Newborn not feeding

Hi. New to the site and in need of some advice. My queen of the house (lol) her name is Mani, gave birth to a litter 3 days ago. Unfortunately we lost one due to underdevelopment but it seemed the other 4 were fit and healthy. Were immediately saw there was another runt that we kept close eye on but today the little one has gone a bit weird. They have all been putting on good weight over the last couple days but the runt not so much even though I have been watching him feed. Today I noticed that he was wandering from the nest quite a lot and mum was not paying attention to any of his cries. I've had to personally place him back in the nest with mum several times. I've also noticed today that he has not been feeding properly. He will just sleep with mum and only suckle for 10mins at a time every couple of hours. He is much weaker than the others and I'm getting really worried about dehydration and other factors if he doesn't get the nutrients he needs. Especially being the smallest of them all. I'm also extremely concerned about mum when the little one wanders so far away and mum ignores his cries because I know how mother cats can sense when something is wrong and put there attention towards the other kittens.. Getting close to the point that I may start manually feeding if no one can shed some light....

She just ignores the poor thing... :'( please help me out??

You must step in NOW if you want to try and save this little one!

You yourself must take over and take the responsibility.  Its hurry and full emergency.

1. Have the little one warmed up.  warm up actively, from a heat pad / warm water bottle. Or better still, carry it at your chest as much as you can.

2.  When he is warmed up, and body temp is entirely OK, you proceed with giving him food.  Use a dropper or a small syringe, its much easier than a bottle.   Put it in the corner of his mouth, NOT down into his throat...

tummy down, head up, like he would with his mom...

Use  kmr (kitten replacement milk) or goat milk.   

You can try and give him the low lactose kitten milk if you dont get hold on real kmr, but it is just an provisorical try to avoid dehydration.

Make sure he isnt dehydrated (like you yourself mentioned).  Some drops of water or better still, home made pedialyte with a dropper, now and then...

You can perk extra energy in him  by smearing a little glucose sugar  on his gum (brand name may be Dextrose, or similiar).  If you dont have it nearby, you can try with white caro syrup or honey.

even common white sugar works, but is much slower.

Look into the site of www.kitten-rescue.com for ideas.

Our advisors Catwoman707 and Tulosai had also had some great posts on helping such abandoned small kittens.

Keep reporting and asking!

*vibes!*

Ps.   Mom abandoning it hints she notices there is something wrong with it.  

What, we cant know as yet.  It may be so he is doomed whatever you do.

But if you can fight, fight on.  It is quite common such abandoned kittens DO survive with our humans help, and do live long happy healthy live.

A breeder wont perhaps use such a kitten and later on cat,  in her breeding programme, not to risk anything.  But as a pet such a kitten will do excellently, no problems.  IF it survives the kittenhood..

So take charge and fight on!

If it was me I wouldn't wait any longer I'd start feeding this little one yourself, do you have kitten milk replacer? Or I've read on here goats milk is a suitable alternative. Be sure to keep him warm though (and to have him warm before attempting to feed) it may be as you say that mum knows this little one has poor chances but with you his chances are definitely better.

Thanks for the reply. I've kept the little one warm in my hands and on my chest for a while before trying to place him back with mum but he keeps wandering out and refuses to feed from her. I have my partner on her way home with some kitten milk and a feeder now. hopefully he takes to it.

How is it going @lewyjay ? You did saw my lenghy post?   I did wrote in in portions, so it was easy to just see the first part.

lewyjay said:

Thanks for the reply. I've kept the little one warm in my hands and on my chest for a while before trying to place him back with mum but he keeps wandering out and refuses to feed from her. I have my partner on her way home with some kitten milk and a feeder now. hopefully he takes to it.

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Honestly, if he and mom are both rejecting each other, there is no point in putting him back with mom.  He has to be kept warm, and if he keeps wandering from her then you have to have him someplace where he is warm.  You have to either carry him around with you (constantly, not just for a tiny while) or put him in a box that he can't wander out of with a heating pad. Warmth is the very very most important thing, more important than food (though both are critical).

Please update us.  Have you been feeding him the kitten milk replacer? StefanZ's advice about how to do so is very good but you should also know that if you want him to survive you have to feed him every 2 hours or more often if you can. Once he is starting to thrive again you can go to every 4 hours.  Has he gained any weight in the past 24 hours?

Please let us know how it's going. 

Everything seems OK this morning. Was up several times throughout the night to feed him. Luckily he hasn't wandered to much so he has been keeping warm with mum and the others. Still won't feed from mum so it looks like manual feeding from here on. Yeah we got the kitten milk replacer and he has been drinking that quite well. We have a heating pad that we placed underneath the blanket which lifts it up a little so if he does wander when we aren't home he can't get to far and will still be warm. Thank you so much for the advice and support