How to feed a newborn kitten – proper nutrition for week-old kittens

How to feed a newborn kitten – this question is of interest to many who bring into the house small kittens thrown out into the street by negligent owners who do not want to deal with the offspring of their cat.

In most cases, in the city, cat owners kill their offspring or throw them into the street. Great happiness for them is to fall into the hands of kind people who are ready to feed them, go out and distribute them to those who wish. The main thing is to have time to bring the kittens into the house after they are cold, so they still have a chance to grow up healthy and strong cats.

Our article will be devoted to artificial feeding of newborn kittens, so that you can know how to properly feed a week-old kitten and older.

How and what to feed newborn kittens

The best food for newborn kittens is special milk formula for cats, it is sold in specialized pet stores. But if there is no opportunity to purchase it, you can prepare the usual mixture for infants or take plain milk, diluted with an egg. Regular undiluted milk should not be given to newborn kittens. The recipe for this mixture is to mix the following ingredients:

• 50 g cow’s milk;
• 15 g powdered milk;
• 2,5 dry yeast;
• 53 g eggs;
• separately 50 g of beaten yolk;
• 1 g of vegetable oil;
• 4 g grape sugar.

It is very important to keep the proportions when preparing the mixture, so do not add or subtract the weight of the listed ingredients.

Some feed the kittens diluted milk or cream with water, but for babies and their health, this is not entirely acceptable.

At the age of one week, a kitten requires approximately 38 grams of formula per hundred grams of its weight. Be sure to check the temperature of the mixture before you start feeding the baby: drop it on your elbow, if it is warm and not hot, you can start feeding the kitten.

When choosing food for a newborn kitten remember the following:

• the most ideal option is to search for a nursing cat, you can ask your neighbors;
• under no circumstances give newborn kittens pure cow’s milk, they may die due to indigestion;
• option – a mixture for feeding newborns, or goat’s milk;
• the prepared mixture can be stored in the refrigerator for no more than a day;
• do not feed the kitten with a mixture from the refrigerator, without preheating it;
• The optimum temperature for cooked food is between 30 and 36 degrees.

Ways to feed small kittens

We figured out what to feed the kittens, and now let’s find out How is the process of feeding and what to consider before you start feeding a kitten:

• kittens are fed with a syringe with a needle removed, a pipette, a catheter, a baby bottle with a narrow nose, or a special cat bottle;
• during feeding, the animal should lie on the belly, so it will not choke;
• control the process of supplying the mixture during feeding so that the animal does not swallow air;
• do not use feeding bottles with a wide opening so that the liquid does not enter the cat’s respiratory tract;
• hold the bottle at an angle of 45 degrees and only so;
• at the age of a week, kittens should be fed every 2 hours, after a week – every three, and at the age of three weeks, the number of feedings is reduced to 5 times;
• the volume of the mixture eaten at a time should be about 5 mg in the first week of life, by the second volume it doubles. The dose is measured with a syringe;
• the optimal feeding time for a kitten is up to 5 minutes;
• when satiated, the animal begins to suck sluggishly and begins to fall asleep;
• if the animal cannot eat the proposed volume of the mixture at one time, then the number of feedings must be increased;
• do not force feed the cat;
• after you have fed the animal, you need to stroke it on the tummy and let it burp;
• make sure that the feeding devices are sterile, the room must be perfectly clean;
• the room should not seep through.

How to properly care for kittens and keep

If you adopted newborn kittens at home that you saved from death on the street, then they should not only be fed correctly and regularly, but they also need proper care. Take into account such rules for caring for them:

• control the weight of babies daily with the help of scales, with normal development, they add about 15 grams daily in weight;
• since the digestive system of small cats is still very weak, they need help with the toilet. To this end, after you have fed the animal, massage its tummy and anus with a cotton swab or rag soaked in water. An adult cat usually licks after feeding the kids, it is necessary to provide a replacement for this natural procedure;
• with proper hygiene, the animal will go to the toilet up to 4 times a day;
• feces in small cats should be light brown in color. But yellow and liquid feces indicate that you have overfed the animal. If the feces are gray, green and liquid, then this indicates systematic overfeeding, so that the animal does not die, contact your veterinarian;
• twice a day, wipe the fur and muzzle of the animal with a damp cloth;
• Toilet training starts the moment kittens are on solid food.

In an apartment or house kids must have their own corner. It should be equipped according to the following rules and recommendations:

• the cat’s house should not be located in a draft, it should be cozy and quiet there;
• the optimal ambient temperature in the first week of an animal’s life is from 27 to 30 degrees, in the second – 29 degrees maximum, and then it can be reduced to 24 degrees;
• some purchase special incubators for keeping newborn cats, equipped with an infrared lamp for heating. If you do not have the opportunity to buy such a device, then you can take millet a cardboard box with high edges;
• the bottom of the box should be lined with something warm, such as wool. At the top you need to lay a diaper or towel and change as it gets dirty;
• under the litter, you can place a heating pad to warm the animals;
• you can put small soft toys in the box so that the cats can cuddle up to them like a mother.

If there is a lactating cat, but the kitten does not eat milk

If the kittens have a mother, but at the same time they refuse her milk, then the problem may be both in herself and in the kittens. If the problem is in the baby, then you need artificially feed him, as described above, or squeeze milk from a cat into a bottle with your own hands.

And the cat’s problem may lie in her nipples: they can be hard and full. The kitten refuses to suck, and the cat may begin to suffer from mastitis. Squeeze out her milk and apply a cabbage leaf, previously soaked in milk, to the cat’s nipples. You can fix it with a special bandage for a while. So the mother cat’s nipples will become softer and the kittens will again be able to enjoy their mother’s milk, which will undoubtedly be the best food for them.

Introduction of complementary foods for animals

Like small children, over time, milk or formula alone will no longer be enough for baby cats for good nutrition. From about the fourth week of life should be fed. First, offer milk porridge to kittens, and then you can make porridge on cereals with meat and vegetables on the water.

Complementary foods are introduced at the rate of 200 grams per kilogram. At the same time, meat should be more than half the norm, and cereals, vegetables, as well as cheese and sour-milk products should also be present in the kitten’s diet.

Feeding table for small cats looks something like this:

• in the first month of life, milk porridge and boiled yolk are introduced;
• on the second, you need to introduce cottage cheese, twisted boiled meat and cheese;
• on the third – cereal porridge, meat with vegetables, boiled meat in pieces and raw twisted, raw vegetables.

You can continue to feed your baby with a formula, but you must follow the feeding schedule and dosage. It is advisable to give a special mixture for seals of this age.

Starting from the age of three weeks, specialized feed in the form of granules can be introduced into the diet of animals. The initial dose is a few granules soaked in water. Starting from the age of two months, the granules can be given in pure form without soaking.

If you give your baby dry food, then next to him do not forget to put a bowl of clean water, its contents should be changed every day.

Also, if you have taken home a kitten or several kittens, remember that you are responsible not only for their feeding and care, but also for their upbringing. You completely replace his mother and should be responsible for this small and defenseless animal.