cold kitten

Its four marks between each 100, ie 25g each, and he is a little more than one mark, so its sooner about 130g. Yepee.

Could you control the scale by weighting something you KNOW the exact weight of?  Thus calibrating the scale.

OK, if he is premature and tiny at birth, it explains some. Still he is way underweight - probably emaciated too.  So its red alert the whole way till he begins to nicely gain every day, and putting on some meat...

kaybellee said:

Ill definitely try to buy everything that i can, its so hard i live in Australia and not many shops have what i need. So frustrating! I will get everything this afternoon weigh him and start feeding him goats milk (is bottled and long life goats milk ok?) Ive looked and thats all the shop has and hopefully he will improve

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Now I saw this post.  Yes, should be OK, if its full fat, ie about 3% fat. If not, you must add fat - as I wrote in another post.

Is there anything else i can put into the milk to get him to get more nutrition? Ill be feeding him every two hours and i will weigh him every day to see if he puts on weight ill add a photo of him new born in comparison to my hand he was so tiny. I didnt think he would make it due to his size but he has pulled through so much

kaybellee said:

Is there anything else i can put into the milk to get him to get more nutrition? Ill be feeding him every two hours and i will weigh him every day to see if he puts on weight ill add a photo of him new born in comparison to my hand he was so tiny. I didnt think he would make it due to his size but he has pulled through so much

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If you manage to get some vitamine drops for small animals - cats, it could be good.  raw egg yolk as said earlier., nutritious and lotsa of good fats  But Raw egg white isnt good.

How fat is this goat milk in bottle you got?  

Coldpressed rapeseed / canola oil, or  coldpressed olive oil, is useful if you need more fat. Just one drop, three drops are used to relieve a constipation...

Hi there, I'm in australia too . I bought my digital scales from kmart and they cost $16 and they have been amazing. My premmie kittens were born 70 grams, 73grams and 75 grams. They were teeny tiny and not expected to live . I was told by a long term neonatal foster thay anything below 70 grams is not really viable. My 4 week old kittens now weigh between 430 grams and 510 grams. I would weigh like 1kg of flour or sugar to make sure those scales are right as he should be much more than 130 grams. You can pm me if you like and I can tell you where I bought all my supplies from if you need

It says 3.9grams of fat per 100 ml and its a litre bottle

kaybellee said:

It says 3.9grams of fat per 100 ml and its a litre bottle

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ah, than its really full fat!  If so you dont need to add more fat.

Although if you can make some mix with that yolk it wont hurt.  If you fear it may be too fat all at once, you can dilute a little.

If you get more goat milk than he need, you can of course use the rest in your coffe.  Not all people like the taste of goat milk to drink it as it is. But coffee.

Also, many people whom dont manage usual cow milk, manage goat milk, so its no wasted money for you.

But by the same reason, goat milk is useful for kittens and cats in distress.

After feeding him and using a tiny bit of honey the last two feeds on his gums he is alot more cherpy he was just playing with my finger grabbing it and biting!
Now his asleep
It has really confused me that he is so underweight but he isnt lathargic or acting like he is starved
Hopefully he will gain enough weight to be in a safe area

How much are you feeding him every two hours?

Im feeding him 4ml every two hours and if his still hungry i give him more

kaybellee said:

Im feeding him 4ml every two hours and if his still hungry i give him more

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Lets see, it gives 4x12 feeding =48ml, which is good even splendid for the weigh of  130g   130 g is about 4,5oucen x8 = 36 ml...     That is an amount an average infant of  a few days shall get.

As long he is 130g, this amount is with some extra and probably OK.   But we know he really needs more, so remember to increase as he adds.

Being slow gainer, he shall gain at least 6gram every day. 10 is better, but lets begin with 6.

You do have access to a vet.  Ask him if he can recommend some vitamine paste sold nearby.  Most pastes are as a paste. But if you want to mix it with the goat milk it should be fluid.

Ask if human vitamine drops for babies are OK for weak cats, or it must be vitamnes made esp for cats.

I don't question your intelligence, but just wanted to double check that the scale is sitting at the first line prior to weighing, since often times the scale needs to be adjusted with the knob it has to zero it out exactly for precision.

5 weeks at 4 ounces is insane. Let's hope it's a mistake!

We want to see that scale go up at least one line every other day, that is the minimum we want to see for gaining.

A line a day would be fab

I found that you can get an exact amount fed daily if you feed on the hour, in other words not 2 hours after the end of his last feeding, but exactly 2 hours since the start of the last feeding.

Then you can take the amt drank and multiply it times the number of feedings given.

This way if he doesn't gain enough we know how much to add to his feedings.

Good job!

StefanZ said:

 
Lets see, it gives 4x12 feeding =48ml, which is good even splendid for the weigh of  130g   130 g is about 4,5oucen x8 = 36 ml...     That is an amount an average infant of  a few days shall get.

As long he is 130g, this amount is with some extra and probably OK.   But we know he really needs more, so remember to increase as he adds.

Being slow gainer, he shall gain at least 6gram every day. 10 is better, but lets begin with 6.

You do have access to a vet.  Ask him if he can recommend some vitamine paste sold nearby.  Most pastes are as a paste. But if you want to mix it with the goat milk it should be fluid.

Ask if human vitamine drops for babies are OK for weak cats, or it must be vitamnes made esp for cats.

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I wonder though if he is a slow gainer due to lack of milk rather than his lack of interest in eating?

I would really like to see a gain of 25 mgs every other day. This is one tiny kitten...

catwoman707 said:

 
I wonder though if he is a slow gainer due to lack of milk rather than his lack of interest in eating?

I would really like to see a gain of 25 mgs every other day. This is one tiny kitten...

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I suppose its both.   Born petite and slow gainer,  AND got too little - thus emaciated too.

I didnt followed the tread from beginning, as I saw there come answers, but I have an impression he had a mom, and supposedly was nursing.

And without weighting every day its easy to miss he gets waaay too little from mom...  And later on, miss the extra supplementing is enough. Ie is a "supplementing" when what is called for, is almost the entire day ransone.

Ive tripple checked the scales and they are spot on, today he is on the 150grams mark though im keeping a diary of what he weighs and when and how much i feed him evey day so i can work with that
In the begining i thought mum would have been feeding him enough so i was only feeding him to supplement not to rely on it fully i didnt realise he wasnt getting as much as i thought of mum although he was feeding from her for long ammounts of time
Ill keep you all updated on how he goes the next few days
I also have a digital scale on the way so it can be more spot on
This was just a temporary fix because i didnt have one

Just to inform everyone how i got into this situation i have a cat who had kittens and my friend had a cat that she could no longer care for so i took her in so she wouldn't go to the pound, i later realised she was pregnant and gave birth to two very tiny kittens and wouldnt feed or clean them, she was biting them and attcking them. I gave the kittens to my cat and she took them in without a doubt sadly one didnt make it past the first day but this little fighter did. My cat was looking after him and i thought he was getting enough food as he was feeding regularly, another thing i may add is the kittens natural mother was 4 years old (roughly) and it was her first litter, but i consider her as a "half size cat" shes very small herself probably the size of a year old cat or a bit older would that be why the kitten is so small?
I just thought it might be easier if everyone knew the whole situation
And thank you for your help again.

So tiny baby has gained 20 grams! That's good, right? I think journaling how much you are feeding and when you are feeding is a great thing to do.

Looking forward to seeing this baby grow, seems to have a strong will to live and a guardian willing to fight for him.

20 grams in a day?!  That is good.

It would be very good in an infant.  We are talking about 6g+ minimum in the very petite born, 10g+ a day for the normal weight born.  But healthy kittens may go 20-25g a day  too.   20g here is thus good.

Now, the tables here are complicated, he is of the weigh of an infant, but he isnt an infant himself.   An older kitten may of course gain more, although its seldom critical to follow them gain day for day.   HERE is one of the few exceptions. 

So its difficult to know what is a good growth ratio for him.

The only sure we know is he must gain every day, gain noticeably at least on the scale.

Yes now when you refreshed our memory and summarized - I see you had a very difficult situation, which you did your best to solve as well it was possible, with a big heart and lotsa of good will..

This is also a reminder, how good and useful it is to weigh them kittens every day.  both to see failures and successes. 

A very experienced rescuer can sometimes make withouth a scale - they see and feel by a glance and a touch.  But for almost all others is a scale and weighting them and looking optically over them, is an avesome device - often, often a live saver.

ps. If momma was /is a very petite cat, the chance is big he  too is rather petite. Maternal lines counts, esp on a dau, but also the boys gets.

But we mustnt cheat ourselves.  However his  starting point, he is emaciated, and must be treated as such. 

Not too much in the beginning, so the change wont come all at once - in the emaciated getting good food too quickly and too much is almost more dangerous than not getting food at all...

But you had increased stepwise, as you realized he got too little, so this stepwise increasing is done here naturally. Continue the stepwise increasing.

And now the best food we can find, every supplement we can find...  So its why Im mentioning vitamine preparates.  In a normal, healhy kitten or adult cat its seldom necessary, but here he must get all extras there are, his margins are thin.  Red alert is on, even if he begins to improve, tx to you extra good care.

Excellent weight gain! Keep up the frequent feedings. He'll hopefully begin to grow into his normal size soon for a nearly 6-week-old kitten. He's truly a survivor and kudos to you for staying on top of things. When he gets to about a pound or so, he may be able to begin eating wet cat food, which will help as well.