What Do Baby Kittens Need To Survive

If you adopt or foster an orphan kitten in this age group special care will need to be taken including bottle feeding the kitten for every two hours up to four weeks of age and possibly helping your kitten pee and poop.

What do baby kittens need to survive. Newborn kittens may nurse about every 1 2 hours. Baby kittens need a lot of love and care to survive especially when they have been taken away from their mother at an early age or have been abandoned by her for some reason. Orphaned neonatal kittens require around the clock care so you ll want to establish a routine of care every 2 4 hours the younger they are the more frequent the intervals between feedings it s normal for the kittens to sleep just make sure they are in a safe and confined space. When the kittens are 3 4 weeks old provide formula in a shallow dish as well as some kitten food that has been softened with water.

Kittens get everything they need from a mother cat s milk for the first four weeks of life and are usually able to chew dry food by 6 to 7 weeks and completely weaned by 8 to 10 weeks of age. However you will need to provide the cat with enough necessities that will equate to the maternal love they would have gotten from the mother cat. An ideal spot is a simple cardboard box lined with a warm blanket. Newborn kittens cuddle up with their mother and siblings to stay warm.

Part 1 gathering the right equipment. Your little cat needs two to three times as many calories and nutrients as adult cats making proper nutrition particularly important. This article will show you the correct way to feed a newborn kitten in order to give it the best chance of survival. The mother cat offers her newborn kittens their best chance for survival so wait and watch as long as you safely can for her to return before removing them.

Remove the kittens only if they are in immediate grave danger. Kittens younger than 10 weeks old need a warm bed to prevent them from becoming chilled according to vetstreet. Do not give cow s milk to the kittens because it is too hard for them to digest. At about three to four weeks old they can be offered milk replacer from a bowl and then small amounts of moistened kitten food four to six times a.

If the mother cat returns. When the kittens are 1 2 weeks old bottle feed the kittens every 1 2 hours with a commercial milk replacer formula. This will help the kitten to survive more because of the nutrients it contains. Place a heating pad into the box as well set to low.

The best food for the kittens is their mother s milk. Wrap a heating pad or hot water bottle in a blanket to create a warm bed but position it so that your kitten can move away from it if she gets too warm. If your kitten has been abandoned you ll need to keep her warm. You need to feed the kitten bottle feed formula after every 2 3hours.

The following is a general eating schedule for newborns and young cats. Because kittens this young are unable to regulate their own temperatures they rely on one another s body heat to survive. Kittens from six to 12.