How much should a new nursing cat eat?

How about starting with a warm damp cloth and soothing strokes.  See if that does the trick.

If you have someone who can hold her for you, a bath with a warm, damp wash cloth is probably best now. You can hold her near the sink and wipe her down with a damp cloth dipped in soapy Dawn water and mostly wrung out. Then wipe her with clear water. This is a better alternative to a full bath while she's nursing.

Please also change the bedding in the nest so they are not sleeping in dried pee or poop.

Keep her litter box clean, and be aware the kittens will need a litter box soon themselves.

I didn't have anyone to help last night, so I just used a warm, damp washcloth and rubbed her belly with it for as long as she'd let me, then rubbed it down her back. It got her fur a tiny bit damp which got her to groom herself. She still stinks though. I'm calling the vet back today about a couple of the kittens conjunctivitis, so I'll ask why she's so stinky and if they recommend a bath. 

I do change the kittens bedding. I have them in a corner of my living room. I have towels down and a layer of fleece on top of it. I change the fleece every other day and the towels twice a week. 

Her box is scooped 1-2 times a day, depending on how much she uses it. I also bought a small box for the kittens and some unscented clay litter. I know they won't use it yet, but I put it in their area along with a small bowl with a little water. 

Ok, so my kittens are four and a half weeks old. I have not had fleas in my house for about five years, but the little boy I watch during the day is in a home with fleas. I noticed a couple of fleas today on two of the kittens, one on each, and I did manage to get one of them off. I checked the kittens and have not seen anymore. I promptly deconstructed their area and vacuumed the carpet and put all new bedding down for them and am washing the other stuff. I think I have it under control, and am hoping that the couple fleas I saw were just stray ones that maybe came off the car seat when it was in my living room. 

I am so nervous I'm going to have an outbreak, and I do not want that. I have noticed them scratching, but they could have been doing that and I'm just really noticing it now because of the fleas and I'm paranoid. Thankfully they are used to me picking them up and turning them on their backs in my hand, and their mostly white and orange so it's easy to check them frequently. 

This post is basically preemptive, and I'd like to know what has worked for others on young kittens for fleas. I don't think I have to worry about bathing them just yet, but I will if I need to. Also, what kinds of preventative products are safe for kittens? I had read before that putting a flea collar under a towel where they sleep is supposed to help. I'm nowhere near that situation, but I feel like it's good to search for information before things get to the point where information is needed immediately. 

The kittens are nice and healthy, nursing, using the litter box (for the most part, I have one stubborn one), starting to eat food (and sometimes litter), are gaining weight steadily, and are playing and exploring. 

Sorry for the long post, I tend to go on and on, but I think more information is better. lso, not sure if this fits better here or if it should be in the Care & Grooming section. 

Trey are old enough that you could bathe them using blue dawn and a flea comb. This will kill adult fleas on them but not eggs, so it has to be repeated every 4-5 days, but it is effective. Our first kitten was a stray and was covered in fleas. She was 4 1/2 weeks old at the time and this is what her vet suggested. We bathed her and thoroughly dried her every 4 days while also washing her bedding and vacuuming the house religiously every other day until there were no more fleas. One or two stray fleas can turn in to lots of fleas quickly so you have to act fast and be diligent. At 6 weeks you could use revolution on her. I believe it's even approved as young as 4 weeks. However, we waited till ours was a bit older to use any chemical treatments on her.

Just vacuum, give them a flea bath and stay away from the cheap flea baths that you find in the stores. Get one from a vet clinic or pet store. The cheaper stuff almost killed one of my cats years ago. 

Agreed. So not use flea bath shampoos from the local discount stores. I wouldn't use flea bath at all that young though. Most say at least 8 weeks in my experience. Although there may be some approved for younger than that through your vet.

Have you treated the mom?  She can have Advantage II.

We had the same problem a few weeks ago when out kittens were a couple of weeks old. I thought we had it under control until I saw a couple of fleas on the kittens. Heres what we did:

- took them to the vets! They were able to weigh them and give us some front line spray, they have to weigh them so you can be told the correct amount to use safely.

- treat mum, poppy had been treated 6 weeks prior with some strong hold spot on suitable for pregnant cats. We were told by the vet we could use this on her whilst nursing too.

- vacuum, everywhere, all the furniture, under everything and anywhere mum sleeps (inc window sills)

- change the bedding

- spray the house, even rooms the cats don't go as they can move around on you and apparently can sit dormant for months. We got a massive can of indorex which is apparently even safe if you have babies crawling around (but kills fish for some reason!?) but we still removed the kitties from the room while I sprayed it.

We've continued to change their bedding a few times a week and vacuum 2/3 times and per week. Three weeks later I've just treated the house again! I've also been flea combing poppy and the kittens a few times a week.

Our infestation was minor and I haven't found anymore fleas for some time, but like you I didn't want to chance it with little kittens in the house!!

Hope that helps

I wouldn't bathe them this young with a flea shampoo, I'd use the dish detergent if I had to. I did check the mom, and she didn't seem to have any, but her colors are darker and I could have missed some. I have not seen anymore on the kittens though. I changed their bedding and even the cardboard I used to make their area just in case. Everything has been vacuumed twice and all of the bedding has been washed in a hot/warm cycle. 

As for treating the mom... I ordered some capstar (which I used about 5 years ago with great success, and it is safe for the mom to take while nursing) and will try that first. I'll put a white sheet down in the kitten box and give the mom the tablet. If I see any dead fleas on the sheet the morning after, then I'll treat her. I don't want to put anything topical on her if I don't have to since the kittens could get it in their mouths from it being on her fur. 

My other cat is white, and I haven't seen any on him either, but I'll give him the capstar too and put down a white sheet where he sleeps as well.

I have only seen the 2 fleas, and got one off yesterday and the other I haven't seen, so it could have been just the one that went from one kitten to the other since those two were playing together the second time I checked them. I am literally checking them every hour or so to make sure I'm not missing anything.  

Thanks for all the advice. 

Our vet suggested washing them doesn't work!

Sounds like you may have got them but if you have a flea comb I'd recommend giving them a comb. When poppy arrived (she was a stray) we didn't think she had fleas and she's white, turned out she had loads and most of them were hiding near her poor little face, the flea comb brought it to light that there were loads!

We wish we'd dealt with that infestation better (we didn't treat the house originally) as I was so worried when they came back when the kittens had be born and were so tiny still.

Apparently they bite, drop of the cat, and lay their eggs.

Be sure to empty your vacuum too!!

Did you have fleas prior to the kittens getting them? I had them about 5 years ago, but haven't had any since, and my cats do not go outdoors, so I'm 99% sure they came in off the little boy and his mom. Even though I haven't seen any, I'm treating the area as if there are fleas. I'll be changing and washing the bedding every other day and vacuuming every other day as well. My vacuum doesn't have a bag. It has a basin I put water in and then I dump that when I'm done, it's great because there is no dust coming back out when I vacuum, or no bags or filters to clean, everything goes into the water and gets dumped out in the tree line outside. Sometimes it's gross seeing what it gets out of the carpet. I did check the water and did not see any fleas. I wouldn't be able to tell if there were eggs though, as they would blend in with the dirt. 

Three of my kittens have taken to the litter box wonderfully, the fourth, not so much. He will not use the litter box, he will pee in the bowl with the dry food and if I put him in the litter box, he just tries to eat the litter; something the other three stopped doing last week. They are five weeks old today. I even tried to put their food into the smallest bowl I have, it's tiny and he still managed to pee in it. I don't know for sure if he's pooping yet (there have been no poop accidents in their area), and I have not seen him eating dry food like the others. He does still nurse and is gaining weight steadily, so maybe he's just taking longer than the others to eat food. 

I've tried pouring his pee from the food bowl into the box, but he could care less. I tried putting him in a newly cleaned box, and also tried him with the scoop-able litter by putting him in his moms box (which I made sure he did not eat) and that didn't work either. Maybe I'm being impatient, but he's ruining the food, and if I'm not there to see it right away, I don't want the other kittens to eat pee food, or to go without food because of it. 

Have you tried Dr Elsy's Kitten Attract litter? That may help.

I'm also wondering if there's something off with his sense of smell. Maybe I'm thinking too much in 'adult' mode, but it seems odd to me that he's persistently mixing up food and litter.

Hopefully some others with more kitten experience can help you more

I just think he's immature and hasn't figured it out yet. For whatever reason he thinks the food bowl is his litter box.

Why don't you put a bowl next to the litter box, then move it into the box after a day or two, and see if he will use it. I'll bet he figures it out soon!

Hang in there!

He does seem to be a mixed up little kitten. I hope you get a solution and he learns what to do.

He did it again!! I put a smaller box in place of the second food bowl where he keeps going. Hopefully he'll go in there. I was going to put a few pieces of food into the litter box, but I don't want to confuse the other kittens who already have it down.