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bottle feeding procedure
Hello again.
My 5 foster kittens seem to be needing bottle feeding (just on this side of 3 weeks old, basically). Would like to make sure I'm doing it right. Right now, I'm wrapping the kitten in a tea towel and holding the bottle at a 45° angle. Doesn't seem like a lot of air bubbles are popping up. Between the 5 of them, they're drinking about 60cc (2 oz) or just under. Should they be drinking more or less? They're also not really suckling on the teat- they bite it on the sides of their mouth, mostly. I really have to confess my ignorance- all of the cats I've had have been toilet-trained and weaned. These are my first foster kittens. What's the correct procedure? And should I be leaving a bowl of water in the box with them (seems a dumb question, but again, the ignorant wish to become enlightened)? -- Aphrodite's Cat ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ The only certainty is that nothing is certain. -- Pliny the Elder ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.522 / Virus Database: 320 - Release Date: 10/2/2003 |
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In article ,
"Aphrodite's Cat" wrote: My 5 foster kittens seem to be needing bottle feeding (just on this side of 3 weeks old, basically). Would like to make sure I'm doing it right. Heh--sounds exactly like our fosters. A good way to estimate the age is to weigh them on a kitchen scale or letter scale. Figure about 4 ounces per week. When we got ours, they were all about 13 oz. Now, they're just over 1 lb each. Take pictures and video quickly, they grow like weeds. Right now, I'm wrapping the kitten in a tea towel and holding the bottle at a 45° angle. We don't wrap, just hold them close to our bodies with one hand and direct the bottle with the other. Heh again--they don't fight it at all, hungry little things. Doesn't seem like a lot of air bubbles are popping up. Between the 5 of them, they're drinking about 60cc (2 oz) or just under. Should they be drinking more or less? IIRC, they should take about 1/4 oz for each ounce of body weight per day. They're also not really suckling on the teat- they bite it on the sides of their mouth, mostly. You might want to try a different sized nipple. Ours also gnawed at our first nipple, but when we got a smaller one, they started sucking like champs--I kid you not, if we could harness the power of kitten suckling, we could make a mint in the vacuum industry. The vet says we may have overfed them. I had no idea that this was possible; I thought kittens were supposed to have as much as they wanted. |
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