Expert: Ali - 4/11/2010

Question
We feed a few stray cats in our neighborhood and 3 of them pretty much live in our garage, which we'll leave open for them on cold nights. One of the females (we think she's 9-10 months) just had 5 kittens a week ago in an empty box on a top shelf in the garage. She's been taking good care of them the past week, but the night before last I noticed she wasn't with them. I checked all day yesterday and I haven't seen her once. I became extra worried when she didn't show up for dinner either. The kittens seemed to be sleeping peaceably yesterday, but I checked to see if she was back this morning and she hasn't returned and they're crying. I see her mate sleeping in the garage (they're never far from eachother) but no sign of mama. Would she have abandoned them because of us? How can I tell if she has or if she's still feeding and we just haven't seen her? Although I checked at 1:30am when it was cold and she still wasn't with them. They're eyes aren't even open yet so my hope is that she'll return. How long should we wait before stepping in to help the kittens? It's been one day and a half since last I saw her. Please help.

Answer
Tiffany,

This can be a tough call to make, unfortunately the kittens can only survive without their mom for so long before their immature systems, starvation and the elements claim their tiny lives. I think that it's a good idea to have a peek at the kittens up close and generally assess them overall to see how they're doing. It's possible that momma cat has been around without you having seen her, but in this situation the lives of these kittens are at stake if your hunch is right so it's well worth finding a way to access momma's temporary nursery so that you can see the kittens up close and handle them a bit to guage their condition. Kittens aren't able to maintain their own body temperature when they're this young so they depend on their mom and each other in order to stay warm - a kitten that's cool to the touch is in rough shape. Gently having a peek at baby bellies can tell you quite a bit as well, if your kittens' bellies aren't slightly rounded and firm enough that their bellies feel full there's a good chance that mom's been sneaking around to take care of her little ones. If the kittens are very vocal with bellies that aren't slightly rounded and a bit firm to the touch that is probably an indicator that the little ones are getting little to nothing to eat. If these babies have suddenly become limp, lethargic and they've recently stopped crying for mom the odds are pretty good that they're in need of immediate care. Since you have reason to suspect that the kittens have been abandoned by their mom I think that it would be wise to have them assessed by a vet to determine whether they're in good enough condition to bounce back without any help or if their condition is more serious than it initially looked. Hand raising kittens isn't the ideal, it's important to realize that not every orphaned kitten that's being bottle fed and cared for by people will make it all of the time so it's a good idea to hope for the best and expect the worst in a situation where babies have likely been abandoned by mom.

The fact that the momma cat hasn't come back to her kittens (as far as you know) for at least 36 hours or so makes me wonder if she's been hit by a car, met some other fate or was taken into the local shelter by animal control officers - in the majority of cases mother cats are very maternal and they don't generally abandon their kittens unless they're not able to make their way back to their babies for some reason. It's important that you do NOT attempt tube feeding the kittens unless the vet has shown you how to do this correctly because if you get it wrong the kitten will drown on formula when you try to feed him/her. Kittens must be positioned properly during bottle or syringe feedings in order to ensure that they have little chance of inhaling their milk while you feed them. These babies are very young and they can't survive for long without their mom so the longer that you wait to bring them inside the lower their chances of survival will be.

Your main priority at this point in time is to keep these babies warm, dry and comfortable and provide them with some nourishment. If you have a 24 hour vet in your area you may want to call and ask if they have any kitten formula and bottles/syringes (depending on what you're most comfortable feeding with) - they may have some in stock and commercially prepared kitten milk replacer is second best to mom's milk. If you don't have a 24 hour vet in your area you can give these babies full fat goat's milk (warmed to a comfortable temperature on the inside of your wrist just like you would for a human baby) tonight. If you aren't able to get goat's milk anywhere at this time of night I'd recommend the following recipe for short term use:

Emergency kitten formula

90 ml of condensed milk
90 ml of water
120 ml of plain yogurt (not low fat)
3 large or 4 small egg yolks

Most newborn kittens weigh between 80-140 grams at birth with the average healthy kitten weighing in at between 100-120 grams. When you feed these babies be sure that you don't allow them to roll onto their backs like human babies, this can cause them to aspirate (inhale) their formula and essentially they drown. You don't need to put the babies on a heating pad if your home is comfortable and free of drafts, if your house is on the cool side (or even air conditioned depending on where you live) then I'd recommend using a heating pad on the lowest setting wrapped in a few layers of thick towels and be sure that the heating pad itself doesn't cover the entire box that the kittens are in, they need to be able to crawl away from the heat easily if they're too hot. On average while many people say that newborn kittens can be fed every 3-4 hours I generally find that feeding them to a point where their bellies are gently rounded every 1 1/2-2 1/2 hours works best. When you feed the kittens a bottle or syringe of kitten milk replacer it's important that you DO NOT cradle the babies like human babies because kittens can accidentally inhale their meal in this position. Just like any other babies the kittens need to be burped about halfway through their meal and again at the end of their meal. Be sure to burp the babies by gently sitting them upright (like you're sitting a small child on your lap) and you can either gently tap their backs until they burp or gently rub their tummies using a really gentle upward motion.

Once the babies have burped you will need to gently stimulate them to urinate/defecate by rubbing their bottoms from genitals to bum repeatedly (they may not pass any stool tonight and that's okay, but they should pee fairly readily when stimulated) with a cotton ball, sections of an old face cloth cut into strips or unscented natural baby wipe, this will have to be done after every feeding. Initially it's a very good idea to check on newborn kittens that haven't had an opportunity to nurse from mom every 2 hours or so even if they don't cry for you because you want to ensure that they're getting enough to eat, they're not too hot/cold and that they continue to be strong and vigorous. If you notice that one or more kittens starts to fade there many not be much you can do about it because by the time you start seeing signs of serious weakness, poor feeding, etc the kitten is already in serious trouble. Since these babies are brand new you may also want to gently clean their umbilical stumps with a Q-tip and a tiny amount of rubbing alcohol or iodine a couple of times a day until the stumps have completely dried up. If you find that the kittens develop loose or watery stool add some full fat plain yogurt to their formula (whether it's homemade or commercially produced kitten formula) because yogurt contains the beneficial bacteria normally found in the healthy digestive tracts of mammals which means that it will help to settle down diarrea fairly quickly.  

Although hand raising newborn kittens is tiring and labor intensive it's well worth it, however it requires loads of patience, a fair amount of time and some sleepless nights (sometimes by the time that you finish feeding all of the kittens, burping and cleaning them up you'll have enough time to sterilize kitten bottles/nipples, make up more formula and start again). I would recommend that you buy the orphan kitten/puppy feeding kit made by Just Born since the bottles, nipples and bottle brush can be sterilized in boiling water which will cut down on the risk of infection - just don't forget to pierce the nipples with a few little holes made by a hot pin, otherwise you could have some very frustrated and somewhat cranky kittens on your hands!

If you're able to find a nursing mom who might be willing to adopt these babies as well as caring for her own litter (you'd still have to do supplemental feeds, but it would be much easier on you and better for the kittens in the long run) that really would be best for them since mom's milk means these kittens will be stronger and healthier, but if you can't find a lactating queen willing to adopt then hand rearing these little ones is the next best thing. Please don't hesitate to contact me again - I'll be more than happy to talk you through any questions or concerns you might have during the next few weeks.

Based on what you've described I've taken the liberty of including a website that offers a fair amount of information on hand rearing orphaned kittens due to the fact that this website has limited the length of answers that experts can send to questioners. Hand rearing a kitten is time and labor intensive, it's not uncommon for these kittens to need nearly constant attention because their mother would normally be providing care, cuddles, food, protection and warmth for the majority of each day.

http://www.messybeast.com/handrear.htm

Contrary to popular belief kittens shouldn't be taken from mom (this is a unique situation because mom has either abandoned her babies or been hit by a car which has left her unable to care for her babies) or separated from their littermates until they're at least 12 weeks old Keeping the litter together until they're 12 weeks old is good for them, they will slowly learn important kitty skills that they wouldn't be able to learn on their own so I would encourage you to keep the little ones together for at least 10-12 weeks (preferably 12 weeks if you can), this will also help to reduce the likelihood that the kittens will develop serious behavioral issues that might increase their odds of being abused, neglected, abandoned, surrendered to a shelter or even euthanized by a private vet) - this happens because kittens learn boundaries and rules while they play with each other and by learning how to respect boundaries of their mom or in this case their littermates they learn how to follow direction and respect boundaries that are consistently enforced by patient, humane human caregivers. If you'd like I can provide you with more information about the developmental and social milestones you can expect to see over the next few weeks as the kittens get stronger and grow into healthy, spunky babies. I can also provide you with little tips that might be helpful in terms of saving you time, patience and in some cases sanity while you're bottle feeding a litter of kittens.If you have any further cat related questions or concerns please feel free to contact me again and I will do my very best to help you raise these babies and care for them until they're fat, healthy little ones who are ready to go into their new forever homes.