Hello everyone,
My sister found an abandoned kitten behind her house on Monday. We waited for the momma, but she never returned. So my sister decided to take on the task of fostering this little baby, though none of us have ever done this before. Since I've never done this before, I may provide too much info, but let me give you just a little breakdown of the past few days:
Based on her looks, we think she's between 2-3 weeks old. Eyes open, folded ears, crawling. I'll include a picture in case anyone wants to see.
Monday: We had trouble getting her to eat at first. We didn't have the right kind of bottle, though we used KMR. The first day we maybe got her to eat about 30cc which we knew wasn't nearly enough. She weight about 7 ounces. She had an eye infection in one eye. We focused on trying to keep her warm.
Tuesday we got her to eat maybe 40 or 50 or so cc (we weren't keeping a record yet). We had her setup with a heating pad to keep her warm and a stuffed animal for comfort, fed her every couple of hours, burped her, helped her use the bathroom, etc. We found fleas. She pooped. Minimal weight gain.
Wednesday we got a flea comb, washed the bedding, brushed off most of the fleas. The eye infection spread to the second eye. She ate about 60cc. We had the right kind of bottle now. She slept most of the time when she wasn't eating, but would wake up hungry. She pooped and peed all on her own in her bed (does that mean she's a little older than we think? Did we not help her enough to go?) Didn't weigh.
Today (Thursday): Got terramycin from the vet for her eyes. They already look better. She's wanting to eat 10-15cc (or more) at each feeding, maybe more. She's probably up to 60-65cc now just today and she'll be fed at least one more time tonight. I wouldn't be surprised if she hits 75cc. Her weight shot up to 8.9 ounces. We think we might see some tiny little teeth in her mouth. She's still really wobbly when she walks. Doesn't seem to have a lot of strength or coordination in her back legs.
I have a couple of questions. We know it's important not to overfeed so she doesn't get diarrhea. But she is so insistent when we feed her. She bites on the nipple if we try to take the bottle away and she kind of claws at it desperately when she's still trying to get milk out and doesn't want to stop.
Is it normal for a kitten to seem like they're starving even if they're eating enough food according to their body weight? Should we be concerned about her sudden burst in weight? I know kittens grow quickly, but it just seems like a lot.
She purrs when we burp her and after she eats. She seems okay other than the very insistent meowing and the way she acts like she's starving even though we feed her. The KMR says 8cc per ounce but we didn't know she would jump up 2 ounces in 3 days.
My sister found an abandoned kitten behind her house on Monday. We waited for the momma, but she never returned. So my sister decided to take on the task of fostering this little baby, though none of us have ever done this before. Since I've never done this before, I may provide too much info, but let me give you just a little breakdown of the past few days:
Based on her looks, we think she's between 2-3 weeks old. Eyes open, folded ears, crawling. I'll include a picture in case anyone wants to see.
Monday: We had trouble getting her to eat at first. We didn't have the right kind of bottle, though we used KMR. The first day we maybe got her to eat about 30cc which we knew wasn't nearly enough. She weight about 7 ounces. She had an eye infection in one eye. We focused on trying to keep her warm.
Tuesday we got her to eat maybe 40 or 50 or so cc (we weren't keeping a record yet). We had her setup with a heating pad to keep her warm and a stuffed animal for comfort, fed her every couple of hours, burped her, helped her use the bathroom, etc. We found fleas. She pooped. Minimal weight gain.
Wednesday we got a flea comb, washed the bedding, brushed off most of the fleas. The eye infection spread to the second eye. She ate about 60cc. We had the right kind of bottle now. She slept most of the time when she wasn't eating, but would wake up hungry. She pooped and peed all on her own in her bed (does that mean she's a little older than we think? Did we not help her enough to go?) Didn't weigh.
Today (Thursday): Got terramycin from the vet for her eyes. They already look better. She's wanting to eat 10-15cc (or more) at each feeding, maybe more. She's probably up to 60-65cc now just today and she'll be fed at least one more time tonight. I wouldn't be surprised if she hits 75cc. Her weight shot up to 8.9 ounces. We think we might see some tiny little teeth in her mouth. She's still really wobbly when she walks. Doesn't seem to have a lot of strength or coordination in her back legs.
I have a couple of questions. We know it's important not to overfeed so she doesn't get diarrhea. But she is so insistent when we feed her. She bites on the nipple if we try to take the bottle away and she kind of claws at it desperately when she's still trying to get milk out and doesn't want to stop.
Is it normal for a kitten to seem like they're starving even if they're eating enough food according to their body weight? Should we be concerned about her sudden burst in weight? I know kittens grow quickly, but it just seems like a lot.
She purrs when we burp her and after she eats. She seems okay other than the very insistent meowing and the way she acts like she's starving even though we feed her. The KMR says 8cc per ounce but we didn't know she would jump up 2 ounces in 3 days.
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You do it alike two pros! Here we do see, lotsa of good will, effort and some love, does works miracles!
