10 teeny weeny kittens

Team Little #2

Mama on break

And the littlest orange little sleeping. Sorry, no one I know wants me texting them kitten pics at midnight :/

Precious pictures! [emoji]128149[/emoji]

We love pictures and can look at them all day and night long! [emoji]128571[/emoji]

Were you able to get another heat lamp?

WOW! 10 babies! You and momma are heros! Each day that passes is one more day to a full healthy life, but you are doing God's work to supplement and help momma out. It's won't be long that that many babies will be sucking her dry. It's important that they all get enough nutrition. I foster and usually give momma kitten food because it is packed with extra calories and nutrients. I like KMR and usually order the 5 pound bags from Amazon or Chewy.com for the babies, although momma might like it too.

5 pounds of KMR!?! That might be a really good idea here in a couple weeks...

I was able to borrow my friends brooder. I cant say enough good things about it and Im so glad I had one already. Its been great for chicks because it doesnt overheat, its not a fire hazard, and it seems nicer to not have a giant light shining on them all the time. Apparently its great for kittens too. I have the larger one and my friend has the smaller one. I have the bigger over half the nest and the smaller one perfectly fits in a shipping box and covers half the area for the rotation nest.

The problem is that I have actual chicks hatching Sunday and they are going to need to use one. Not sure what I'll so- maybe the littles will be big enough that they wont need as much supplemental heat? I do worry though, because they've just now gotten strong enough that I feel like they can be taken out for two hours. I had been leaving them in all the time and just rotating the bigs out. I do think its better to take the littles out though so they dont spend so much energy competing with the bigs, its probably better if they just sleep in the rotation nest for the two hours. So i guess i better decide quick if I should suck it up and buy another brooder or what.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_...ts,231&crid=2CUYR3I7OEBAZ&tag=&tag=thecatsite

I think you should buy another brooder right quick if you possibly can. I think you can't afford to be without 2 for the kittens right now and for a few more weeks.

Can you get 2-day delivery so you have it by Saturday?

sarthur2 said:

I think you should buy another brooder right quick if you possibly can. I think you can't afford to be without 2 for the kittens right now and for a few more weeks.

Can you get 2-day delivery so you have it by Saturday?

Click to expand...

Yes, thank goodness for Amazon Prime. I do have a few extra days since the chicks are due to hatch Saturday through Sunday and will need to stay in the incubator at least another day, I could stretch that by another day or so by putting food and water in the incubator. I wouldnt mind having another brooder anyway, it will give me an excuse to hatch more chicks... Or I could use a heat lamp on the chicks but I'm really not into that.

teamcarp33 said:

 
Yes, thank goodness for Amazon Prime. I do have a few extra days since the chicks are due to hatch Saturday through Sunday and will need to stay in the incubator at least another day, I could stretch that by another day or so by putting food and water in the incubator. I wouldnt mind having another brooder anyway, it will give me an excuse to hatch more chicks... Or I could use a heat lamp on the chicks but I'm really not into that.

Click to expand...

You could of course use the usual heating pads / microed rice socks with the kittens.  Its not that splendid as these  brooders, but after all, its what most common kittens make do with...

So buy this extra breeder, and prepare some heating pads.  If the extra breeder by any reason doesnt come in time, you wont be defenceless.

Under normal circumstances I would say the heating pads should be enough, but with 10 kittens, and a few are much smaller in weight than most of us feel comfortable  with, if she can manage to get another brooder,  that would be ideal for a situation such as this.  I hope she can manage to get one.  Some are not out of the "danger zone". 

mazie said:

 
Under normal circumstances I would say the heating pads should be enough, but with 10 kittens, and a few are much smaller in weight than most of us feel comfortable  with, if she can manage to get another brooder,  that would be ideal for a situation such as this.  I hope she can manage to get one.  Some are not out of the "danger zone". 

Click to expand...

I agree.  Heating pads here are just Plan B,  if -  as these brooders are apparently superior.   A good reinforcement for our advising.  

Teamcarp 33,  those brooders are an excellent idea to keep those newborn kittens warm.  I got curious and looked them up on the internet.  The prices vary so wide from $15.49 all the way up to $522.75!!  Several of us are curious and like this idea of yours.  If you don't mind, would you expound what type of brooder you use for your chicks and now kittens? 

I went ahead and ordered one to be delivered Saturday. I didn't mean that the usual heating methods weren't good enough I looked at heating pads and they all seem to have a safety shut off. I feel safer having a brooder on them when they are away from mom during the rotations, and I'm real tired and like being able to sleep a little longer in between instead of laying there wondering if they are warm enough, or too warm, or having to go after an hour to restart the heating pad. I used to have an old one from the 80's that didn't have the shut off but it finally stopped working (probably wasn't very safe anyway). I have definitely used the rice sock in a pinch, but it doesnt seem to be warm enough or stay warm enough for these guys. In any case, it wont be money wasted since I will put the second one to good use with chicks later.

Like I said, several of us love this way of keeping the kittens warm.  It is always good to have more than one way to accomplish a goal.  If you would, please give more information on type of brooder, where you order them from, prices, etc.  Thanks

Thinking on it, I think such brooders are useful for adult cats also.  Both convalescents and sick cats whom have difficult to keep up the temp, but probably also for perfectly healthy cats, whom just wanna some extra warmth and comfort....

Of course, there is some danger  they wont lay on Dads hip no more, which is a great pleasure for said Dad.    But I experienced this myself:  My resident laying comfortable on a warm spot in a window sill, after a while did come down to Daddy and layed down on the hip.  To mutual joy.    

mazie said:

Like I said, several of us love this way of keeping the kittens warm.  It is always good to have more than one way to accomplish a goal.  If you would, please give more information on type of brooder, where you order them from, prices, etc.  Thanks

Click to expand...

The first one I had was the Brinsea Ecoglow 50, that's the one over the main nest. I've had it a year or two, but I think I just got it on Amazon and think it was about $160-$170. The smaller one in te rotation box is the one I borrowed, it is the Brinsea Ecoglow 20, I would guess she got it also on Amazon and I think it's around $70. Brinsea was the first to make this type of brooder designed that way. There are other kind of similar ones that are maybe a little larger scale like more farm scale. One that could possibly be useful is by Sweeter Heater but the design might not be as handy. But if someone had one for some other reason it could probably work well. Te size of the Brinsea is convenient. There is only one heat level and you adjust the height until the chicks (or kittens) are comfortable. The leg design on the big one is better.

The one I just ordered is by a company called Premier Supplies. They just recently
Started making this style brooder but it's less expensive and I've heard it works well. Also from Amazon and it was $99.

I'll take a picture of how mine is set up and post.

Main nest

Rotation nest

The brooder set-ups look great! Very cozy and warm! What steady temperature does it provide?

Also, how are the kittens' weights today? Has each one gained again?

sarthur2 said:

The brooder set-ups look great! Very cozy and warm! What steady temperature does it provide?

Also, how are the kittens' weights today? Has each one gained again?

Click to expand...

The kittens are doing so well. I'll post their weights tonight. They all gained both last night and this morning. The littles are so much stronger now it seems they are getting a lot more milk when they nurse, and are getting big bellies. Little orange boy was at 75g this morning and buff girl was 79g! Everyone else was between 94 and 134.

Baby chicks start at 95 degrees and back off by about 5 degrees per week (roughly). So I'd say when the brooder is set really low it's around 95 and goes down as you raise it.