New Born Kitten Care

In week three the ear canals are completely open. Kittens will also start socializing with people and each other if there is any of the litter with them.

There are a few different reasons you may find it necessary to take a new born kitten to care for it. The mother cat may be sick and unable to feed the kitten or the mom cat could have even died. The mother cat is often referred to as the queen. If the kittens health seems sick and weak, sometimes the mother cat will not feed it. Or even the worse, someone may have dumped the kitten and just left it on the side of a road.. This is very sad but it does happen. If you find an abandoned newborn animal and do not want to take care of it yourself, please call your local animal shelter. They will pick up the babies and see to it they are taken care of or at least put out of their suffering.

If you decide to assume the responsibility of caring for the new born kitten, good for you. The first thing you will need to do is make sure the kitten is warm. A chilled kitten can die in a very short time. The normal temperature of a new born kitten should be between 95° F and 99° F. The temperature of the baby kitten should never drop below 94° as this low could cause metabolic shock. So take a few moments to hold the kitten close to you for your body heat. Fix a clean dry bed for the kitten, use of some old towels and a cardboard box will be fine. The use of a heating pad or a heat lamp should be used with a lot of care as the kitten will over heat. If you need to use these objects, make sure the kitten can crawl away from the warmer spot.

Once the kitten has warmed up, take a few minutes to look at and observe not only how the kitten looks but how it is acting. Are the ears and eyes clear or they matted with pus, infection or even fleas. Is the kitten moving around, vocal and active or still and non responsive? If the kitty looks and acts okay, you might try to give the kitten some fluids. The pedialyte that is given to humans can be used to rehydrate. Using an eye-dropper, a syringe or by bottle feeding, do so very carefully. These items along with commercial milk re-placers such as K.M.R.®, Nurturall®, or Just Born®, can be found at a pet store or a veterinary. Use the manufacturer's feeding guide that can be found on each item. The bottle fed kitten will gain weight a little faster then the queen feed kitten.

Always wash your hands before the feeding and handling of the kittens. Keeping all feeding equipment and bedding clean will help to promote good kitten health. Very important to know is the kitten, until the age of around three weeks old can not voluntarily eliminate urine or feces. They must stimulate the urogenital reflex after every feeding by very gently swabbing the perineal area with a warm, cotton ball or soft cloth. This can be moistened with either water or vegetable oil. Also gently but thoroughly wiping over the kittens body will also ensure cleanliness. After about three weeks you can start mixing the replacement milk and canned kitten food into a mixture like a milkshake or a mush and start the kitten to eat out of a dish.

The first three or four weeks will be tough, sort of like a human baby. The kittens will need to eat around the clock. The joy of aiding with the kitten care will soon turn the helpless kitten into a new family member with a unique personality all of it's own.