Kitten doesn't know how to suck on bottle

Hi all!

My girlfriend and I am taking care of a small feral kitten that was handed in after it was found near a highway. The kitten is aprox. 2.5-3 weeks old and it is one hungry fella. Problem is it has no idea how to suck on a bottle and it doesn't seem to get any better at it... It chews on the bottle instead of sucking and it takes forever to get just a little bit of food into its belly.

We have tried two different milks and bottles but nothing helps the kitten is simply not getting it. We also tried to cut a larger hole in the bottle but the kitten panics if the milk comes out too fast.

Does anyone have any ideas or some advice on what might work?

Use a syringe to feed it.  You can get them at any drugstore, in the baby section, with a removable rubber tip, to administer medicine to babies, or you can get them at most farm supply stores like Tractor Supply with no rubber tip.  A 5 cc. syringe is good for feeding medium size babies and a 10 cc is good for larger ones.  You can control how slowly you push the milk in his mouth and in not too long he will probably start sucking on the syringe.  At that time you can try a bottle.

My suggestion is to find a happy medium. The nipple openings sold in pet stores are never large enough. I end up taking scissors and cutting an "x" into the nipple. But if it is coming too fast and he is panicking, then you just need to keep trying to get the hole right. Also, the size of the nipple itself could be a problem. Nipples for kittens come in various sizes and you want to use the size closest to what a cat's nipples are. Just use your female intuition on figuring that out. You don't want to use a nipple a goat would be happy with on a kitten.

Also you need to burp him after he has had a little. Bottle till he stalls a little, then on to your shoulder for a little burp...just slight tapping around his shoulder blades at the bottom of his neck. When he burps..back to the bottle. And let him have as much as he wants. 

Be sure the milk isn't getting stuck in the nipple too, which would prevent the milk coming out.

Are you mixing formula, or getting it straight from a can? If you are mixing the formula with water, you can try varying the amount of powder to speed up/or slow down the formula getting out of the nipple. 

It sounds to me if he is doing fine on sucking...it is just the nipple size and the way the formula is coming out is not right for him. Play around till it works.

And, for the fun part, be sure to gently massage his little penis (or vagina, if female ) and anus with cotton and a little mineral oil. Do that until he/she urinates. Poop might come every time, but sometimes only once a day...depending on the kitten. Just play with that part too until it works.

And, chewing on the nipple can also mean he isn't hungry, or doesn't like the formula, or simply isn't getting enough milk when he sucks. Those are all things that can cause the kitten to chew and not suck.

Trust me, his mom wasn't letting him chew on her nipples! And she taught him correctly, or he wouldn't be alive today. You just need to figure out what she taught him to do.

Also, I have worked with kittens who just really didn't "get" a nipple on a bottle. If that is the problem, then gently push the nipple into his mouth, and squirt (by squeezing the bottle), some formula into his mouth. That usually takes just a couple of times until they get what is going on. If you just can't get it to work...drive to an emergency vet. I would think the chances would be good they would help you without charging you.

Please let us know how it all turns out. Thank you for caring for the little one and being a good heart in a sometimes cold world.

One trick I find in getting them to latch on is pulling the nipple slowly out of his mouth and then slowly pushing it back in. Sometimes it's in too far or not in far enough, and you just have to find that "sweet spot" that gets then sucking. It's different for all kittens. Also, when he does latch on, you shouldn't hear any clicking or overly loud sucking noises. If you do he's probably not latched on well and can tire from inefficient sucking before actually getting anything to eat. A good indication that he's sucking well is the flicking ears. They'll twitch as he sucks. Another trick is to start with the syringe to satiate his hunger just enough so that when you try the bottle he's interested in eating more, but not so hungry that he's frantic and can't latch on properly.

Good luck!

Oh one more thing.... always test your syringes before you use them if you are washing and re-using them. The plungers go bad and it's very easy for them to slip and push too much fluid into his mouth and cause problem.

Has anyone told you they should lay on their belly for feedings. I didn't know that until recently.

Yes, the twitching ears, I forgot. That is a good sign that all is going well. Wow, I wish I could be there and do it for you, but I be that is true for all of us who have worked with "bottle babies". Hope is is going well.

And, by the way, the cleaning of the "private parts" is the last step after feeding and burping is all over. 

And, yes, the babies should be stomach down when on the bottle...the same position they would be in when nursing from their mom. As the kittens get comfortable with the bottle they will sometimes wrap their front paws around the bottle while nursing, or rest them on your fingers that are holding the bottle. Oh heaven, it is so cute.

Finally had it sucking for the first time today! I tried to pull away the bottle bit byt bit and all of a sudden it was sucking on it. Here it is in the garden today, we call it Pixie but have no idea yet if it's a boy or a girl 

Oh my! He looks fat and happy. If you can get a clear picture (not too close) of his back side maybe we can help with sexing.

Oh my goodness! Is that just the cutest little rolly polly bit of fluff you have ever seen? I'll bet you could put some wet and dry food in a dish on the floor for he/she. Looks to me like he/;she might already have been weaned. Or, was close to being weaned. And, I would soon put litter in a little pan on the floor....distance away from food. I would Put he/she in it once....scrap at the litter while he is in it...and see if he gets the idea. In any case, leave it out. If he is pooping and urinating on his own, then forget the "private parts" cleaning.

Some of the information I gave you is for a much younger kitten. This little guy/girl is quite a bit older that I thought. 

Picture is sooo cute, Yep, try to get a rear end shot.

I agree... that is not a 2.5-3 week old kitten! I have 3 weekers right now, trust me, your baby is older! I just posted pictures of my babies from yesterday in my thread titled "4 newborn bottle babies". You'll be able to see the difference.

Chances are 75/25 that it's a boy (girls require that both parents are or have red in order for them to be red) but I'm loaded with red girls this year so there's really no predicting by the odds.  As for sexing a kitten, he's probably too big for the infant descriptions to work, but in newborns, if it loolks like a colon  ( it's a boy and if it looks like an upside down exclamation point (! upside down) it's a girl.

I have tried to take pictures of the rear end but it is quit difficult with a slow camera.. here is the best

Looks like a boy to me, but let's see if others agree.

Yep, a boy. And he's certainly old enough to start on solids---if you haven't already done that yet . I like to start with Fancy Feast kitten, turkey flavor, mixed with kitten formula to make it mushy. At first they just walk in it but he'll get the hang of it eventually!

Thank you, we also had a friend look at it and she also thought it was a boy - We have renamed him Dexter  

He had his first moshed cat food today and it was really good, half the food was on him when he was done!

What is really fun is when a baby walks through the food as well as looking as if he swam through it, and then deciding to go immediately to the litter box!, where he manages to get litter mixed up with the food he is now wearing!

How darling!!