Orphaned Kitten Progress Update

She's Growing!

Update as of Wednesday June 4th, 2014.

Day 3 (Saturday 5/31) weight: 283 grams = 9.98 ounces

Day 4 (Sunday 6/1) weight: 300 grams = 10.58 ounces

Day 6 (Tuesday 6/3) weight: 351.5 grams = 12.4 ounces

My little bottle baby!

It's amazing how fast she is growing! I can't wait for her to be able to sleep all night though...I ended up staying home from work and school on Monday, I was so exhausted I felt nauseous. I truly have a new appreciation for parents. It's crazy! I couldn't imagine having a full time baby for longer than it takes a kitten to grow.

Sorry it's been a few days, like I said I just couldn't function I have been sooo tired balancing school, work, house stuff, my two dogs and the kitten! **My hubby has been helping but it hasn't been easy!**

On top of that it's finals week for me, and at work we have a big audit coming on Friday (this happens every year) being my first audit with the company if I do a good job I can potentially get a raise. Unfortunately I've been tired and grumpy, I just have to hope I don't miss anything.

But lets talk about the baby:

She's learning to use the litter box!

Cats are wonderful in this sense! They're all practically born potty trained, she no longer needs stimulation to go potty, and she's had 2 bowel movements (I was worried because I couldn't get her to go poop!) turns out kittens only poo every couple days, besides that she's still on just a milk diet.

We've also got her eating every 3-4 hours now, that's a little bit helpful for our sleep schedules.

We tried making gruel on Monday - milk and wet kitten food mixed together to get her started on solids, that was a disaster!
She was howling with hunger, and just in case she wasn't interested in the gruel I had a warm bottle on standby. Once she figured out the food was in the dish I was offering her she immediately plunged her face into it and snorted a bunch up her nose!

Then I had a screaming, choking kitten...so sad! I felt terrible! So no wet food I decided for another day or so..

After reading a blog about weaning kittens I decided to try one of the suggestions with the kitten wet food (we're giving her blue buffalo kitten food), serving it to her in a spoon - I only gave her a tiny bit, because you then give her milk to wash it down with, you don't want to upset her stomach with a new diet too fast.
Ya...about that spoon....utter failure! She smeared it around just fine, and in her frustration clawed up my hands and attempted to chew on the edges of the spoon, if I lowered it she stepped in it howling only ever the louder, I even attempted to put it on the ground! More howling ensued, her sense of smell is fine but her eyes are still developing, she couldn't seem to find the food. So back the bottle we went. And she was much happier.

Time to groom!

Orphaned Kitten Day 2 - Bottle Crisis

The Issue of Nursing

May 30th, 2014

 All day I've slowly been having problems using the syringe to feed our little kitten. The plunger seems to be getting stuck, this could be due to the fact that I have to wash everything in warm soapy water between each use. 

This evening however it became an issue.

I tried rubbing with my fingers, just a little bit of oil on the plunger. This worked great until I put the milk in and then it got all stuck again.

My next thought was maybe the probiotics are clogging up the walls just enough that the plunger can't move smoothly. Either way the kitten is getting stronger and more hungry, and it makes me feel terrible when I either can't push milk out slowly, or it goes so fast that I spill most of it down her pretty white fur.

This evening was in fact such a terrible feeding event that her tiny little claws came out and she proceeded to gnaw on my fingers and scratch in her attempt to drink from the syringe.

I became so upset at the fact that I ended up spilling most of it all over her, and then the plunger got stuck completely that I had to enlist the help of my wonderful husband again. We cleaned her up and decided to give the baby bottle a try again.

Now for the problem with the bottle....

She has hated it from the beginning, day 1 she was too weak to use it even though we put holes in it she just couldn't suck hard enough to get milk. We've since then offered it a couple more times and I think she just doesn't like the taste or the texture of the rubber. One lady I talked to said she was never able to get kittens to use a bottle. 

This evening however we decided to try again with some modifications. After cleaning her up we enlarged the holes - she still didn't want it and proceeded to claw at my hand for food because she could however smell the milk. Keep in mind their sense of smell is one of the first things they develop from birth.

Next we decided enough was enough, cut off the tip!!

Success!!  She now drinks from the bottle, its a much better solution - I no longer have to keep filling up the syringe and taking it from her when she empties it (she was drinking between 2 - 3 full ones at each meal), its much more natural as she can go at her own pace, also slightly less messy however she still needs to be cleaned up between each meal just like mama would do!

My husband feeding the baby.

Orphaned Kitten Day 2

She's Growing!

May 30th, 2014

Well this morning we decided to weigh her, and my kitchen scale said she weighs 259 grams about 9 ounces! 

Last night was a little different than the previous night, she slept much better and I had to wake her up to feed her (no more crying!), she also decided around 2 am that she wanted to walk around. Keep in mind she's really tiny still and mostly crawls, she's pretty wobbly on her feet but she got in some good exercise before going back to sleep. Also heard her purr for the first time! It's really quiet so you have to listen close, but it was definitely a purr!

This morning at around 6 am, my wonderful husband took over baby duty and proceeded to carry her around like a kangaroo in his hooded sweatshirt pouch while he went about his morning routine and I slept. 

Today we ended up carpooling to work so once I dropped my husband off, I headed over to my in-laws home because I had an hour to kill before going in to work myself. They were of course in love with the kitten.

I keep assuring everyone, we aren't keeping her. Just giving her a wonderful home until she is healthy enough to go to another wonderful home. We want what is best for her, but 3 cats are simply too many in my opinion.

I tend to disagree with people's choices to have more than 3 cats, unless they are siblings and grow up together. Why you might ask?

Cats are solitary creatures and like to have lots of their own room or territory, unlike dogs who are pack animals, and they tend to not like each other so they get into the occasional spats.

Its not natural for them to live together. It's not that they can't get along (I have 2 cats of my own) but every so often they have an issue and a small fight ensues. My two cats I worry might hurt or kill the kitten so we keep her separated and she's never unsupervised. But she also doesn't have a strong enough immune system to be around other cats yet.

Day 2 at work!

After breakfast nap

She sure does a lot of sleeping, i'm kind of jealous.  Being kind of tired I grabbed a dutch bros on my way to work. I thought the lid was appropriate for the kind of day i'm having so i'll share it with you guys.  It says, "Love Abounds" thanks Dutch Bros! You're a lifesaver!

And like a typical new mom - according to my girlfriend..I got out of the house with everything the baby needed and mostly got myself together in the process, hair and makeup done, but I forgot all of my jewelry. Haha!

I've also perfected how to go about feeding her, here's my setup:

I heat water in a mug in the microwave, I then place the appropriate amount of goats milk mixed with probiotics (i'm using Forti Flora the vet said half a packet per 2 ounces of milk) into a shot glass and drop it into the water to warm it up. You never want to put goats milk in the microwave as nutrients will be lost if you do.

Here you can see I have a tupperware container filled with ice surrounding the bottle of goats milk that I brought with me for feeding. I never heat all of it, only what I need and if she doesn't finish some in the shot glass or the syringe I toss it out so that she gets fresh milk every time.

Also having the warm water, it makes it easy to get her to go potty. I just dip a cotton ball into the water once it has cooled, and proceed to wipe her with it and groom her after every meal.

After looking at a few websites and determining that 259 grams is about 9 ounces, she should be eating between 56 mL and 80 mL's daily (1 cc = 1 mL), which thankfully the size of her bottle is 60 mL.

Feeding Guide

Age in Weeks	Average Weight of Kitten	Amount of Formula Per Day	Number of Feedings Per Day
1	4 ounces	32 cc	6
2	7 ounces	56 cc	4
3	10 ounces	80 cc	3
4	13 ounces	104 cc	3
5	1 pound	128 cc	3

http://www.feralcat.com/raising.html

Yesterday she ate a little over 1 bottle so we're on the right track! And we feed her until she doesn't want it anymore.

Isn't she sweet! She has gotten really good at eating from the syringe, we tried the bottle again but she didn't want anything to do with it. We're thinking that she may not like the rubber texture or how it tastes, and she's turning into quite the pig!

We're going to start weight her twice daily, morning and night because her food intake has doubled since yesterday and it will be fun to track how fast she grows.

Let me know if you have any questions or tips!