bottle feeding procedure

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Aphrodite's Cat - 09 Oct 2003 09:25 GMT

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)?

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Aphrodite's Cat
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bearclaw@cruller.invalid - 09 Oct 2003 15:13 GMT

> 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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