I recently took in a stray and found out the hard way that she was pregnant...although extremely malnutritioned and full of fleas, she somehow carried and delivered 8 kittens. Turns out they were premature. Just how premature I am unsure, but they were very small, weak and some had no fur and bulging eyes. By the second night, all but one died. It broke my heart to watch them go but I know that the mortality rate is very high for preemies. And that is where my concern begins. The sole survivor started out suckling and eating normally on his own with no assistance...matter of fact, the mama would periodically make trips to her food bowl dragging a still suckling baby under her. He was strong! I was doing everything possible to ensure this little guy had the best odds possible...I separated the momma and baby from the rest of my animals, made a warm bed for them and checked on them every hour and made sure to keep the baby flea free. Although I was cautious, on the third day my male cat managed to get the bathroom door open and steal the baby from his bed and took him out to the living room. He quickly released the baby and I gave him a thorough once over to find that he had a small gash on his cheek and a cut on his lip but otherwise just fine. After I cleaned him up a bit, I set him with his momma and he instantly began to suckle. He appeared to be fine, however, on the fifth night I observed him and he seemed a bit lethargic and unwilling to suckle. He had been on a downward spiral ever since. I took him to the vet, but that was not much help. The vet seemed very uninterested and sent him home with some antibiotics and no encouraging words or advice. I have been managing to feed the little guy with an eyedropper full of warm Hartz kitten replacement milk and I have somhow managed to get his medicine in him, but he fights me tooth and nail. I figured there would be some resistence at first to the replacement milk as it is not the same as momma, but I would have thought that he would get used to it. He is still very small and cannot suckle, but he does seem to have a little more energy than before. He is not having any trouble peeing and pooing. Momma still cleans him when I put him in front of her, but she does not pay him any attention and if they were not locked in the same room together, she would be wandering about the house without another thought of her baby so I have had to pick up the slack feeding him every 2 hours. I still try to get him to latch on to the momma, but it's as though he cannot suck. He roots for the nipple but when he finds it he will bite at it a few times then just lay his head down. I am also concerned with the fact that he does not cry unless I try to feed him the formula. I usually have to wake him up to feed him then he "swims" for a comfortable spot on the bed and falls back asleep. Should I be concerned with the amount of sleep he is getting or is that normal for a kitten (especially premature)? Another thing I am conserned about is that every website I visited concerning the care of kittens says that a kitten should lose their umbilical cord at around 4 days old...my little one is going on 8 days now and still has his-should I be worried about this? I am unexperienced and full of questions. I just want what's best for the little guy. He has fought so hard so I will fight just as hard to keep him healthy. If anyone has any information that would be helpful to my situation, it would be greatly appreciated by not only myself, but the little guy who struggles to hang in there every hour for the last 8 days.