Expert: Norman Auspitz - 9/3/2009

Question
Hi,
I found a kitten on the street yesterday and he/she doesnt even have his/her eyes open yet.I think she was intentionally left to die because I left him/her alone for two hours thinking the mother would come get her. She now lives inside the house in a basked filled with old clothes and meows all day and night. I bought a baby bottle and been feeding him/her milk every 3 hours until he/she doesnt want to eat anymore. How do I make sure this cat survives? I have no cats at home. Also, the kitten has no teeth yet. How old is this kitten?

Answer
Joanna,

OK, you will have to hand raise it, and it clearly can take formula from a bottle until the kitten is weaned (about 3-4 weeks of age). This kitten is probably less than one week of age.  Kittens this young are not very good at regulating their body temperature yet, so the most important thing is to keep it warm. You should keep it in a warm draft free part of the household with no access by other pets or young children.  It will do well in a good sized cardboard box with old toweling or sheeting.

To see if the kitten is doing well when you hand raise it, we like a digital postal scale for weighing the kitten. Newborns should gain about 1 oz (30 g) in the first week and nearly 2 oz (50g) in each subsequent week until weaning.  A good feeding regimen for kittens is 4 times a day (e.g. midnight, 7:00 AM, 1:00 PM, 7:00 PM).  

You can get good kitten milk replacer products, e.g. Justborn or KMR.  Until they get their strength, you may want to add a bit of unflavored Pedialyte to the formula (about 2 parts formula to one part Pedialyte for the first couple of days).

Normally, the kitten should take about .3 oz (8-10 mL) of formula for every 4 oz (100 g) of body weight.  Divide this by 4 to get an idea of how much to feed each time.  If the mixture is too rich or the kitten is being overfed, the kitten can get can get diarrhea. If the kitten does not seem to drink enough, wait a few minutes and try again. Make sure the formula is warm on the back of your hand before giving it to the baby. In any case watch out for over feeding.  This can cause diarrhea and, worse, if a baby regurgitates it can aspirate the formula leading to pneumonia!

Once the baby has been fed, you can potty it.  It should pee each time and poop once a day. To potty the kitten get a soft tissue or cloth and gently stimulate the genital area, it will potty.  You can burp the baby by holding it upright and gently tapping on its back.  

Please get back to me if you have more questions and let me know how the little tyke is doing.  Hand reared kittens are always a challenge and it does not always work out.

Best regards... Norm.