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I have no idea what I'm doing

CassieQ

Entry posted by CassieQ

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I have no idea what she was thinking. I came home from work Friday evening, and found my sister and my cousin crouched on the kitchen floor, peering into a plastic tub and grinning like fools. They had gone out and confiscated three baby kittens that had been taking refuge in the bushes of our yard.

 

My sister claims that they were abandoned, but I seriously doubt that, as they are not malnourished or seem like they haven't had adequate care from Mommy, but since they have been taken from their home, I am worried about returning them, since Mommy might think they have run away or been killed.

 

These kittens are young. The shelter (who refused to take them) said they looked about 3-4 weeks old. I have plenty of experience taking care of my two cats, but not kittens, and especially ones this little. The shelters I have looked at so far will not take them before they've had shots and the vet said they can't have shots until they are about 4-6 weeks. We are fostering them rather than taking them to the pound, but I have no idea how to take care of them. We are feeding them kitten milk with bottles every 3 hours, but they don't take a lot of it. Only one of them will eat soft food. Two of them have taken up the litter box. Me and my sister gave each of them a bath and scrubbed them with Dawn to kill the fleas (on the shelters recommendation) and I picked them off with a pair of tweezers. So now they hate both of us ohmy.png

 

Anyone have any advice? I shouldn't get involved in this, since I did not take the kittens in, but I know that none of us have any idea of what we are doing. Right now they are living in a inflatable children's pool that we picked up at Kmart. I have them in my room, which is one of the warmest rooms in the house. Right now, I would just like to keep them alive until we can get them into the vet's office, who can hopefully give us some advice.

 

Sheesh.

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9 Comments

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W_L

W_L 10,895

Posted

I love kittens, I used to pet sit a few cats.

 

Best advice, be tender and show them affection, they'll return the favor. If you were closer, I'd probably ask if you were willing to part with one as I'd love to have a cat.

  • Like 1
Renee Stevens

Renee Stevens 26,952

Posted

Hey Cassie~

 

Growing up we took care of a few different litters of baby baby kittens. If one of them is currently eating soft food, then you might want to try seeing if they will take the cat milk out of a saucer. You can dip their nose and mouth in it briefly to encourage them and they may lick the milk off their nose and then start on the saucer. If this don't work as well, then when you are trying to bottle feed them, hold them so that one index finger rests on their throat and rub gently up and down from the bottom of their jaw down their throat. It will encourage them to suckle. Some kittens have a hard time taking to a bottle nipple after feeding from their mother. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions, if I can't answer them, I may be able to get ahold of my grandma who has raised A LOT of little critters.

 

Hugs

~Renee

Renee Stevens

Renee Stevens 26,952

Posted

Also: From their size it looks like they are getting old enough to where we started to wean them. We usually ground kitten food in a blender and mixed it with water (you can add a bit of the supplemental milk) and do the dipping their mouths in it as well. You can even get a little bit on your finger and gently open their mouths and put it right on their tongue and tilt their head up a little bit to help them to swallow it. It might take a bit of time, but this always worked for us.

CassieQ

CassieQ 21,210

Posted

Thanks Renee. I'll tell my sister to try some of these things in the morning. :)

Mark92

Mark92 1,347

Posted

Agrees with Renee on the food part, everything gently and slowly the other thing is their toilet. Are they going okay? Kittens still with their mother, are licked on the right area to encourage them to go. Disgusting but mother cat eats it. Therefore if they are not going regular enough this needs to be encouraged with some warm, wet cotton wool stroked over the places. And you definetley not have to eat it LOL. The only other thing is warmth and you say you give them that. Also make sure the eyes and nose are cleaned daily. These places are rife for infection. Take them to the vet if you are worried and when they need their shots. Also look up worming them, kittens are born with fleas and worms often follow. Good luck :):hug:

intune

intune 349

Posted

I have no idea what to do with kittens, but I DO know that you should post pictures :P

CassieQ

CassieQ 21,210

Posted

I have some up already, but I'll try to post more later

Aeroplane

Aeroplane 22

Posted

D'aw but they're so little! :D

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