Newborn kittens should stay with their parents until they are eight or ten weeks old, as there is no substitute for colostrum and breast milk. Before this age, it is not advisable to abandon them for adoption. But how to feed kittens from birth to 3 months that have been rejected by their mothers? What about those who have been orphaned?
When and what to feed kittens?
From birth to three weeks, kittens receive from colostrum all the nutrients they need for normal development. By the fourth week, they begin to lack breast milk and the kittens may become anxious, creak, and demand food.
In addition, during the third week of life, the kittens begin to cut their teeth. It is recommended to start feeding them with a mixture of oatmeal (oatmeal instead of grated oatmeal!), Cow’s milk, cream and chicken eggs. Thoroughly mix all the ingredients until smooth and bring the milk to the thickness of the liquid sour cream. Pour the mixture in a flat bowl in which the kittens will eat it. The amount of mixture consumed will depend on the amount of cat milk and the number of kittens in the brood.
Formula recipes for artificial feeding of kittens
Sometimes it is necessary to artificially feed the kittens (when the cat has mastitis or when it is dead). The ideal option would be to find a kitten to feed the kittens. Cats always accept other people’s kittens. If it is not possible to find a cat quickly, you will have to replace the kittens with your mother and replace the breast milk with a milk formula. If possible, the milk mixture can be purchased from a veterinary clinic or a veterinary pharmacy. However, if this is not possible, you can prepare the mixture yourself. Here are three recipes for cat’s milk substitute.
- 0.5 liters of condensed milk, egg white and 4 teaspoons of granulated sugar.
- 50 g whole cow’s milk, 15 g whole milk powder, 2.5 g dry yeast.
- 50 ml of whole milk, 50 g of boiled, half a raw egg yolk, a teaspoon of corn oil.
Strictly follow the recipe when preparing the mixture.
The mixture cannot be stored, so you need to prepare a new serving each day.
Whole cow’s milk should not be given to kittens, it is not nutritious enough for them and does not contain all the necessary vitamins.
Instructions for artificially feeding kittens
The daily diet of a kitten weighing 120 g when using a milk substitute is 22 g. The milk substitute is heated to 30 degrees and administered in the first days with a pipette or syringe without needle, a few days later from a 100 ml bottle with a pacifier. The total amount of milk replacer per day is evenly distributed among the kittens, if the kitten is not alone.
At the age of two days, the kitten is fed every 2 hours 24/24. From the 3rd to the 5th day during the day, feed every 2 hours, at night, you can feed the kittens every 3 hours. From the 5th day – every 4 hours at night, and during the day and every 2 hours. As the weight of the kittens increases, the amount of mixture increases.
The main sign that you are eating properly is that after a week, the kittens’ weight should double, then the kittens gain 100 g of weight each week. In other words, newborn kittens generally weigh 90 to 120 g, a week later, their weight should be 180 to 240 g, a week later from 280 to 340 and so on. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out a weighing check of children. After the 8th week, boys cats start to gain more weight than girls.
From the 4th week, the kittens start to be fed as usual.
Then gradually from the 6th week, gradually start to introduce into the diet of twisted boiled meat, cheese, vegetables. By the time the kitten is 3 months old, it should eat solid food on its own. How and what to feed kittens over 3 months old, read the article “How to properly feed a kitten (from 3 months to a year old).
Ideally, the kitten should receive milk from the cat mother until the cat refuses to feed the kitten. In general, you should not take a kitten from a cat before the age of 3 months, because with milk, the kitten receives the antibodies necessary to form immunity and nutrients for a good formation of the skeleton and the growth of organs.
