Baby multigrain cereal for 2.5-week-old hand-reared kittens?

[erynne]

What is "normal" yellow vs "illness" yellow? Their stools are typically a burnt umber color, something along the lines of this:

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• erynne
• Jun 9, 2016

Ginger is having liquidy poo that is verging more towards gold ochre, though still a little darker.

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• erynne
• Jun 9, 2016

Is that considered healthy coloration? Would I be looking for a much more yellow color for unhealthy stool, maybe something like the color of breastfed baby poo? Someone should make a color wheel for kitten poo...

Thanks!
Erynne

 

[Sarthur2]

The gold ochre, moving towards mustard color, worries me. The burnt amber color looks fairly normal.

The more yellow and liquid-y, the more concerning. Brown is more normal.

 

[erynne]

Good to know! I'll keep a weather eye on him, then. He had just a tiny smear of poo (and copious pee)at the 3:45am feeding, so hopefully this is easing off.

Thanks!
Erynne

 

[erynne]

More questions!

Bran and Ginger are about 3.5wk old now. They'll occasionally get in the litterbox and scratch a bit, then look very serious while they do nothing. They're still needing stimulation to pee about 90% of the time (every couple of days, Bran pees all over their towels in their kitten box and only produces a few drops when I stimulate him). Is this all in line with how litter training should be going at this point? I've started stimulating them while they're standing inside the litterbox and I've even buried a few bits of toilet paper with kitten poo on them to help encourage them to think of the litterbox as the place to do that.

I've also started offering a tiny bit of their formula/goat's milk in a shallow dish once a day to explore. Mostly they just step in it. Bran tried to lick twice: the first time he only licked the dry rim of the bowl and the second time he snorted it into his nose and stumbled away sneezing repeatedly to clear his nostrils. Ginger has only ever stomped in it. I offer it after they've had half their bottle, so they're still keen to eat but not frantic with hunger, but it's been unsuccessful so far. At least I'm trying to get them used to the idea of foodstuffs in a saucer...is this about right? Any tips on success?

Thanks!
Erynne

 

[erynne]

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• erynne
• Jun 14, 2016

Ginger being thoughtful.

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• erynne
• Jun 14, 2016

Bran being "stealthy" as he stalks his brother from behind the toilet.

 

[Sarthur2]

In my experience, kittens do not learn to use the litter box until they begin eating solids in earnest. I've found this to be in the 5-6 week old range.

At 3.5 weeks old, I think they are not ready at all. They sound as though they are beginning to potty sometimes on their own, but not all. Kittens who are with mom are still being stimulated by mom until they are eating solids.

I would not rush things.

They sure are cute! [emoji]128522[/emoji]