should i bottle feed one of the kittens?

[faith09tp]

Hi Everone!

Well Misty and her babies are doing just fine. But I'm wondering if I should start bottle feeding the smaller one a little? I've been watching the closely for the past day and the bigger one, the dark tabby, pushes the smaller one, the one with white, out of the way when they're nursing, he's just really feisty and the poor little one always gets pushed out of the way. Being only two of them you'd figure he wouldn't do that, but he acts like he hasn't eaten in days! lol And I think it's starting to make a difference now. The bigger one(he was also the 1st born) in considerably larger than the other one, has already lost his umbilical cord day before yesterday, and has his eyes open since yesterday, the other one still has his umbilical cord and his eyes show no signs of opening. does anyone think i should get some kmr and start bottle feeding the little one? misty is a terrific mom, but maybe the little one needs some help?

 

[kluchetta]

If there's just the two of them, I would try & make sure the smaller one gets a nipple closest to the front. If fatty pushes skinny off, intervene and place skinny on the front nipple and place fatty a bit further back.

Frankly, I've tried to bottle feed and it's really hard. I'd let nature do it if possible!

 

[faith09tp]

yeah, I've been trying to do it. But fatty(

) just moves himself right back to where the little one is. I've even see Misty try to do something similar to that herself, but the big one loves to pick on his sibling(don't know what their sexes r yet). I'm constantly trying to seperate them while they're nursing but for some reason the bigger one just loves to push the other one out of the way and get on the nipple that the smaller one was on.

 

[missymotus]

Are you weighing them daily? As long as they are both gaining it should be okay.

 

[catsallover]

I had to intervene for a small one for a while- whenever I was in there and they were eating, I would make sure the little one got a good meal from mom. And yes, bottle feeding is difficult, and some kittens are better at it than others, so if the small one is gaining weight (I used a kitchen scale, and wrote it down each time), then if you help occasionally to make sure he doesn't have to work so hard for a meal, he may catch up some- and he should do better at getting a good meal once he gets a little older

.

 

[artharitis]

For the smaller one I'd probably try bottle feeding a little bit if you can. It is difficult at first, but I find it can be done with persistence, and it may give you peace of mind that the lil ones getting enough

I'm betting he will be fine either way though.

 

[gayef]

I wouldn't be so quick to want to bottle feed ... it has only been a week and unless the smaller one (my guess is she's a girl and the bigger one is a boy) isn't gaining weight every day you don't need to supplement her. By doing so, you take away the very valuable immune boosting properties of the mother's milk and kittens who are bottled tend to get lazy when put back on the nipple ... weigh them at the same time every day to make certain the little one isn't gaining at an increase before supplementing.

Now that being said, if the little one is not steadily gaining, then yes, by all means, get some goat's milk and supplement her. But try to give her every opportunity to nurse even with supplementation.

 

[april31]

Sometimes if mom alows you also can remove the bigger one for a very short amount of time to allow the smaller kitten to nurse on its own a bit. The best time would be right after the big one got done eating.

 

[momofmany]

I can't say that I've had a nursing mom, but I have bottle fed orphaned litters. One of the litters of 3 kittens had 2 that were much larger than the other. By the time they were 6 weeks old, Maggie was twice the weight of her sister Scarlett and I guarantee that we were feeding them the same. Even at that age their growth patterns may be different (they both grew to be 7 pounds as adults and their brother grew to 18 pounds). So as others have said, as long as they are both gaining weight, let mom take care of them.

 

[momof3rugratz]

Runtz was my smallest and what I did was when the kittens would all go to sleep I would take runtz and Skittles to a different area and I would let Runtz nurse while I babies Skittles within 2 day Skittles figured it out that Runtz needed more. She would let her nurse 24/7 even when she ate she took runtz with her out of the nest and let her nurse while she ate... I would try to get the kit to the nipple when the others are sound to sleep.