- Joined
- Sep 9, 2016
- Messages
- 26
- Purraise
- 4
Hello, lovelies. Long time no post! Well, here's my new (future foster failure, lets be real here) bottle baby, Ziggy Stardust! Cute, isn't he?
Not the best quality photos, but just a small photoshoot we had as he's on my lap now after a feeding.
And, when adding pictures, I managed, somehow, to erase all I had written and refresh the page, so here's attempt number two!
Long story short, I volunteer at an animal shelter and a woman came in with this little guy. She said she found him in her backyard by the shed. No mama, no siblings around. She believes they were all killed by a dog
He had fleas when she found him and she gave him a bath (I was concerned, of course, about him being chilled, but I guess her daughter works at an animal clinic and they did it there and that eased my mind a bit). We have him estimated at 2 weeks (well, mind, he was brought in to the shelter Sunday, so 4 days ago). Two weeks before January 22nd is January 8th, David Bowie's birthday, so I took the liberty of renaming him Ziggy Stardust 
(Okay, okay, technically my sister renamed him. And before Ziggy, a shelter staff member had named him Straucy, after a tennis player.)
Our shelter doesn't usually take kittens so young, but I said I'd be willing to foster and bottle feed him, so we agreed to take him. And, basically, I'm in love! He's the cutest, sweetest little guy, and goodness, those meows. So pitchy!
I've been scouring Google and the Cat Site, and I've found a wealth of information on raising bottle babies (and have been using my prior knowledge; my Quinn was a bottle baby when I found her at about 6 weeks, and Dopey was a bottle baby as well, my mom estimates he was hardly a week or so when he was found), but there's just a few things I can't find that I thought maybe some of you would know!
* How bad is it to give a kitten cold formula? When Zigs was brought in, the lady who brought him in (who was so sweet, by the way, and would have raised him if she had the time to feed him every 2-3 hours, but she just didn't; even wrote us a little note about him and what he likes-- it's jazz music, by the way) brought in a bottle and a can of KMR. We refrigerated it. I always read that milk should be warm, not too hot, but that's as far as I can find. Is it damaging to give a kitten cold milk? I'm not concerned about cold milk anymore as, since I used the can up, I've been using formula like I did with Quinn and Dopey. Is room- temperature-ish milk okay? Since he's getting fed every 2-3 hours, sometimes I'll just warm him up a bottle, feed him, then leave the bottle out for the next feeding. And, finally, is microwaving it okay, or do I really really need to heat his bottles in boiling water? I, admittedly, didn't read as much as I should have when I was hand-rearing Quinn and Dopey and kinda learned that you shouldn't microwave the bottles a few days ago... but sometimes I just do it for convenience, as it's faster and Ziggy meows so loud and demands milk right this second.
* How long is powdered formula good for unrefrigerated? Though I bought him a brand new can of powdered KMR, my mom said she still had some from Dopey I could have. So I have two cans now, but was wondering how long the powder stays good. I'd been using the old can from Dopey (expiration says it's good till 2018, though I assume, of course, that's when unopened), which has been stored in a cabinet. I read it's best to refrigerate them after opening to prolong freshness. Do you think Dopey's old stuff is still good? I don't want to be starving Ziggy of nutrients if they're just not there anymore. I opened the new can for Zig this morning, and was considering mixing the two cans together, but it Dopey's old stuff isn't good anymore, I'll just throw it out and use the new can up.
* How hard/rounded should a 2-3 week old kittens tummy be? When he was brought in, he had a hard, round tummy. We figured he'd need to be dewormed. I thought, personally, it may be due to having some poop stuck inside. So for the 4 days I've had him, he's been doing well. Drinking lots, peeing and pooping well, mostly with assistance (though he is going a bit by himself now! To my dismay, it's all over my bed). I think he's only gone one of the four days so far without pooping, and I've read that every 2-3 days is normal for poop, so I'm not worried about that. Since he's been pooping, though, his tummy is still hard and round, and I can't see anything in his poop that looks like worms or anything. What could be going on? We can deworm him at the shelter, we just wanted to wait till he's a bit older... how old should he be? I've read a few different ages and I just want to wait until it's safest.
* Sleep twitching or seizure? I know it's normal for kittens (well, cats in general, and other animals, and people... everyone, it's normal for everyone) to twitch in their sleep, but is there a point when I should be concerned? I'm extremely over-cautious when it comes to this. I won't wake him up, but when he starts twitching I'll stroke him gently and talk to him sometimes. Some of the twitches are pretty violent, and I guess I'm just afraid of the little guy having a seizure. He doesn't ever make noise or anything at all when doing it, so I'm sure it's just normal sleep twitches, but the more violent ones scare me.
Thanks so much, you guys!
Not the best quality photos, but just a small photoshoot we had as he's on my lap now after a feeding.
And, when adding pictures, I managed, somehow, to erase all I had written and refresh the page, so here's attempt number two!
Long story short, I volunteer at an animal shelter and a woman came in with this little guy. She said she found him in her backyard by the shed. No mama, no siblings around. She believes they were all killed by a dog
He had fleas when she found him and she gave him a bath (I was concerned, of course, about him being chilled, but I guess her daughter works at an animal clinic and they did it there and that eased my mind a bit). We have him estimated at 2 weeks (well, mind, he was brought in to the shelter Sunday, so 4 days ago). Two weeks before January 22nd is January 8th, David Bowie's birthday, so I took the liberty of renaming him Ziggy Stardust (Okay, okay, technically my sister renamed him. And before Ziggy, a shelter staff member had named him Straucy, after a tennis player.)Our shelter doesn't usually take kittens so young, but I said I'd be willing to foster and bottle feed him, so we agreed to take him. And, basically, I'm in love! He's the cutest, sweetest little guy, and goodness, those meows. So pitchy!
I've been scouring Google and the Cat Site, and I've found a wealth of information on raising bottle babies (and have been using my prior knowledge; my Quinn was a bottle baby when I found her at about 6 weeks, and Dopey was a bottle baby as well, my mom estimates he was hardly a week or so when he was found), but there's just a few things I can't find that I thought maybe some of you would know!
* How bad is it to give a kitten cold formula? When Zigs was brought in, the lady who brought him in (who was so sweet, by the way, and would have raised him if she had the time to feed him every 2-3 hours, but she just didn't; even wrote us a little note about him and what he likes-- it's jazz music, by the way) brought in a bottle and a can of KMR. We refrigerated it. I always read that milk should be warm, not too hot, but that's as far as I can find. Is it damaging to give a kitten cold milk? I'm not concerned about cold milk anymore as, since I used the can up, I've been using formula like I did with Quinn and Dopey. Is room- temperature-ish milk okay? Since he's getting fed every 2-3 hours, sometimes I'll just warm him up a bottle, feed him, then leave the bottle out for the next feeding. And, finally, is microwaving it okay, or do I really really need to heat his bottles in boiling water? I, admittedly, didn't read as much as I should have when I was hand-rearing Quinn and Dopey and kinda learned that you shouldn't microwave the bottles a few days ago... but sometimes I just do it for convenience, as it's faster and Ziggy meows so loud and demands milk right this second.
* How long is powdered formula good for unrefrigerated? Though I bought him a brand new can of powdered KMR, my mom said she still had some from Dopey I could have. So I have two cans now, but was wondering how long the powder stays good. I'd been using the old can from Dopey (expiration says it's good till 2018, though I assume, of course, that's when unopened), which has been stored in a cabinet. I read it's best to refrigerate them after opening to prolong freshness. Do you think Dopey's old stuff is still good? I don't want to be starving Ziggy of nutrients if they're just not there anymore. I opened the new can for Zig this morning, and was considering mixing the two cans together, but it Dopey's old stuff isn't good anymore, I'll just throw it out and use the new can up.
* How hard/rounded should a 2-3 week old kittens tummy be? When he was brought in, he had a hard, round tummy. We figured he'd need to be dewormed. I thought, personally, it may be due to having some poop stuck inside. So for the 4 days I've had him, he's been doing well. Drinking lots, peeing and pooping well, mostly with assistance (though he is going a bit by himself now! To my dismay, it's all over my bed). I think he's only gone one of the four days so far without pooping, and I've read that every 2-3 days is normal for poop, so I'm not worried about that. Since he's been pooping, though, his tummy is still hard and round, and I can't see anything in his poop that looks like worms or anything. What could be going on? We can deworm him at the shelter, we just wanted to wait till he's a bit older... how old should he be? I've read a few different ages and I just want to wait until it's safest.
* Sleep twitching or seizure? I know it's normal for kittens (well, cats in general, and other animals, and people... everyone, it's normal for everyone) to twitch in their sleep, but is there a point when I should be concerned? I'm extremely over-cautious when it comes to this. I won't wake him up, but when he starts twitching I'll stroke him gently and talk to him sometimes. Some of the twitches are pretty violent, and I guess I'm just afraid of the little guy having a seizure. He doesn't ever make noise or anything at all when doing it, so I'm sure it's just normal sleep twitches, but the more violent ones scare me.
Thanks so much, you guys!
