Ready To Feed Kitten Milk Replacer

I was looking to stock up on kitten supplies as a new stray showed up who's obviously expecting. Its been several years since I've had to deal with any kittens. I am looking specifically for the Ready to Feed Bottles that used to come in a two-pack yet I cannot find them, only powdered KMR and Canned KMR. Does anyone know where I might find them? I've tried Walmart and Amazon, no petco or petsmart. I have tried Tractor Supply and no luck either.

I would recommend the powdered canned KMR.  In our experience, there is something about the liquid KMR that tends to give kittens diarrhea, although not always true for adult cats when used as a supplement -- I have never seen the "ready to feed" bottled and would not use them if I did.  I believe in keeping the powdered KMR in the freezer and just mixing up enough for one or two feedings at a time, using freshly boiled water.  If you have to feed any babies, it's best to have a small syringe handy because it gives better control.  You can get a tiny 1l ml for free usually from most pharmacies (with no needle of course) -- just say you need to medicate a tiny kitten, or else lie and say you need to medicate a human baby.  Honesty is usually best.

An alternative is to use  goat milk...  Just to warm up a  little, and use.

And what the kittens dont takes, you can use it yourself in coffe or anything, even if you arent fond of the taste of goat milk (some people arent).

If you believe a good kmr  (for example this KMR in powder, made by PetAG), is the very best, so you do believe it, and stick to it, it will work beautifully.

But its funny.  The best home made kitten gloaps, and some of the better kmr, are based on goat milk.  But in practice, plain, full fat goat milk works nicely by itself.

Raw goat milk is good if you can get it, but bottled, or even powdered, are  usually OK too...

The few exceptions are inferior bottled products, not the goat milk as such.

Ah yes, thank you @StefanZ, I always forget about the goats milk, probably because I do not personally like goat's cheese or goat's milk, but yes, it is usually available in the dairy section of the larger supermarket chains in the U.S.  I think we would have to know a goat farmer to get it fresh however.  As far as I know, all the kittens who have been given goat's milk do wonderfully.

Red Top Rescue said:

 
Ah yes, thank you @StefanZ, I always forget about the goats milk, probably because I do not personally like goat's cheese or goat's milk, but yes, it is usually available in the dairy section of the larger supermarket chains in the U.S.  I think we would have to know a goat farmer to get it fresh however.  As far as I know, all the kittens who have been given goat's milk do wonderfully.

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Tx for the "fire support"  

Our forumists tell raw goat milk is possibly to access also in many of the "Natural food" groceries and the like.   Several chains had been mentioned, so its apparently not uncommon.  It HELPS to know a goat farmer, but it seems its not necessary.  

I myself cant easily get raw goat milk here in Sweden, just bottled / cartooned, so my high esteem of raw goat milk is mostly a logic reasoning - and witnessing from knowleable forumist, like the veteran Hissy.

Okay, thank you for the replies. The reason I do not use Powdered KMR is due to having bought a can at Tractor Supply and mixing it up properly, I lost several litters in 2013, it was the strangest thing, I fed them as I usually would and all the kittens gradually got weaker even though they gained weight and passed away. I've never lost that many kittens in that short of time. I had two litters since they were born and another from a friend who found them. A total of twelve kittens lost. I contacted PetAg, they had me send the remainding milk powder and  I never heard from them again, even though I asked them to let me know what they found, as such I never used the powder again. I'd always used it up until then and had good results with it, I had raised my Friskies and Miss Kitty on it. I later found during that time, that about a year prior to my issue with it, a lot of professional rescuers were losing kittens/pups/squirrels, everything  by a lot. Long before I knew of this site or anything like it. I have been with animals long enough, to know, sadly not all will make it but when the strongest of their litters' doesn't make it and all start dropping quick, something is very, very wrong. I might just keep a can of goat milk on hand. The bad can I bought was right before they added Pre and Pro biotics.

nansiludie said:

 
Okay, thank you for the replies. The reason I do not use Powdered KMR is due to having bought a can at Tractor Supply and mixing it up properly, I lost several litters in 2013, it was the strangest thing, I fed them as I usually would and all the kittens gradually got weaker even though they gained weight and passed away. I've never lost that many kittens in that short of time. I had two litters since they were born and another from a friend who found them. A total of twelve kittens lost. I contacted PetAg, they had me send the remainding milk powder and  I never heard from them again, even though I asked them to let me know what they found, as such I never used the powder again. I'd always used it up until then and had good results with it, I had raised my Friskies and Miss Kitty on it. I later found during that time, that about a year prior to my issue with it, a lot of professional rescuers were losing kittens/pups/squirrels, everything  by a lot. Long before I knew of this site or anything like it. I have been with animals long enough, to know, sadly not all will make it but when the strongest of their litters' doesn't make it and all start dropping quick, something is very, very wrong. I might just keep a can of goat milk on hand. The bad can I bought was right before they added Pre and Pro biotics.

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I wonder if that problem with the renowned PetAg  was during the years the Chinese had problems with their production of raw material proteins, putting in some funny pseudo-proteins in their protein mixes they exported aplenty abroad.   Lots of top grade producents of cat foods got damaged products => - often purebed cats dying, because its ofthen them whom got the most costly food - and are usually rushed to the vets when they got sick.   And how many moggies  died, only God knows.

Not even mentioning a word about them many human babies died too.   Although  THAT milk replacement producer was a chinese one, so it was mainly children in China whom died... Must have been hundreds.

Oh horror, it dawned on me, China is often cooperating with African countries, so many african babies must also died...

Otherwise, we had examples here, rescuers talks about them diluting the powdered KMR, and we following advisors had the impression it was KMR, and didnt understand why the kitten was downhill although everything done as should.  And suddenly it become clear - it was Hartz, not PetAg...

Since that time, Im always asking after EXACTLY which kmr they do use...   Some are excellent, some are entirely OK, and some seems to have an uneven quality control...

Another trap, we had cases when with kitten milk they meant the cat treats milk made by  for example Whiskas,.  Which although surely better than nothing if desperate, is NOT any kmr...

KMR had problems in 2009 because evidently it got overheated on a truck somewhere.  In any case, the FDA did find PetAg responsible, but the FDA has no power to force a recall on pet foods.  (Did you know that?) so many of the bad cans did remain on shelves since they did not expire until sometime in 2011.   They had a notice on their web site that if the contents were yellow and clumpy rather than white or powdery, they should be returned -- but how many people went there?  There was no voluntary recall.

Because of that, perhaps, many people used the Hartz kiitten milk in 2010 and that killed many baby animals because it was WHEY based, not milk based, and they could not digest it, they did not have the digestive enzymes and it just made a mass in their intestines.   Hartz has killed a lot of animals with their over the counter flea products too.  I tell everyone I know DO NOT USE HARTZ PRODUCTS ON YOUR CAT.  (Or Sergeant's either!)  I was about to write an article about the bad ones for this site just before I had my car accident and have not yet gotten back to it.

PetAg had problems again in 2013 with their Esbilac puppy formula which killed a lot of baby animals in rehabbers.  Right now it seems to be all right, no recent complaints that I know of, but in light of this, if you can get goat's milk, that's probably the best thing to do. You can also make your own formula.  There are several web sites which give a good receipte.  Since you were looking for the ready made bottles, however, you may not want to go through that. 

I'll probably get the goat's milk. I was looking for the pre-made bottles since they're easier to use and I'm not entirely sure if I'll even need it but if I do, I'd like to have it all ready. I won't use KMR powder, I do believe it was about 2 years ago when I lost the kittens. Would canned goat milk be alright? No store near me sells it powdered or even refridgerated.

nansiludie said:

 
I'll probably get the goat's milk. I was looking for the pre-made bottles since they're easier to use and I'm not entirely sure if I'll even need it but if I do, I'd like to have it all ready. I won't use KMR powder, I do believe it was about 2 years ago when I lost the kittens. Would canned goat milk be alright? No store near me sells it powdered or even refridgerated.

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I think so.   To be honest, not necessary my first choice if I had other options on goat milk, but as I understand it, it shall be OK, unless they changed it in some peculiar way.

One forumite told the other day she is very happy with Meyenbergs powdered goat milk.  And this you can surely get home from other places too?

When the time of fresheness begins to end, you order a new, and use the old one for coffee / tea.    So here you have another option.