Concerned about runt kitten.

My cat had 5 kittens and all but 1 are thriving. One i noticeably smaller than the rest. He nusrses but gets trampled by his siblings and I have KMR and a nurser I'm just wondering when I should start feeding him. They were born on 8/3/15. They one curled up sleeping is the runt.

I would start supplementing him now.

Tummy down, head up. like the kittens nursing on mom.  Give him as much as he will take.  the KMR needs to be warm. do you know ho much he weighs?

I don't but I can find out tomorrow morning. Since mom hasn't abandoned him is there anything else I should do?

You can help him to latch on and make sure he doesn't get bumped off.  Maybe  move some of the larger kittens away from the teats so he has more of a chance.

Another tip, is you make sure the kitten gets moms time first of them all.  Say, put him to mom when the others are asleep and contend.

I will write more a little later on. 

IF you supplement, be sure you know how, and you do it carefully and properly.

This is exactly why runts don't make it usually.

It's not because they have something wrong, not at all. It is due to being bullied off of the best milk producing nipples by the bigger ones, so they give up and go to sleep.

Then it begins again when they go to nurse.

Absolutely you can save this baby.

He is not going to nurse from a bottle as long as he has mama, so you will need to start syringing him with a small 1 ml syringe.

Feed a couple drops at a time into his cheek area, allow him to swallow and breathe, then repeat.

You want to feed him at least 4 mls every 3-4 hours, burp him and give him back to mom, she will do the rest.

Start this ASAP though!

Thanks for the great help. Once question, I work pretty much every day for 9 hours, since he does nurse from mom, will he be alright without me for that time?

If you feed him through the night he should be okay with mom until you get home. 

Thank you I will update soon with weight and how he's doing.

Yes, good.

The key here is getting a daily weight on him, this will tell us how much he needs to be supplemented, but for now until we have his weight, let's go with this since he is not thriving already, meaning he is in dire need of help asap to get him turned around.

It is much harder to reverse a downward slope than it is to prevent one,  which is why I say the sooner the better.

Even a day makes a difference.

When I look at him sleeping alone in that pic, as the others are all up in mom and nursing, this sadness comes over me. Just so many die this way, people assume the runts usually wont make it, but this is why......how many have died unnecessarily I must be tired!   

Let us know

In this picture he'd just nursed from mom. The others were getting flea combed

kat1432 said:

In this picture he'd just nursed from mom. The others were getting flea combed

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Splendid!  This is the key, let him qet qualty time with mom, when the others are sleeping or doing something else...  This way you are sure he gets moms milk aplenty.

Combine it with weighting, every 12 hours till you are SURE he gains steadily, and the crisis is over.

If he doesnt gain, or you arent sure if he gets from mom, supplement him with kmr or goat milk, as described earlier.

If unsure, its better to step in and supplement, than just "wait and see".  The runts dont have many reserves.

Upon weighing him, I weighed them all and he is not the smallest, he is right in the middle. He weighs 8.3oz and the smallest is 6.9oz and the biggest weighs 10.4oz

kat1432 said:

Upon weighing him, I weighed them all and he is not the smallest, he is right in the middle. He weighs 8.3oz and the smallest is 6.9oz and the biggest weighs 10.4oz

Click to expand...

Interesting.  So he isnt the runt in the words meaning.  But if he is the weakest, he must still have some extra care.  

And be sure the real runt isnt set aside by them bigger!

If you did feed him through the night he could have passed the smallest in weight.  Have a good day at work.

Those are not bad weights overall for 10 days old in a litter of five, except for the smallest. I would suggest supplementing the 6.9 baby a bit as well as the weak one.

I fed the weak one through the night and he's already doing way better. I haven't been home to feed them again but I will give the little one some too.

That's great!

There is probably nothing wrong with this kitten other than low birth weight, but it needs to gain more so it thrives.

The goal is for each kitten to weigh about 16 ounces at 4 weeks.

She's now moved them in response to my feeding them. What do I do now.

Where did she move them and where were they previously?