Cat with nine kittens

I am looking after a cat with 9 kittens. They are about 2-3 weeks old. They are all well, with some conjunctivitis under control (so far), treated with Chloramphenical and washing. The kittens are growing  and I am worried about the mother ability to feed them all as they are getting bigger. There is usually a lot of fighting during feeding time as there is one nipple less. I am quite reluctant to intervene by keeping some behind or adding extra milk to their diet, has anyone had experience with this amount of kittens, would the mother be able to feed them until weaning?

This must in part depend on how healthy she was before.   Is she a dumped home girl or is she an ex homeless?  Taken in while high preg??

I presume she gets as good food you can give.   Give also extra calcium.  Normally it isnt necessary, but here it will probably be useful...

I think your plan shall be to try and introduce them to eating themselves as early you can manage.  Them fighting over the natural food source, I suspect they will see the hint, and the solution will dawn by itself.  

Can you get goat milk?  Preferably fresh?   It is a nice first outside food.       Useful also for mom as supplement, perhaps with egg yolk in.

Good luck!

She is a rescued cat and I am not sure about her history. She came when the kittens where about  week old, she was very skinny but quickly gained a bit of weight, quite young herself and now she has a beautiful shiny coat and is very relaxed. She eats like two cats...

What's the earliest I can introduce them to other food without messing with their digestion? I can  get goat milk and I have KMR ready just in case.

Normally they begin and try at about  4 weeks.  But you can try earlier, especielly if desperate.   3 weeks you can try without being ashamed.

By being desperate, I mean examples of people who found small kittens, and dont having any kmr nor goat milk, they had to give what they had... baby food, minced meat, wet cat food...   Sometimes it succeeds.  LIFE has a tremendous strengh to survive.

Goat milk is renown for being mild (you can dilute it a little with water).  KMR is good too...  

I mean, I hope they wont end nurse from momma.  But if they get at a part of their total food intake from outside, it will help them all.

Good luck!

Are all of the kittens at healthy weights? Any that are noticeably smaller than the others? I honestly don't think it would hurt to supplement the kittens using a bottle and Goat's Milk or KMR (I much prefer Goat's Milk.)

If all kittens are healthy, just rotate who gets supplemented.

I really wouldn't introduce canned food until the kittens are 4 weeks old. You can, however, offer milk/formula in a shallow dish.

When you do start offering canned food, mix it with some of the milk and make the food soupy to start. You can gradually lessen the amount of milk mixed in.

Thank you both very much. They are all very similar (black with white paws) and it's a bit difficult to distinguish them, actually nearly impossible :-)

Some are slightly smaller, I think I'll try a little supplement on them.

With kittens so small, you can use Welping collars to color code them or soft hair ties. I ordered my Welping collars from Amazon. Get the smallest size available (toy breed.)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EJIPEUK/?tag=&tag=thecatsite