The kittens are doing great diarrhea, is all cleared up as soon as I changed
them to the powdered KMR. They are all using the litter box on their own now
too. Now I'm trying to get them to eat out of a dish- very trying on the
patience they're about 31/2 4 weeks old, and they eat it off my finger but
still like to nurse too much I think. we get kittens at work at this age that
are eating on thier own no problem, I think they're spoiled :) But they can
take their time. Vet says next week though I should really start to push it,
for sleep deprivation reason on my part:) they're at a great age now they run
and play, it hysterical. I'll let you know when glory be they eat on their
own. Thank you for asking.
>
> From: Nina <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Date: 2005/03/14 Mon PM 09:43:50 EST
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: raising kittens???
>
> Kristi,
> How are the kittens doing? Has their diarrhea cleared up?
> Nina
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> >Thank you for that info, I think today we start the litter boxes and some
> >strained turkey or chicken. They are eating up to 30cc a meal...and
> >sleeping through the night- Thank God. Anyway they have started to have
> >greenish brown liquid diarrhea. Anyone know what this is from, I ran a
> >fecal at work and they were neg for parasites (I know they're not shed in
> >every BM so I'll be running more) but in the meantime should I be concerned
> >about the diarrhea. They're well hydrated and have no URI symptoms, normal
> >temp etc. At first I just thought it was a kittne thing, kinda like human
> >babies not being well formed, but I read something online which got me a
> >little nervous. Thank you again
> >Kristi
> >Yes, I am taking lots of pics, I'll try to figure out how to post them. We
> >named the boys: Syms, Sebastian, and Sampson.
> >
> >
> >>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >>Date: 2005/03/06 Sun AM 12:31:15 EST
> >>To: [email protected]
> >>Subject: Re: raising kittens???
> >>
> >>Hi Kristi
> >>
> >>That's wonderful that they were negative!
> >>
> >>I've bottle reared a lot of orphans. I'm assuming that a lot of this you
> >>already know, being a tech, but I'm giving a lot of info on formulas and
> >>such
> >>for lurkers or folks who may not have raised orphans before because kitten
> >>season is just around the corner.
> >>
> >>Generally, they'll start using a litter pan at 2-3 weeks (shoe box lids or
> >>foil brownie or biscuit pans work really well) and when they're starting
> >>to
> >>lick your fingers, you can try giving them formula out of a dish. When
> >>they
> >>get the hang of drinking out of something other than a bottle (be patient,
> >>it
> >>can take a while for them to figure it out), then you can start adding
> >>strained chicken baby food (make sure there are no onions in it - chicken
> >>or turkey
> >>are the easiest to digest), and rice, oatmeal, or mixed baby cereal.
> >>Start
> >>off with it being a very thin gruel - mostly milk replacer and meat, and
> >>then
> >>use the cereal to thicken it. When they've been eating that for a week or
> >>so, then you can use either softened dry kitten food (I used Purina kitten
> >>chow
> >>because it softened in water the fastest) or canned kitten food. The dry
> >>worked well with kittens with diarrhea from the food change and also
> >>switching
> >>from milk replacer to powdered dry milk (for people - which is fat free)
> >>helps with runnybutts. Science diet feline growth (it may be called
> >>"kitten"
> >>formula now) canned worked the best with the kittens I raised. Iams
> >>kitten
> >>canned was too pasty unless I mixed strained chicken baby food with it,
> >>the
> >>science diet was dry enough to crumble into bite sized pieces easily.
> >>
> >>I usually started with the baby food and cereal at about 3-4 weeks,
> >>switched
> >>from milk replacer to powdered dry milk at about 5-6 weeks (because that's
> >>when they started to become lactose intolerant), and had them off the
> >>bottle
> >>completely at 8-10 weeks - or when they started biting nipples in half or
> >>pulling them out of the bottle. Even when they were eating out of a dish
> >>and I
> >>had them weaned to food with no milk in it, I still gave them a morning
> >>and
> >>bedtime (my bedtime) bottle to make sure they were getting enough to eat -
> >>their mom's would nurse them until they were about 12 weeks, but after 8
> >>weeks,
> >>it's more for bonding than nourishment - according to all the books. I've
> >>found that the extra bottles, or at least the act of giving them an extra
> >>"easy"
> >>meal without all the solids in their other food really helped them to grow
> >>better. The ones who stopped getting a bottle as soon as they were eating
> >>out
> >>of a dish and getting more in their stomachs than on their faces and feet
> >>grew at a about a 1/4 pound a week (1 pound a month - roughly the same
> >>rate as
> >>if they were with their moms still), and if I didn't, they grew at
> >>something
> >>more like 1/4-1/2 a pound a month (12 week olds were often still the size
> >>of
> >>a mother raised 6 - 8 week old).
> >>
> >>Regardless of how fast they grew, they were still not neurologically
> >>developed enough to know they "had to go" in time to get to the pan if
> >>there was
> >>only one pan in the room or to get to one of a couple pans in the house
> >>until
> >>they were 8 weeks old. Until then, I kept a kitten sized pan under every
> >>end
> >>table and under the low shelves of my aquarium stands. Basically, I had
> >>at
> >>least one pan in each corner of every room the kittens had access to.
> >>
> >>Have fun with the babies! Yours are getting to the cutest age - starting
> >>to
> >>run and falling over every couple steps, bouncing more than walking...
> >>makes
> >>me want to raise a litter myself!
> >>
> >>Where there's Life, there's Hope
> >>
> >>
> >>Kathy
> >>
> >>"There is nothing so strong as gentleness, and there is nothing so gentle
> >>as
> >>real strength." ~ Sir Francis de Sates
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
