2 abandoned babies

My 16 year old nephew called me on his way home from school and said he found 2 kittens in back of a store. Well it was right next to our vet's office so I had him take them there because they will often take abandoned/homeless kittens and find them homes.
But as it turns out someone had just gave them 3 kittens they found about the same age as these 2 sweeties (I'm betting they are from the same litter.

How can some people be so cruel dumping poor little babies like these?
They are only about 4 weeks old, you can still feel dried up bit of ambilical cord on their bellies!
The vet did give my nephew some special food to give them and the tuxedo kitty eats pretty good, the black one needs a little encouagement.

Needless to say I am very proud of my nephew for saving these poor babies, they surely would have died if left there...it is in the 90's here as well, their bodies were pretty hot.


Here's their pics:


The black one:









The tuxedo:

Please send this link if he has internet access www.kitten-rescue.com

Hi Hissy,
Thanks for the quick reply, I did forget to mention that my nephew lives with me so the babies are here.
I'll check out that link.

Ok well if you have any questions let me know-

How are the little ones going today?

The kittens are doing ok this morning, I haven't fed them yet they're sleeping too peacefully to wake them up yet!

Hissy, about feeding...on the rescue site it says 5 times a day for 4 week olds, should this be 5 servings of canned food or should it have the kitten formula added in (and do they need the formula?...I don't have it but will get it if necessary) and should I let them eat as much as they want of the canned food?

The tuxedo kitten eats really well, no worries there, but the all back one is a little slower, I had to add some water in his food to make it a little easier for him to eat but he still doesn't eat half as much as his brother...he should probably have the formula, I'm thinking.

I've had plenty of kittens before and never worried about them eating because I knew they could always have some of their momma's milk if they got hungry, so I just want to make sure these guys don't go hungry, but I also don't want to overfeed them.

Thanks!!

Yes, at four weeks, kittens need to be nursing still. Give them a bottle of kitten formula or the kitten glop about 4 or 5 times a day and also leave the canned food out for them to eat too. You can also put the formula in a little bowl for them to lap.

Also, if you look down the side of any page on kitten rescue, you'll see a heading, Weaning. There's some good advice about this there.

How good that you and your nephew were there to save those poor babies! They're adorable! Gives them hugs from Viva, please. Keep us posted!

I went to Petco yesterday to get the kitten formula, they only had 2 varieties. One was for newborns and the other was a weaning formula, so I got that one. It's KMR 2nd step kitten weaning food for kittens 4 to 8 weeks old. They both like it pretty well.
The all black kitten is eating the canned kitten food well now, but the tuxedo kitten doesn't seem to like the new flavor (Sience diet kitten/ liver & chicken flavor) Petco also had no other kitten food beside this brand/flavor!

Anyway I just wanted to make sure of the formula is ok and if it's okay that the tuxedo kitten is just eating this for now and not the canned food.

Thanks for any advice.

Yes, as long as the tuxedo is lapping lots of formula, it's fine for him to just have that for now. All kittens are different and some will take to the canned food straight away and others take a bit longer. If the tuxedo doesn't like the canned food flavour, you can put down some dry kitten kibble and see if he'll eat that or take a small bowlful of kibble, pour some hot water over it and wait until the kibble is soft and has cooled. Mash this up and see if the tuxedo likes that. You can also add a little formula to make a thick gruel-like mixture.

The black and white kitten gave me a scare. He didn't want to eat for over 12 hours, he didn't want the formula and still didn't want the canned food either. So my sister suggested trying the dry kitten food and that was just what he wanted! I softened it up using hot water and when it was cool I mashed it up and added some formula to it to smooth it out and he's eaten it twice today. I am so relieved!!

They are both very active and like to run all over, I have to watch them very closely when I let them run, they always run right to place where I don't want them to go...like trying to get under the sofa!!

Tania ,I noticed yesterday that their claws are now retracting, (they didn't retract the day before) so I was wondering at what age do their claws retract, so maybe I can know how old they really are.

I weighed them last night and they both gained a half ounce since Thursday, the black one(my neice is taking him and will probably name him/her Midnight) is now 12 oz. and the black and white one (my nephew named him Oreo) is 11 and 1/2 oz.

I'll try to get more pics of these cuties today and post them.

Stormy, from reading your posts and looking at the pics, I would estimate the kits are only 4 to 4 1/2 weeks now. The claws will begin to start retracting at around 4 weeks. At 4 weeks, they shoud weigh 13oz but because these little ones had such a rough start, 11 1/2 and 12oz is good. At 5 weeks, they should weigh around 1lb. So, keep up with feeding formula in a bottle as well as offering soft food. You are doing a great job!

Thanks so much for all of your help and advice, I really appreciate it!

Here's some pics I took last night:










Oreo wouldn't stand still long enough to get a seperate pic!!!

Awww, they're so sweet! Oreo is definitely smaller but you'll be surprised at how quickly he'll catch up.

Aw, they are so sweet! And they both look so much healthier than the first pics you posted. You are doing a great job with these two!!