The seller of my kitten says she's not sure if the 5 kittens her cat gave birth to ever pooped or peed. Is this normal? I checked some YouTube videos and while the fecal matter does not look like regular adult feces, you'd still notice it from 5 kittens. Not sure about the pee but they drink milk so there must be a lot right?
What are the odds they haven't pooped or peed at all? They're just over 4 weeks old. I know you can stimulate them to do it by themselves while the mother cat usually helps with that if she's around but I don't know if the seller's Constant interference with the kittens ("because they're so cute") with them is disturbing the mother cat's natural process.
She's been letting them sleep in her bed since they learned to walk and climb about a week and a half ago. That's also worrisome in my opinion. She could roll over them or get sick herself let alone they might go number 1 or number 2 or BOTH in her bed and shouldn't they be with their mother cat right now? Isn't this kind of interference going to detach the mother cat from the kittens too early and she will stop caring for them and feeding them her milk?
I ended up buying her a bunch of healthy wet and dry food and she really appreciated it (spent nearly $80) just to keep my kitten healthy as well as the other 4 kittens and the mother cat. Luckily she realized the terrible diet she had them on (well, the mother cat) and said she is now buying the same wet food and even though at first didn't think to feed her the dry food, is feeding it to her as well.
I asked if she mixed it to ease her into the new diet and she said she followed my advice but her cat wouldn't touch the dry food that way but when it was on its own, she ate the dry food right away. She devoured the wet food, a whole can right away. I think she may be giving her too much of that but then again it's all resupplying her lost nutrients from possible malnutrition and her cat might sense that she needs this food more than ever now since I got mother and baby / mother and kitten formulas.
Just to give you more information, here is the food I chose and I will most likely feed it to my kitten for the first year at least as well:
I chose the diet for the mother cat based on what I learned here and went for Dry food with a shorter list of Guaranteed Analysis but healthy ingredients rather than a huge list of tempting vitamins and other brain activity supplements. The nice lady at PetSmart who really seemed like she cares explained that while Purina ONE does have a huge list of ingredients which seem healthier as a whole, come from a lower quality source. So even if it says it has so much more in it, the source which those vitamins and supplements are coming from are not the best so it's better to keep it basic or pay more for a more trustworthy source.
For people like me who knew nothing about this stuff until people like you were kind enough to educate; a list like the Purina ONE looks super tempting and much better than the short one of Nulo which I ended up opting for even though it didn't have the DHA for Vision and Brain Development (which also seemed very important but I was told it was kind of a marketing gimmick, not sure how true that is).
Links:
The Dry food I CHOSE - Short list but everything is real, high quality and grain-free.
The Dry food I almost chose - Notice the long tempting list of great things your cat will get
As for the wet food, it was way easier and a no-brainer due to the amount of research I accumulated and I feel like wet food is easier to pick but maybe I just got lucky finding the right one quickly:
The Wet food I CHOSE
Now, I understand that even after everything I learned on here, I may have still gone and made the wrong choice but I think I was being careful enough to pick the best for them and while I can't afford such expensive food, I felt it was important. People here talk about how I should have rescued a cat rather than get 1 from Kijiji but I pretty much feel like I rescued 5 as well as their mother cat by educating the seller.
The seller seems very nice and understanding and I can only take her word for it since you don't know how she is when she is not talking to me but she seems genuinely nice and appreciative and that makes me happy to help and contribute.
This kitten will end up costing me probably 400-500 bucks more than what it would have as a rescue but I get to spend the time with it as it grows (now only over media since Covid hit again) but it's nice to let it grow with you rather than just find a 3 month old kitten (in my opinion at least it has some kind of novelty to it)
Please educate me on anything if you feel I should have done something differently. Love you all and thanking you in advance!
What are the odds they haven't pooped or peed at all? They're just over 4 weeks old. I know you can stimulate them to do it by themselves while the mother cat usually helps with that if she's around but I don't know if the seller's Constant interference with the kittens ("because they're so cute") with them is disturbing the mother cat's natural process.
She's been letting them sleep in her bed since they learned to walk and climb about a week and a half ago. That's also worrisome in my opinion. She could roll over them or get sick herself let alone they might go number 1 or number 2 or BOTH in her bed and shouldn't they be with their mother cat right now? Isn't this kind of interference going to detach the mother cat from the kittens too early and she will stop caring for them and feeding them her milk?
I ended up buying her a bunch of healthy wet and dry food and she really appreciated it (spent nearly $80) just to keep my kitten healthy as well as the other 4 kittens and the mother cat. Luckily she realized the terrible diet she had them on (well, the mother cat) and said she is now buying the same wet food and even though at first didn't think to feed her the dry food, is feeding it to her as well.
I asked if she mixed it to ease her into the new diet and she said she followed my advice but her cat wouldn't touch the dry food that way but when it was on its own, she ate the dry food right away. She devoured the wet food, a whole can right away. I think she may be giving her too much of that but then again it's all resupplying her lost nutrients from possible malnutrition and her cat might sense that she needs this food more than ever now since I got mother and baby / mother and kitten formulas.
Just to give you more information, here is the food I chose and I will most likely feed it to my kitten for the first year at least as well:
I chose the diet for the mother cat based on what I learned here and went for Dry food with a shorter list of Guaranteed Analysis but healthy ingredients rather than a huge list of tempting vitamins and other brain activity supplements. The nice lady at PetSmart who really seemed like she cares explained that while Purina ONE does have a huge list of ingredients which seem healthier as a whole, come from a lower quality source. So even if it says it has so much more in it, the source which those vitamins and supplements are coming from are not the best so it's better to keep it basic or pay more for a more trustworthy source.
For people like me who knew nothing about this stuff until people like you were kind enough to educate; a list like the Purina ONE looks super tempting and much better than the short one of Nulo which I ended up opting for even though it didn't have the DHA for Vision and Brain Development (which also seemed very important but I was told it was kind of a marketing gimmick, not sure how true that is).
Links:
The Dry food I CHOSE - Short list but everything is real, high quality and grain-free.
The Dry food I almost chose - Notice the long tempting list of great things your cat will get
As for the wet food, it was way easier and a no-brainer due to the amount of research I accumulated and I feel like wet food is easier to pick but maybe I just got lucky finding the right one quickly:
The Wet food I CHOSE
Now, I understand that even after everything I learned on here, I may have still gone and made the wrong choice but I think I was being careful enough to pick the best for them and while I can't afford such expensive food, I felt it was important. People here talk about how I should have rescued a cat rather than get 1 from Kijiji but I pretty much feel like I rescued 5 as well as their mother cat by educating the seller.
The seller seems very nice and understanding and I can only take her word for it since you don't know how she is when she is not talking to me but she seems genuinely nice and appreciative and that makes me happy to help and contribute.
This kitten will end up costing me probably 400-500 bucks more than what it would have as a rescue but I get to spend the time with it as it grows (now only over media since Covid hit again) but it's nice to let it grow with you rather than just find a 3 month old kitten (in my opinion at least it has some kind of novelty to it)
Please educate me on anything if you feel I should have done something differently. Love you all and thanking you in advance!