HOW TO RAISE ABANDONED KITTENS TO MAKE GREAT PETS

I took some of the original group in because their mother could not care for them. As is often the case with feral cats, the strong will survive but some are left behind. My first group of 5, some of which I have kept, are old enough to eat by themselves and starving enough to lick my finger when I introduced canned food. Some of the others had to be bottle feed and that even worked out quite well. Although there are commercial formulas on the market, my kittens never cared for them very much. Here is the recipe that helped my dozen kittens to thrive, it was given to me by a vet:

4 oz. of evaporated milk (Carnation)
4 oz. of boiled water
1 egg yolk
1 tsp. vegetable oil
1 tbsp. corn syrup

They certainly never minded the taste and my own 4 boys are now over 2 years old, healthy and very smart!!!

Never feed cow's milk or whole eggs as kittens cannot digest those properly and lead to difficiencies later on. The milk formala should be made fresh in small quantities and refrigerated between meals. You can warm it up a touch for feeding. Small bottles are available at pet store.

The little black fur ball above is Dot, as she first came into our lives. On the day we found her, crying in the bushes, she had a bad eye infection that had shut her eyes sealed shut. We cleaned her up, took care of her eyes and she is now my daughter's much loved pet.

Eye infections are common with stray kittens and unless they are a sign of feline herpes they are very treatable and not recurring as the cat ages.

As a reference you can also look here to find out more about your cats health with cats health secrets!

Should your kitten not be so well behave as my lot, there is also some information to help you manage at www.learningsquare.net/CatTraining

The first kittens I found were in my basement and left behind when the mother went elsewhere, I believe she originally had 6 kittens. I heard them crying for a day or so, before I realized that the mother would not come back for them. They were small and dehydrated and they would be known as Puffy, Spot and Penny...I also quickly realized that Penny was a male and she/he got renamed Benny!!!

They were old enough to eat can food, slightly warmed up with a touch of that formula milk to make it easier for them to take. I gave them a small corner and lots of blankets so they could keep warm. They quickly thrived. From that spring to late fall I found some more, starting to believe that my neighbours were bringing me strays to look after!!!

When looking after the very young kitten you have to take over some of the essential and lifesaving care that a mother cat would provide. The kitten will not urinate by itself until it is old enough, in the mean time you have to take a wet tissue and wash over his behind to stimulate the urination. If this is not done the kitten could have serious health problems. Some very young kittens will not be able to handle the milk replacement formula and you can eventually lose one. Although this is heartbreaking you have to console yourself in the fact that you are doing your best and there are always reasons with things happen.

With small kittens you might need to use a plastic syringe to give the initial introduction to the milk, it is smaller for them to handle and will at least give them some nourishment. The litter training will come somewhat latter in the exercise but given the proper size of the litter box it seems to come very naturally to them.

The sweetheart in the picture is my buddy Bear, an amazing personality and very expressive eyes.

Bottom of the page there is also my first stray kitten...Charlie. Take a peek...

At the height of my insanity...Yes, it's OK to call it that...I was bottle feeding 9 kittens. I got up at midnight and at 5 am to feed them, just like babies!!! I use to get the bottle ready, and they would KNOW it was coming...and start feeding them one by one as they were meowing and jumping up to try and reach my hand before any of their brothers or sisters could. I would fill them up a little then put them aside in a seperate box and then feed another, after than initial start up feeding I would take them again and spend a litte bit more time feedind each and every one of them. The funniest was always Titi, the runt of the litter who would stand on the head of the stuff horse I had put in the pen, perhaps thinking that the extra height meant that I would reach for him first...when I reached down he would leap at my arm!!!

The picture below is the group of 7 that I finally raised, sleeping on my daughter's lap. It is hard to know where one starts and the other begins...The fact that they had no mother and that we handled them so much made for very special cats. They have still close to us and close to each other.