Hi All,
We were adopted by a beautiful cat we named Penny when she was pregnant, and last week she delivered 8 lovely kittens. We lost one the second day (complete mystery) and the litter included one very tiny runt we have named Squirt. He was only 60 grams at birth, and we have been supplementing him with milk replacer from our vet since his birth. He gained slowly at first but yesterday jumped 10g in just 12 hours! Squirt is now 124g at 7 days old and seems to be doing very well, but starting last night his consumption of formula dropped. We are assuming that is because he is now getting more from Penny (who is a fantasic momma), but he is still nearly half the size of his sibs. We are still offering the formula, but this morning he refused it altogether. He also has a sister that has been slow on her growth, but she seems to be nursing fine and also refuses the formula. Please advise if we should still be supplementing, or if this is their way of letting us know they just don't need it anymore? This is our first experience with helping to raise kittens, and this site has been a gold mine! Any inout would be appreciated!
We were adopted by a beautiful cat we named Penny when she was pregnant, and last week she delivered 8 lovely kittens. We lost one the second day (complete mystery) and the litter included one very tiny runt we have named Squirt. He was only 60 grams at birth, and we have been supplementing him with milk replacer from our vet since his birth. He gained slowly at first but yesterday jumped 10g in just 12 hours! Squirt is now 124g at 7 days old and seems to be doing very well, but starting last night his consumption of formula dropped. We are assuming that is because he is now getting more from Penny (who is a fantasic momma), but he is still nearly half the size of his sibs. We are still offering the formula, but this morning he refused it altogether. He also has a sister that has been slow on her growth, but she seems to be nursing fine and also refuses the formula. Please advise if we should still be supplementing, or if this is their way of letting us know they just don't need it anymore? This is our first experience with helping to raise kittens, and this site has been a gold mine! Any inout would be appreciated!