Just adopted a new kitten...in China!!!

So, first of all, hello everyone and thank god there is a site like this. My name is Scott, and I am living in China with my wife and my new kitten Samuel L. Jackson. I have been searching this site for a day or so and basically I have a ton of questions, since a vet is completely out of the question. My kitten is young, in China they ween cats at about 3 or 4 weeks. Samuel is very small, skinny and you can tell he was underfed and under loved, which is why we bought him in the first place, 4 days ago. We took him home, bought a cat box, and food. Since they have no kitty litter within 200 miles of us, we use papers, which work fine, he is using his box with ease and that makes us happy. One problem is they have no kitten chow, so we have been mixing milk with adult cat food, and he seems to be eating that quite well, even trying to open the cupboard and get it today. Is this ok, because our options are limited. He also cries a lot and has been having diarreha at least 3 times a day. Everything on here says "go to a vet" but once again, this isnt realistic at all. Basically I would love some actual, practical advice besides taking him to a vet or going to a store and buying the latest food. Please give me any advice you can think of! Thanks and I will update you all about him if things change. From China,
Scott ps. feel free to email me at my address...

Hi Scott - well, there are several places on this site where you'd be better to look and get quicker responses. The experts among us have a health and nutrition forum as well as one directed specifically to kitten care. Personally, I'm no expert, nor will I claim to be, but I think that the adult cat food will be causing him a lot of problems. At 3 to 4 weeks, the kittens should not have been taken away from it's mother in the first place, so whoever gave you the kitten has really done him a huge disservice. Definitely look for the health and nutrition forum for practical food advice - they will probably suggest that you try cooking and mushing your own meat for him, I think. DOn't take my word for things, look there - the MODS will give you sound advice.

Good luck!

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=4 (health and nutrition)

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=36 (pregnant cats and kitten care)

The practice of taking kittens away is common here and from what some of my students ahve said, he is older than most, so basically the rest of the world except for some of europe and north america are doing a disservice to the poor little guys... but thank you for the help thus far, i agree with the adult food, but yeah, not much other choice though thanks again !!

You're more than welcome - I really hope the little guy gets better soon - he sounds like he's had a little bit of a tentative start. It's such a shame that they should be taken from their mothers so early on. Still, like I said, you've come to the right site to get advice on more or less anything - with over 8000 members, it's hard to find a base that ISN'T covered!

By the way, welcome to TCS! Hope you enjoy it here as much as the rest of us do!

If that's cow's milk you're mixing with his food, that could definitely be the source of the diarrhea as most cats cannot tolerate it. It would be safer just to give him the adult food. One of the main differences between adult formula foods and kitten is the addition of additional protein. If it's available you might want to mix in a bit of meat to up the protein content a bit.

Hi and welcome to TCS!!!!!!!!

See you on the forums !!!

Hope you and your new kitty are doing well! I agree with the poster who said not to mix in milk...I have also heard that milk is not well tolerated. If the baby isn't able to eat hard food, you could moisten it with water and heat it up. (My vet told me to do this with whole kitten food when my Marlee was having trouble eating). Good luck, and as has been said, I know you'll find the answers you need here!

Ashley and Marlee

Do you have access to any dewormers?

I think adult cat food plus a concentrated protein source like plain chicken will give him adequate nutrition.

I agree with the other recommendations but also suggest you check out the sites http://www.kittenrescue.org as well as http://www.kitten-rescue.com Kittens need specific nutrients and you may find some recipes on that site. Gven that you are in a country lacking access to proper commercial kitten food, you may have to continue making his food. Do not feed him milk but the recipes on those sites (as well as this one maybe? - a search may find one) for kitten milk might help. Cats cannot digest cow's mikl but you may be able to obtain goat's milk or some other type that he can digest properly in China?