Hi!
I am by no means an expert, but this is my experience with my first and only litter of 4 kittens.
On adoption:
I started taking my babies to their forever homes one on Friday and one on Saturday at 10 weeks
I put the baby in a basket and called on the mom, having her follow me until before I closed the door. I made sure she saw that I was taking the baby on Friday.
On Saturday I took her to get sterilized since I heard shenanigans of her being in heat again. She couldn't see her gray baby off.
On Sunday afternoon yesterday, I picked her up and took her home, she immediately went to her remaining 2 babies and licked them. She didn't seem to go search for the other 2, though it's still been a couple of days she seems fine.
What was funny is that my mom reports a baby cat waking her up in the middle of the night and sleeping next to her on the bed, same report as from the family of baby gray. They seem to miss sleeping huddled together. I mention this since the same might happen with yours if they used to sleep together.
On using the litter box:
I'm not sure how they learned to use the box since momma is a stray that adopted us. So she poops outside and must have taught the babies to scratch the floor and cover it. I do recall them scratching a corned of the room where some cement flooring was coming off and them pooping When I noticed that, I put the litter boxes down with non-clumping litter and after a couple of days I started seeing poppies and wet spots on it. I let nature take its course and by 8-9 weeks they all went to the box.
On nursing and feeding:
My babies still nursed up until the last moment at 10 weeks, though with less frequency. The runt still seems to want to suckle but since mom returned sterilized I don't know if she can.
I put down nutricious kitten food for momma as soon as I saw that she had kittens.
By week 4-5 I noticed they began trying to eat the tiny kitten food, so I started preparing them a mix of wetted dry food (mixed dry food with small amount of water until it was soft) and some patee or cat food pouches, shook it up and gave it to all at the same time. I noticed the runt didn't care for it until about a week or 2 later than her siblings.
Again, I let nature take it course at its own pace and by week 7 or so, they all ate the mush. At this point I started to give them dry food with a treat of wet food. At 10 weeks they can all eat dry food on its own, but I still mix in some patee as a treat.
I hope this wall of information helps you somehow. I am by no means an expert, but my main recommendation would be to let nature take its time. All the babies are all different, but will get there.
If you have any more questions please let me know. I will see if I can be of any help
I am by no means an expert, but this is my experience with my first and only litter of 4 kittens.
On adoption:
I started taking my babies to their forever homes one on Friday and one on Saturday at 10 weeks
I put the baby in a basket and called on the mom, having her follow me until before I closed the door. I made sure she saw that I was taking the baby on Friday.
On Saturday I took her to get sterilized since I heard shenanigans of her being in heat again. She couldn't see her gray baby off.
On Sunday afternoon yesterday, I picked her up and took her home, she immediately went to her remaining 2 babies and licked them. She didn't seem to go search for the other 2, though it's still been a couple of days she seems fine.
What was funny is that my mom reports a baby cat waking her up in the middle of the night and sleeping next to her on the bed, same report as from the family of baby gray. They seem to miss sleeping huddled together. I mention this since the same might happen with yours if they used to sleep together.
On using the litter box:
I'm not sure how they learned to use the box since momma is a stray that adopted us. So she poops outside and must have taught the babies to scratch the floor and cover it. I do recall them scratching a corned of the room where some cement flooring was coming off and them pooping When I noticed that, I put the litter boxes down with non-clumping litter and after a couple of days I started seeing poppies and wet spots on it. I let nature take its course and by 8-9 weeks they all went to the box.
On nursing and feeding:
My babies still nursed up until the last moment at 10 weeks, though with less frequency. The runt still seems to want to suckle but since mom returned sterilized I don't know if she can.
I put down nutricious kitten food for momma as soon as I saw that she had kittens.
By week 4-5 I noticed they began trying to eat the tiny kitten food, so I started preparing them a mix of wetted dry food (mixed dry food with small amount of water until it was soft) and some patee or cat food pouches, shook it up and gave it to all at the same time. I noticed the runt didn't care for it until about a week or 2 later than her siblings.
Again, I let nature take it course at its own pace and by week 7 or so, they all ate the mush. At this point I started to give them dry food with a treat of wet food. At 10 weeks they can all eat dry food on its own, but I still mix in some patee as a treat.
I hope this wall of information helps you somehow. I am by no means an expert, but my main recommendation would be to let nature take its time. All the babies are all different, but will get there.
If you have any more questions please let me know. I will see if I can be of any help