitty's poop is ask your vet if how much he/she should poop

Oh my goodness! What a cute tiny little punk'n!!  I think you have gotten good advice here. best of luck w/ finding the other babies & getting mom to the vet. 

I will be reading your post for updates. 

@Shlargh  how's it going?

I think it's going quite well, thanks to everyone's advice!
Regular feedings AND he had a big bowel movement today.
His umbilical cord hasn't fallen off yet, though. I read it's supposed to take around three days?
STILL no luck with the siblings, but we think we found were she's hiding them...Not that we can get to them, the sneaky bugger! I think they're under our bathtub. -_-

I DO remember something in that Alley Cat Allies Kitten seminar about leaving the cord alone and letting it fall  off by itself. 

He is REALLY good at suckling the bottle now though!

Cut it out already! Stinkin cute doesn't describe this little poopoo butt! Look at those adorable paws. Going to be a really good looking cat.

He's gorgeous! So glad to hear that everything is going well.

Good to hear that you've tracked Momma Cat down too. Could you put a trap, wired open, in the bathroom with her and start feeding her in there? As she's indoors you don't have to worry about getting her spayed right away. You have plenty of time to get her used to the idea of being fed in the trap and it will make it easier to get her trapped and spayed when the time comes.

The kittens will probably start following her into the trap in about a month too. Then you'll be able to work on socialising Chaplin's little brothers and sisters.

The bathroom probably isn't the best place, as it's super small and we'd be lucky if a trap even fit in there!

But we are going to see if we can borrow a live trap from the Animal Rescue close-ish to here. They have a "Barn Buddy" adoption program that might be good for mama cat, if she still doesn't get used to us. We're also planning to build kitty shelters for next winter and try to rig up our garage so any strays can be safe in there.  It's hard when your neighbors really don't like cats though.

Thank-you, I'm hoping we really are doing alright! We still haven't officially named him, either. He looks like he might be trying to open his eyes, though, even though this is only day six! He does REALLY hate to be pottied, though. REALLY hates it. But at least he goes.

So when we do start to feed him solid food, does anyone have any good recommendations? We live in a town in BFN, and have to drive an hour and a half to get anywhere near any big stores that would have lots of variety (although the next town East has a store that carried KMR!). We feed both wet and dry to our other five cats, and they are free-fed as I work strange hours sometimes and my boyfriend is not always home at the right times for scheduled feeds. After reading the article about increasing kitty's water intake (http://www.thecatsite.com/t/267399/tips-to-increase-your-cats-water-intake) though, I am considering feeding more wet than dry. Especially for kitten, because I want him to grow up and be healthy like he deserves!

I cannot thank all of you enough for all the advice and support; I would have been totally lost without you guys!

Aww he really is so cute, my cat had 4 kittens a week ago and 2 days ago one of them opened one eye and half opened the other, it's not common this early but I have read it does happen, of the others just one of them is showing signs today of them not being completely sealed shut. Also you say he doesn't like to be pitied I wouldn't worry about this as with my 4 they all squeal when momma cat is cleaning / stimulating them to go, she has to pin them down with one paw while she does it lol so I imagine him not liking it is quite normal

Thank-you! That makes me feel better!

Do you have a link to pictures of your kittens?

I've just put some new pics on my thread here: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/273023/signs-of-labour

In my understanding, I would definitely make the trip to whereever and buy the KMR.....

I have done a lot of research and talked to a lot of people ( and don't forget that Alley Cat Allies webinar ) and EVRYONE says in order for them to grow up storng and health, without bone problems or health problems later, they HAVE to have either KMR  or their mother's own milk, then something good  like Royal Canin Baby Cat ( then RC Kitten) wet food, then later dry and wet.  Anything that is a good "kitten' specific cat food.....wet, then eventually some dry crunchies soaked in water.

That is what I did when Ihad my two cats as kittens and also when I fostered the the kittens a few years ago. 

All of my rescue kittens are given Royal Canin Babycat, I swear by it and have turned countless unhealthy kittens into thriving, bright eyed, very healthy kittens!

A dish of the dry always available, and the canned given here and there.

One huge plus for the dry is, it is teeny tiny bites so they are able to eat this as soon as they are weaned onto eating from a dish.

Even while still with their moms, about 4 weeks old or so is when I start leaving the babycat in with them, mom eats it, which spikes their interest, and are very soon enjoying this very tasty, great food.

Kmr then babycat is the norm here.

Oh he's been getting KMR! I was just getting at what to give him when he is old enough to be weaned.

I think any brand of wet kitten food is good so long as its formulated especially for kittens and in the beginning it needs to be mixed with some KMR, they can start having this around 4-5 weeks

We got some Royal Canin kitten food for him so we are prepared! And more KMR. All our cats actually got spoiled yesterday (except poor Sparrow who had to go to the vet to be neutered, and now Bowie, our other neutered male is just being awful to him ).

Kitten's eyes are still closed, but he looks like he wants to open them, and his umbilical cord bit fell off a few days ago. He is still having constipation issues, but my vet has given us some advice on how to handle that.

Still can't find the siblings, but every time we try and go to where we think they are, mama is in there hissing at us, and we hardly see her upstairs anymore, so I'm hoping that is good news!

@Mum2Daisy, your kittens are so adorable!!

Shlargh said:

 
We got some Royal Canin kitten food for him so we are prepared! And more KMR. All our cats actually got spoiled yesterday (except poor Sparrow who had to go to the vet to be neutered, and now Bowie, our other neutered male is just being awful to him

).

Kitten's eyes are still closed, but he looks like he wants to open them, and his umbilical cord bit fell off a few days ago. He is still having constipation issues, but my vet has given us some advice on how to handle that.

Still can't find the siblings, but every time we try and go to where we think they are, mama is in there hissing at us, and we hardly see her upstairs anymore, so I'm hoping that is good news!

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You are probably right, mom is caring for the others, keeping them away from you.

One thing, and hate to say this one, but Royal Canin kitten is different from babycat.

It is for kittens yes, but a bit bigger, which is hard for them to eat at a very early age.

They will very likely swap the kitten for the babycat if you are able to return to the store where you bought it.

Babycat also has l-lysine added, which is a nice bonus.

Also, Bowie is getting picked on because he smells like the vets office. Scares the others and causes him to get bullied and sort of treated as an outcast.

Hmm, I'll have to check the bag and see if I got babycat or not...We are still weeks away from weaning so I have some time to do just that! I'm sure I could donate the bag to the area's animal rescue, too, if they won't do an exchange.

The other cats all seem fine with Sparrow (I should have clarified it was Sparrow at the vet!), and are extremely interested in the carrier that he travelled in. Bowie is the only one causing a stink about him; Bowie is currently in time-out (a pretty nice time-out with food, water, toys, and a litterbox, haha!) I just hope things go back to normal.