They are able to go on their own by 3 weeks old.Just out of curiosity, At what age do you stop manually helping them go to the bathroom? I know young kittens have to be rubbed with a moist towel to get them to go.
A big tip here is not to rub, but to tap on their butts/genitals, that's all it takes, rubbing causes raw sore butts and they will scream when it gets that way, making them contract instead of relax and let go of their poop.
Temperature of the room should be normal and comfortable for you, but a heat source in with them is what is needed to keep their temperatures up to about the same as ours is, so they are able to digest their formula properly, when their temp drops below 95 their organs will not digest the formula, so you never want to feed a baby that feels cool when you touch their paws or ears.
Constipation was definitely the problem.
I added some olive oil to the formula and started massaging them with a towel dipped in warm water and after some time
a little poop became visible but wouldn't come out. Poor things were struggling and their little butts were very swollen. It took almost 20
minutes with each one but after a lot of (gross! ) massaging and pressuring and warm water, 3 of them managed to push out a huuuuuge
brown poop, with normal color and texture too thankfully. The one that had already gone in the morning also pooped a little again.
We were all exhausted in the end and now they are resting next to their bottles of hot water (inside a sock).
4 down, 1 to go, but I'm a lot more optimistic now, the olive oil worked miracles in only a few minutes and I'm happy they didn't have diarrhea too.
They didn't poop normally and it took a LOT of work with each one, but I think that is to be expected for their 1st time and after being constipated for 6 days (their whole lives basically ).
The formula is kept nice and warm if it's in a small dish that is floated on hot water in a bigger dish.
Now the most important thing is to be sure they are eating enough for a daily gain.
So it's important that you locate a s cale that will weigh them, preferably in grams.
Commonly kittens will gain about 1/2 an ounce per day, but the goal is at least 10 grams.
Having a scale can help determine if they are getting enough.
For every ounce of weight, they need 8 mls of milk, per day, so weighing 4 grams means 32 mls of formula per day.
You're doing a GREAT job for being a newbie to cats!!