on my morning walk today i found a paper bag with nine abandoned kittens... it was horrible left to die on the HOT pavement in the HOT florida sun... being the cat lady that i am i took them home to save their tiny lives... appear to be two weeks about... some eyes open some almost open... bottle feeding, stimulating them etc...they are warm and are acting better and kinda livelier than when i first brought them in. third feeding went well... they all peed.. no poop yet..a few questions... im to feed them every three hours... all night long? just in the day? help with the schedule please? also how much am i aiming for them to take each feeding and for each kitten? glad for this forum... just learned correct feeding position here! any advice accepted! this is a big job!
Daily Kitten Chat Forum » General Chat
saved nine abandoned kittens!
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Wow it seems like you're doing a good job. I'm sure some of our more experienced people will be on shortly to give you better answers and tag this appropriately. I do know that that every three hours will include overnight. They can get dehydrated pretty east. That's a lot of babies to feed! Good luck!
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Yes, day and night, I'm afraid, or their blood sugar can crash and they can fade pretty quickly, you will have to wake them if they are not awake. Bless you for doing this. These sites will help:
http://www.messybeast.com/handrear.htm
http://feral-kitten-rescue.blogspot.com/2008/10/feral-kitten-how-to-story.html
http://www.kittenrescue.org/pages.php?pageid=15
http://www.fanciers.com/cat-faqs/orphans.shtml
http://www.feralcat.com/raising.htmlAlso click on the pink tag 'orphans', top right hand side, for previous threads and lots of good advice on this subject. Welcome to TDK! we will help all we can (but we are not vets).
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How much they need depends on how old they are and how much they weigh.
If they are one week or under, they will weigh around 4 oz, and they should get 32 cc/ml per day divided into 6 feeds.
If they are 2 weeks, they will weigh around 7 oz and will need 56 cc/ml per day divided into 4 meals per day. The last website I gave you has the feeding chart.In other words, they need 8 ml per day per oz of body weight, divided up during the day into several meals, depending on their age.
You also need to make sure the kittens are flea-free, fleas can cause anaemia in young kittens and this can lead to death. Comb them as much as possible, If they're really infested you may need to bathe them in Dawn but at this age I'd be trying to avoid it, you don't want to chill them. If you do need to bathe them, do it as quickly as possible, in a warm place, towel them off quickly as possible and put them down immediately again by a heater or on a heat pad or similar.
They also need to be burped (like a human baby, hold them, stroke their backs) after feeding and stimulated to pee and poop.
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Oh my god! You are amazing! Do you have someone to help you? Can you solicit the help of a vet clinic or a rescue group? Maybe someone in either place would be willing to take on some of the babies so your load is lighter- that's a lot of babies- and 36 paws. I hopehopehope they make it, and wonder if you can ask your vet if the feeding should be three hours, two, etc. and other related advice. How could someone abandon them in a bag like garbage? Makes me so mad.
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First off, I'm so glad you are taking on these kittens. No animal deserves to be dropped off and left to fend for themselves at this age.
Oh wow! That's a lot of kittens! I only hand raised one kitten and she was three weeks old at the time.
Jcat has given you really good advice, when I first came on the sight looking for help, every site she gave me helped me so much!!
A couple of things:
-Like Jcat has already said, you will have to feed them quite often. It does seem like when one kitten starts meowing all of them will meow...that's just me. I fed Duchess every 3-4 hours as she was a 3 week old, walking around and eyes wide open.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-Another thing make sure they are in a warm protected environment, such as a guest room or a bathroom that's not used too much and has anything hazardous put away, kittens love exploring! You can use a heating pad and put it on low wherever they are to help keep them warm, although with 9 kittens someone will most likely always be warm if it's in the bottom of the pile. Lots of soft comfy blankets will do if you don't have a heating pad. I loved using this fleece like blanket with Duchess, she always snuggled into it whenever she was tired.
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-Since you have so many, perhaps like Pucca said you could get help, since 9 is A LOT every 3 hours. And it's hard to feed one, then burp it, then help it pee, and then feed the next one.
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-When stimulating, don't over do it...sometimes a kitten has nothing to pee or poop out just yet. Their bums are very gentle at this stage. When I got Duchess she was 3 weeks and already peeing and pooping for herself without any assistance. Their pee doesn't smell like it will when they get older, so sometime they pee and then it dries before we realize it. However, this isn't always the case, so you make sure they pee often. It's hard to keep a medium sometimes with lots.
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-Pooping is the same thing...Duchess didn't poop everyday because she didn't have real solids yet. Think of it like this...we poop what we can't digest or really use. So the kittens will need everything they get from the KMR, and not only that the KMR is a liquid made mostly of water so they will pee more often than poop. However...not pooping for 4-5 days is not normal in my opinion.
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-Lastly, I am so glad these kittens have a rescuer!
Posted 1 year ago by Duchess&&Gabriel #
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God Bless you. Please keep them warm- about 85 degrees at least from what I have read on line. Feeding every 2 hours (KMR) is going to be too exhausting with nine of them. I hope you have some help.
Posted 1 year ago by Angrisani2 #
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WOW so lucky someone like you found them who is willing to give them a chance at life well done you x I found a website for you tohttp://www.2ndchance.info/orphankitten.htmo.
I wish you all the best in raising your new babies i hope you have help in doing this as nine is a huge number xx -
How are they doing?
Posted 1 year ago by Angrisani2 #
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ok! so the update! everyone is doing soooo well! all are eating well and peeing and pooping, meowing and purring. i unfortunately have no help so im hella exhausted and my body is responding is weird ways! guess thats what happens when you treat your immune system like crap! lol! i feel like hell but my heart is so full...ill recover! all have eyes open to some degree... all have appetite... they still have anxiety with the lathcing on to the bottle but thats when the needleless syringe saves the day...i did have a feeding which all took the bottle, so im optimistic... the ones who are anxious cant latch and are SHredding my hands (yet im happy their claws feel strong...ive just started to use medical tape to protect my fingers..lifesaver)...poops are a toothpaste like consistency..man it takes about an hour and a half with the feeding, washcloth bath and stimulation for each! BUT WHEN THEYRE DONE AND THEY ARE A WARM PILE OF PURRING! amazing! they live in a Sleepypod (google it...ritz carlton of cat carriers) and are bedded nicely and warm from a well covered heating pad...they did have fleas but i had fostered 3 kittens in the past (one at a time) and they were all pretty infested... surprisingly these cats barely have any...theye are some but im really shocked...we flea combed a few out too.. so im not so worried for anemia and next week when everyone is stronger and my boyfriend has the day off...sink bath time! and i hope to really get rid of the problem all together...hmm what else..i found a cat rescue lady who will give me meds for Coccidia and a dewormer for free, and yesterday a friend met someone from the "cat Network" here in south florida and they've offered to spay/ neuter for free when the time comes and help with adoption! can u post pictures on this forum? i will if someone can tell me how!....thanks for your help guys!...Katrina
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ok! so the update! everyone is doing soooo well! all are eating well and peeing and pooping, meowing and purring. i unfortunately have no help so im hella exhausted and my body is responding is weird ways! guess thats what happens when you treat your immune system like crap! lol! i feel like hell but my heart is so full...ill recover! all have eyes open to some degree... all have appetite... they still have anxiety with the lathcing on to the bottle but thats when the needleless syringe saves the day...i did have a feeding which all took the bottle, so im optimistic... the ones who are anxious cant latch and are SHredding my hands (yet im happy their claws feel strong...ive just started to use medical tape to protect my fingers..lifesaver)...poops are a toothpaste like consistency..man it takes about an hour and a half with the feeding, washcloth bath and stimulation for each! BUT WHEN THEYRE DONE AND THEY ARE A WARM PILE OF PURRING! amazing! they live in a Sleepypod (google it...ritz carlton of cat carriers) and are bedded nicely and warm from a well covered heating pad...they did have fleas but i had fostered 3 kittens in the past (one at a time) and they were all pretty infested... surprisingly these cats barely have any...theye are some but im really shocked...we flea combed a few out too.. so im not so worried for anemia and next week when everyone is stronger and my boyfriend has the day off...sink bath time! and i hope to really get rid of the problem all together...hmm what else..i found a cat rescue lady who will give me meds for Coccidia and a dewormer for free, and yesterday a friend met someone from the "cat Network" here in south florida and they've offered to spay/ neuter for free when the time comes and help with adoption! can u post pictures on this forum? i will if someone can tell me how!....thanks for your help guys!...Katrina
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Wow...that sounds like a lot of work for one person. You're doing an amazing job. The little square by your post is called an avatar. It can be changed to a photo by going to the gravatar website. Click on your pink name, then go to edit and it has a link to Gravatar. I find photobucket an easy way to share photos too. You can link your avatar to catster (you'll notice many of our avatars link to catster if you click on them.) You do that by creating a catster page then copying and pasting the address into the "website" blank on your profile page.
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It sounds as though you are a wonderful meowmy. Take lots of pictures because they grow up so fast. Then when you have a few minutes to yourself you can put all the pictures together and show us some.
Posted 1 year ago by CheetahBoysmommy #
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i will when i figure it out and my brain is working correctly... im not good with computers... everyone well except one last night, had poop that was whitish... not so active. weve been extra babying her... slow feeding lots of skin contact and warmth... there is one white, one grey, one black and the rest gignger... i know a few gingers are aggressive and a few are chill but still so hard to tell apart... i got really scared last night...its one of the gingers that had that whitish poop and its just difficult to know whos who... is this ginger one of the chill ones or is she feeling bad... i got so scared, had a meltdown.. and nearly gave myself a stroke... last feeding she took her meal slow but we did manage to get a bit of purring with all the warm skin contact so im hoping thats positive...called a vet today and all the kittys will be looked at today... i want these babies to thrive... please pray really hard for them... with special focus on "stalia"... the one who may not feel so good... they are precious innocent soulds and i will do everything in my power for them
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Hi Kitten - welcome to TDK! Sounds like you're doing an awesome job with these babies - once dumped but now loved. Good luck at the vet today!
Posted 1 year ago by JoanfromNewJersey #
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Hi Kitten and welcome to TDK and you are doing so great with your babies. I have never done anything like that so have no ideas for you but you sound like you got good stuff from everyone here! Sending tons of TDK white light to the fur-babies.
Posted 1 year ago by SammyandOliversmama #
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the past few days were rough...baby Stalia has passed away late tuesday nite... we went to the vet and he had so many tests...his liver was not functioning and his red blood cells were barely there..he had some genetic anomolies to and irregular genitals... we got him meds and were planning a big ordeal for him, having our older aldult healthy cats blood centerfuged to help hi9s immune system...vet also suspected that he never got any colostrum ( for immunity)from the momma cat ..his littermates were way more aggrressive with food and he may have gotten squeezed out and the baby cats system is set up to absorb that in the first few days only. he had medicine and we did everything we could..he was sooo loved. we believe even tho his life was short we gave him an even better one than he would have had with his cat mom. much more attention... he did open his eyes and purr when near us which was basically always since we held him to our skin for warmth. talked to him and sang to him... i believe he knew we were there doting on him and he knew how special he was...we found him the night after rhe vet visit. we had been up day and night with him for 3 days...spent hundreds of dollars, but sadly, nature took its course..but in any instance i wouldnt change anything... i was blessed to have him for a week, to get to love him and give him the best possible..my boyfriend and i are pretty devastated... i made a coffin and sewed him a doll. we have his body in the freezer wrapped up. we want to find somewhere to bury him but ..in miami beach? with no car..cant just wander aimlessly in the hot sun or ride around the bus.. i really wanted to bury him..i dont know how to handle this... im going to look up some options online...can anyone help me with suggestions.. ?this is the first day that im kinda coping.. sad but i feel happy i did what i did for him . what is with those animal pick up services (found online) what do they do with your animal...?
on a brighter note all the others are doing great...vet gave them vitamins and meds and they have really great formula now... i took video on my phone too but as with the posting pix...im so computer illiterate and honestly on 2-3 hours of sleep after crying for days... my brain is not accepting new info... its TIRED.. so on my phone they stay till i can catch my breath. -
I'm so sorry to hear that Stalia passed away, but it sounds like he had some problems that couldn't be overcome. It's amazing how much love can be packed into one short week...
Do you have a friend with a yard? Who'd be willing to let you dig a hole a couple feet deep, bury your sweet kitten, and then let you plant a lovely blooming plant or shrub to mark the location, perhaps a hibiscus or bird of paradise?
That's kind of the way that I keep a remembrance of my kitties who've passed on. Their memory lives on through the plants. For the two tiny kittens who've passed in my care, I've planted bleeding hearts on the spot where I buried them.
My bleeding hearts are in bloom right now, and it makes me remember both the tiny black kitten who died of seizures and stroke, and the tiny little Siamese who never had a chance, after fleas, anemia, worms, and the freezing cold weather.
Big Guy and Bunky were buried near the peony bush, because peony bushes can live to be 100 years old (or older). Booger's burial spot is having a Zephrine Drouhin rosebush planted where he's buried, later this year. And my cat Keph was buried in a friend's yard (because I lived in an apartment), in a huge bed of catnip about 10 feet wide and 15 feet long. (Keph LOVED catnip!)
At any rate, that's just a thought.
I'm glad to hear the other kittens are doing so well! I can't wait to see photos, but I understand you're feeling a bit down and VERY tired. It's a lot of work to take care of 8 or 9 little kittens who aren't weaned yet!
My heart goes out to you, with your loss. Give the other kitties some extra attention, that they might comfort you.
Posted 1 year ago by anncetera2 #
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{{{{Kitten}}}} I'm so sorry. You did everything possible but I guess he just wasn't meant to be. He passed knowing he was loved and treasured.
I'm so happy to hear the others are doing well,you're doing an awesome job. I thought I had a hard time hand raising 2 kittens.
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@ ANNCETERA2- I HAVE BEEN SEARCHING FOR A PLACE TO BURY HIM AND HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO FIND ONE.. I LIVE IN MIAMI BEACH AND DO NOT HAVE A YARD OR NO ANYONE CLOSE ENOUGH...HE IS FROZEN RIGHT NOW AND IVE CHECKED OUT EVERYTHING...ILLEGAL TO DO IT IN A PARK, AND I LIVE ON THE OCEAN SO I WONT BURY HIM WHERE I LIVE BECAUSE WITH ALL OUR RAIN AND EROSION... AND I HAVE MY MOMS HOUSE BUT ITS A TRAIN RIDE THAT WOULD TAKE HOURS (WITH NO CAR) AND I HAVE NOTHING TO TRANSPORT HIM TO KEEP HIM FROZEN...AND OTHERWISE NO YARD... SAD I KNOW SO I THINK IM GOING TO BRING HIM TO THE VET (IN HIS LITTLE COFFIN I MADE HIM)THAT TRIED TO HELP HIM AND THEY WILL HELP ME... I JUST CANNOT BE OK WITH BURYING HIM AND IT NOT BEING DEEP ENOUGH OR IN A GOOD SPOT AND RAIN MAKES HIM FLOAT UP OR CONSTRUCTION DIGGING HIM UP...IM HAVING TROUBLE WITH THIS DECISION BUT IT LOOKS LIKE THE BEST OPTION...AM I DOING THE RIGHT THING? SO CONFLICTED... I REALLY WANTED TO FIND A NICE BURIAL PLACE...
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