Pooh's Corner: Tips for humans that suddenly find themselves Mothers to motherless kittens!

Mama's Corner: Tips for being a Mother to a baby kitten!

What you will find on this page:

Greetings!

Temperature

Formula

Amount of Food

How often to feed

Baby Bottles for kittens

A note on feeding

Toys

Sleeping quarters

Litter Box

Safety

Eye drainage

Claws

Greetings! I am one of Poohs Mamas! Actually, there are three of us here that take care of Pooh... my Mother, my teenage son and myself. Though Pooh has met our other cats and our dog, the meetings have been fairly brief so far. After the trauma that the little baby had gone through we all felt it better to give it space to itself to start with.

Even though we have had cats for many years (the oldest of our cats is close to 13 years old) and almost all of them have come to us as kittens, we had never had the opportunity to have a tiny baby kitten around. There was so much that we did not know. Thankfully we have a wonderful vet that has helped us along the way.

What an absolute delight it is to watch the daily changes that take place! What a remarkable speed kittens learn at! There is such a special connection that comes with this type of caring for a baby kitten. The sheer delight of the kitten spotting you and gleefully running full speed to you; the little trusting eyes that look up at you; the mammoth purr that escapes when the kitten is picked up... can hardly be expressed in words. The transition from a cold, frightened, hungry and desperately crying kitten into one that knows that they are safe and loved and that their needs will be met is a wonderment to behold.

Feeding times are special times. There is a bonding and a togetherness that simply must be experienced to understand. Sure, it means a lack of sleep for the feeders, but it is well worth it. A part of me will be very glad when I can get a full nights sleep once more but at the same time, when the bottle feeding stops I know that I will miss it.

There are some wonderful tips that we have learned during this process. I thought it might be nice to share some of these tips with you. If you know anyone that has become a Mama Kitty <g>, please share this page with them.

Temperature: A baby kitten is very susceptible to temperature. The 24 hour emergency vet that we contacted the night Pooh came to live with us stressed the importance of it to us. Had Pooh remained outside that night, the kitten would not have survived. We placed a heating pad (turned on the low setting) into Poohs area and covered it with a folded towel. This kept it from being too hot but provided the warmth that it's real Mama would have been able to give had something not happened to her. We also wrapped up a small clock with a wash towel and put it in the sleeping area. For the first few days, Pooh snuggled up to this clock to sleep.

Formula: Thank heavens for formula! While most pet stores carry a ready-made formula for nursing kittens, the vet was able to give us a recipe so that we could mix one up (not too many pet stores are open at midnight). Mix together: 1 can evaporated milk, 1 can of water; 1 egg yolk and 2 Tablespoons of molasses or honey. Keep this mixture refrigerated. We keep it in a large jar and use a smaller jar to heat some up to body temperature before putting it in the bottle (yay for microwaves!).

Amount of Food: How much do you feed a tiny baby? Actually it goes by body weight. 2 Tablespoons of formula per 4 ounces of body weight per day. So for a kitten that weighs 8 ounces... 8 ounces/4 = 2 X 2 Tablespoons = 4 Tablespoons per day. So it would be divided up between all of the feedings.

How often to feed: Kittens are essentially on a 4 hour feeding schedule.

Baby Bottles for kittens: Luckily we discovered baby bottles for baby animals (most pet stores carry them). But, there appear to be two different types. The first store we went to only had the one kind (luckily we stopped by another store a few days later and discovered the second and best type). One type has a nipple that is similar to the type found on bottles for human babies. Unfortunately this does not work as well in a kittens tiny mouth... and it is very easy for the kitten to lose it. The best type has a nipple that is long and ends almost in a point (giving it an elongated triangular appearance). This is much more suited to their little mouths and much easier to feed with. The nipples have to be punctured in order to be used. They recommend using a needle or a razor blade. We first started with a needle... afraid to make the hole too big. We learned though <g> and now the nipple has a huge X cut in the end. You want the whole to be big enough that the formula will slowly drip out if inverted. Periodically you need to check it during feeding though because it can (and does) become clogged. The name and brand of bottle that we found to be so good is Pet Nurser by Four Paws.

A note on feeding: Don't be surprised if you have 2 paws and 10 claws desperately trying to pull the bottle! The motion takes the bottle right to their tummy - bypassing the mouth entirely! It takes a bit of practice (and patience) on your part and some learning and time on the kittens part to get the nipple into the mouth. Pooh is still learning this. The white cap that the nipple is on stands out and seems to be the major focal point to the kitten, but slowly the nipple is being related to more and more. I think a lot of this has to do with the kittens eye sight. At first things that were up close were not seen clearly but each day that seems to change a little bit more.

Toys: Some of the playthings that Pooh enjoys most are quite simple... a wadded up sheet of heavy paper; an empty cigarette box (wonderful to attack, bite, shake, etc); small check boxes (great for getting on if up side down or into if right side up); an empty cereal box (actually a double box... great to go in and out of); a plastic ball; a plastic ball with a bell in it (placed on a metal cookie pan in Poohs area, it makes lots of racket and rolls much better than on the carpet); and of course the most favorite: long hair (great to bat and to chew); legs (made just for kittens to climb up) and fingers (oh the joys of teething!).

Sleeping quarters: At first Pooh was quite content to curl up on a towel. When we had to take Pooh to the vet (being a rather cold day) we found a small cardboard box just the perfect size for the kitten and lined it with a small towel. After the trip, we set the box into Poohs Corner and it was immediately adopted as THE best sleeping place! All cats seem to love to get into boxes and they like nice cozy areas so Pooh really loves this box!

Litter Box: Much to our surprise (and delight) Pooh took immediately to a small litter box that we made from a cardboard box lid (lined with heavy tin foil). In fact, Pooh has now outgrown it (as of today) so a full size box has been placed in Poohs Corner. He is barely big enough to get into and out of it so we improvised... an old telephone book is perfect as a stair-step into it and we filled it with enough litter to make it high enough that it can be easily climbed out of.

Safety: A very important point here. Little kittens can get around much better than one might think! Make sure the kitten is in a safe area... an area without things that could tumble down should they be climbed, no loose cords or strings to get tangled in, etc. Another safety tip (sent in by a visitor to this site - thanks Gail!) is to keep the toilet lid down! Small kittens can sometimes get places that you would never expect... if a kitten were to fall into the bowl, it wouldn't be able to get back out and would probably drown.

Eye drainage: As mentioned, Pooh had an upper respiratory infection which showed itself through a lot of eye drainage. According to the vet, the drainage is acidic and can harm the kittens eye. Luckily we got Pooh to the vet when we did. An antibiotic seemed to clear it up right away. The ointment that we were given to put into the kittens eye was to protect it from the drainage so that the acidic level in it would not cause damage.

Claws: At first, the claws are tiny little things that hardly make a pin prick... but oh how fast that changes! Claws are not detractable at first either. It has been fascinating to watch the changes (even though a bit painful at times <g>). Once they become detractable the learning process begins so that the kitten can master their use.

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