Expert: Ali - 6/5/2009

Question
Hi Ali Im hoping you can give me some advice? I have a Bengal female who has recently given birth...5 weeks ago. she only had the one kitten and although she was a great mum for first 4 weeks has lost interest in her kitty now. she is calling and trying to get out of the house constantly. she has stopped feeding kitty and has not bothered to litter train it. also because she is an only kitty im worried she is not getting proper social kitty interaction as her mum only gives her occasional lick here and there and does not sit with her or play with her. kitty started eating the kitty biscuits i put down for her mum and drinks water from a bowl but is getting no milk from her mum at all. do i need to get some kitten formula? she cleans herself really well and seems very independant. she seeks out adult company at any oppertunity though and meows if there is nobody in the room, even if her mum is there. im worried she is being to dependant on people and this will affect her in a bad way?
she is really loving and happy as long as she has a lap to sit on of can see or hear people but seems distressed if she cant. also her breath smells quite bad its like a strong sour kind of smell. and as she is so small im concerned its her diet. although she has firm poos often. also any tips on litter training as she seems determined not to use the litter tray, i use the wood pellet type litter.
thanks in advance of your advice
Bonnie :)

Answer
Bonnie,

Unfortunately there's not much you can do to get mom to accept her baby back once she's decided to walk away from her. If mom was allowed outside during the time she was nursing this kitten and shortly after she gave birth it's quite possible that she's become pregnant again, sometimes when cats become pregnant quickly after giving birth they will stop caring for their young kittens and leave them to fend for themselves. A queen can become pregnant as early as 24-48 hours after giving birth so I'd suggest keeping mom indoors while she's got young kittens to raise if she has any litters in future.

I don't recommend feeding dry foods, they usually tend to be cereal based which isn't good for cats. Cats are true carnivores which means that they must eat a meat based diet in order to be at their healthiest. I'd suggest checking out catinfo.org, this web site was created by a veterinarian with a desire to educate pet parents about the unique nutritional needs that cats have and how best to meet those needs for the long term health and well being of our cats.

At this stage it's not necessary to get this baby a conventional kitten milk replacer, however if you wanted to ensure that she's getting a bit of extra nutrition to support her rapid growth and development at this age you can either add a commercially available weaning formula or some kitten milk replacer to her diet. I normally mix weaning formula with a high quality canned cat food like Wellness or Spot's Stew by Halo or a properly balanced raw diet made at home as described at the web site I've recommended above. I suspect that the sour smell your kitten's breath has is due to improper diet, I think that switching her over to a more cat friendly diet would improve matters dramatically.

Unfortunately since mom didn't hold up her end of the bargain in terms of nursing, caring for and properly socializing her kitten it's not uncommon for kittens weaned so early to have some behaviors related to not having the time they needed with mom. It's not unusual for abandoned kittens to imprint on people, it sounds like this is probably the case with your kitten - she no longer sees mom as her mom, she sees people as her caregivers. That's not a bad thing in a pet, though it can make it difficult to re-home a kitten if she's attached to someone specific in your household.

Kittens weaned at 4-5 weeks commonly develop an interest in nursing on blankets, fingers, stuffed toys, other household pets, human ear lobes, and sometimes lips. If your kitten isn't showing signs of such behavior her anxiety may be linked to that fear of abandonment and lack of mom's interest in her care. I'd recommend that you consider trying a homeopathic remedy called Bach's Rescue Remedy which is a blend of flower essences designed to calm and reassure to see if that helps with her anxiety and distress. You'll want to add about 7-10 drops of Rescue Remedy into the kitten's water bowl or food and see what happens over the course of several days. I've used Rescue Remedy for 10+ years in a variety of situations with many different cats and I've found that it's quite effective and safe when used to deal with a variety of root causes often responsible for anxiety and fear. This remedy is perfectly safe, there's no need to worry about administering an accidental overdose because homeopathic remedies don't work quite the same way as conventional medicine. You can find Rescue Remedy in health food stores, naturopathic pharmacies, some mainstream pharmacies stock this remedy in the aisle with nutritional supplements or vitamins and as far as I know you can also purchase this remedy online.

Kittens are normally quite easy to litter train. I suspect that the difficulty you're having with this kitten is related to the type of litter that you're trying to get her to use. I'd recommend using a plain UNscented clumping clay kitty litter, this is a more natural option for cats. Once you've switched kitty litters you can try gently placing the kitten into the litter box and holding her with one hand while you use the other to take a front paw and dig. If you do this after the kitten's eaten, been playing for awhile or has just gotten up from a nap she should be receptive to learning. Failing the gentle way of convincing the kitten you could always confine her to a small bathroom with her litter tray until she uses it. If you'd like further information on the different types of kitty litters I'd suggest checking out catinfo.org and going into the section directly related to litter box issues.