surrogate cat mother help pls milk question!

[rideeverystride]

Ok so I have a mother cat who has 5 babies they are 4 weeks old and I have a mother cat who has 1 baby (she had 2 but one died during it's birth) so the one kitten is 3 weeks old. I work for a shelter and these are cats/kittens I am fostering. I was told to put one of the kittens from the group of 5 in with the cat who only has one baby as the mom with 5 kittens is very thin and the mother with 1 baby is pretty fat and the baby is pretty fat as she has no competition for food. I have put one of the 5 babies in with the mom with one baby an she is taking to the baby well.. she is feeding it and cleaning it with no problems. I have been asked to possibly put in one more of the 5 babies with the other cat mom tomorrow so each mother cat will have 3 babies and it will be less stress on the very thin mom who had the 5. My question is... as the babies are 3 and 4 weeks old... will the mother with the one baby have enough milk to feed another 2 babies? I hope this makes sense! I tried to make it as simple as possible but it was hard to explain. Advise/opinions would be great thanks!
Again I work for a shelter and this is what they are telling me to do but I am the one who is monitoring them so as much info as possible is great!

 

[StefanZ]

It should work, I think.

They produce milk as the need is, into some extension.  In no kittens, it dries up, if there are kittens, comes milk.

As long as the second mom accept new fosters, or the older fosters arent mean to the younger "residen", there should not be real problems.

Do weigh them every day, this way you will see if they get enough milk. If you want to be really safe.

It is not that unusual they use foster mothers... So there shouldnt be problems as long as surrogat mom accepts.... 

Good luck!   *vibes*

 

[jennyr]

I agree with Stefan - try it and weigh the kitten daily to make sure it is putting on weight. It might help to get the new mom to accept another kitten by rubbing the kitten with her milk, so that it smells right to her.hen I foster kittens, especially iof there a large number oof them and it is hard to monitor each one all the time, I find it very important to weigh each kitten every day and keep a record, then you know immediately if one has a problem. Good luck.