Found 6 week old stray kitten

She has been sleeping a lot since i found her. She is a little skinny, but I've got her to eat some soft food with pedialyte mixed in. She is doing pretty well with letting me handle her. It's been a long time since I've had a cat before and wanted to make sure I'm doing everything right.

Sounds like you have done things well.  Keep an eye on her and get her to the vet as soon as possible.  Wet kitten food has extra nutrients in it.

If you have fleece, its nice and comfortable for her to lay on, it feels almost as mommas fur.  Perhaps some heating pad - its nice with warmth.

Wet (soft) cat food with pedialyte sounds good. Beginnin with small portions but often.  Goats milk is also OK as supplement.

Its really the optimal time to rescue a homeless - she can eat on her own, and is still easy to foster and socialize completely.

Continue with reports and questions!

tyler1994 said:

 
She has been sleeping a lot since i found her. She is a little skinny, but I've got her to eat some soft food with pedialyte mixed in. She is doing pretty well with letting me handle her. It's been a long time since I've had a cat before and wanted to make sure I'm doing everything right.

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ps.  Do you have residents?  wait with letting them meet till you got OK from the vet, and she is defleased and dewormed properly.

Its very probable she has fleas - so have her somewhere where its easy to clean up  of the fleas...

Surprisingly she doesn't have any fleas. I do have 2 dogs. A 13 year old and a 3 year old. The 13 year old has been around cats in the past but not in awhile and the younger dog hasn't at all.

How wonderful and compassionate of you to take her in!!!!! Definitely keep her 100% separate from your others - particularly the kitties. She can be carrying lots of things you can't see (like feline leukemia or FIP) or things you can sometimes see but might not notice - like fleas, worms, tics, ringworm, etc. so keep her totally away from your guys until she's been to the vet (a separate room - even like a bathroom if necessary). Get her into the vet ASAP, so they can check for all of the above & more. Then she can be introduced (slowly---and with supervision!!!) to your guys. Do you think you can keep her? She looks adorable (and black cats are always the HARDEST cats/kittens to find homes for, bar none, so if you can keep her, that would be wonderful!!!! As is, if she is just a thin 6 weeks she's a little too young (& small) to go straight onto a shelter ---she'll need time to fatten up & develop some social skills!

She's also really a little young to be weaned completely - the Pedialyte was smart! I'd be feeding her a good quality kitten soft (at her age, like Royal Canin Baby Cat). Warmed up just a TAD (check in your wrist -should just be warm, not scalding hot), mixed into some Reconstituted KMR -which is "Kitten Milk Replacer" & can be found in powder form in Pet Supplies Plus, Petsmart, Walmart, etc. (I've never had luck with the "off brands"---I always use the KMR brand. I like the powder-it's actually easy to mix, but you can also get it pre-mixed in aluminum cans. Warm that up a tad and mix it with the warmed soft canned kitten food, maybe even add a tiny bit of warm water. Offer it to her on a platter --she should be old enough to lap - but it may take some time. If she won't lap, put some of the mixture onto your little finger and let her suck it off. You may have to go thru the process before she makes the connection. Make sure she has fresh water too!!!!! And her litterbox should be size appropriate - we use the cardboard boxes that cat food cans come in (pet supplies plus saves them for us). I always use clay litter with that age (for various reasons).

But the main thing is watch that she's eating (I think you can find charts on how much she should be eating at one of the pages on Alley Cat Allies site (I think it's www.alleycatallies.org-----then check which of the subpages it is), make sure she's drinking, keep her in a safe, warm, dry place (we use kitten heating pads -human heating pads get too hot too fast!!!) in a bathroom where we can shut off the a/c, make sue she's defacating and urinating ----/and get her to the vet ASAP!!! And talk to the vet/spay neuter clinics scout financial help ---many towns/clinics offer help, even as simple as setting up a payment plan! And talk to anyone & everyone (IF you're not keeping the sweetie) about getting her into somewhere where she can be put up for adoption as soon as she's able. The smaller ones get adopted faster!!!!!!!!

But hopefully she's already got a fur-ever home

Keep us posted