Mary Allen
When a kitten has to grow up without its mom, it’s never nice. If you have to raise an orphan cat by hand in such a case, you should find out in advance what kittens need at what age. You can find initial tips here.
There can be many reasons why a kitten grows up without a mother and becomes an orphan cat: maybe the cat mom has rejected it or doesn’t have enough milk for all her little ones. In particularly tragic cases, the mother cat may have died. If you must hand-raise kittens, determining their ages, weight, and health will dictate what she needs.
A kitten should normally not be separated from the mother cat until it is twelve weeks old. If this cannot be avoided due to certain circumstances, you should consider a few things for hand-rearing.
Raising the Kitten by Hand: These Tips Will Help
If an orphan cat has to be raised by hand, the most important thing is the right baby food for the kitten. The vet will give you the appropriate substitute breast milk in powder form, which then only has to be mixed with water. Never use cow’s milk or anything like that. It is not tolerated by cats and especially kittens.
To prepare the special milk, it is best to use lukewarm, still mineral water or boiled tap water. A feeding temperature of around 37 degrees Celsius is ideal.
When mixing, make sure that no lumps form. Did that happen? Sift the milk before feeding it to the orphan kitten. Otherwise, the milk will become too thick and can cause constipation in kittens.
The kitten is then fed carefully and slowly using a small, non-needled syringe. First, always put a drop on the little mouth and wait until the little one has licked it up. So it gets used to the milk taste.
How Much Food Does an Orphan Kitten Need?
Especially at the beginning, you should stick to the drop-by-drop feeding, otherwise, the orphan cat could choke. If fluid gets into the windpipe, it can be life-threatening. Therefore, always hold the kitten as upright as possible when feeding.
The following rule of thumb applies to the frequency and amount of feedings:
- 1st week: 1 to 2 ml of milk substitute every 1 to 2 hours
- 2nd week: Every 2 hours 3 to 7 ml milk substitute
- 3rd week: Every 2 to 3 hours about 10 ml milk substitute
- 4th week: Every 3 to 4 hours 15 to 20 ml milk substitute
Of course, this information does not only apply during the day. If you want to raise an orphan cat by hand, you have to be there for her at night too.
Irrespective of this, the following applies: If orphan cats are obviously hungry – for example by squeaking or screaming – they should be fed. Also, when a kitten is weak, more frequent feeding may be necessary. Your vet will advise you on this.
Frequent feeding is necessary because kittens can quickly become dehydrated and hypoglycaemic. With their mother, the little ones would normally spend the first few weeks of life in a tight rhythm of sleeping, drinking, and sleeping again. This must be readjusted by hand as best as possible during rearing.
Feeding the Orphan Cat With Baby Food: Possible as an Emergency Solution
If your orphan cat is about three and a half to four weeks old, you can also offer suitable kitten food in consultation with the veterinarian. Depending on how much of it the kitten eats, the amount of milk can be gradually reduced accordingly. From around the ninth week of life, your orphan cat will have completely switched to cat food and you can wean off the rearing milk.
If you don’t have any kitten food, you can temporarily feed your orphan cat-human baby food. Glasses with rice and chicken, for example, are suitable for this, but they must be finely pureed.
Helping Digestion
In the first 20 days of life, a careful massage of the tummy and anal area after feeding is very important to get the digestion going and stimulate urination. For this purpose, a soft cloth and a little warm water should be used to massage from the stomach towards the anus. The little one’s anal area can also be gently cleaned with a warm, damp cloth when it’s done its job.
The longer you massage your orphan cat this way, the better. Assistance with digestion and urination is vital for kittens at this early stage.
Raising an Orphan Cat by Hand: This Helps With Digestive Problems
Despite all your care, orphan cats that you raise by hand can occasionally suffer from indigestion. Flatulence and constipation are not uncommon but can be easily treated. To do this, the water with which the milk substitute is mixed is replaced in whole or in part with mild fennel tea. Here, for example, fennel tea is suitable for human babies and toddlers. It has an anti-inflammatory and antispasmodic effect and primarily helps against flatulence, but can also relieve constipation.
If the fennel tea doesn’t help, you’ll have to go to the vet, because in the worst case, constipation combined with flatulence can lead to an intestinal blockage that can be fatal for the kitten.
If your kitten suffers from diarrhea, you should not add any fennel tea. Here, everything tends to sort itself out quickly. To prevent dehydration and hypoglycemia, you can feed your orphan cat Ringer lactate with glucose several times a day, which you can get from the pharmacy or from the veterinarian, for example. If diarrhea lasts longer than 20 hours, you should definitely consult your veterinarian.
This is how the weight of a kitten develops
The kitten’s weight should be checked daily. This is how you can tell if you are feeding enough milk. The following formula applies as a rule of thumb for the ideal weight: (age in weeks + 1) * birth weight = ideal weight
- The birth weight of kittens is between 60 and 110 grams. The formula gives the ideal weight:
- Double the birth weight after one week (120 to 220 grams)
- Triple birth weight at two weeks (180 to 330 grams)
- Four times the birth weight at three weeks (240 to 440 grams)
- Five times the birth weight at four weeks (300 to 550 grams)
- … and so forth
If the orphan kitten gains less than 10 grams per day, as a precaution, you should ask the veterinarian or the cat shelter if something is wrong. If the kitten appears healthy overall, has neither diarrhea nor constipation, it is usually sufficient to feed more frequently – i.e. every hour or even every half hour.
Kittens generally tolerate several small portions throughout the day better. Later, when the kittens also eat solid food, the weight gain will be faster.
Helping the Orphan Cat: Warmth is Important
In order to hand raise an orphan cat, heat is essential. This would normally be donated to her by her mother. Since that’s not possible, you have to help out.
- Hot-water bottles, heat packs, cherry pit pillows, heating mats: hot-water bottles and the like should never be too hot and, if possible, should be wrapped in a cloth. Otherwise, the kitten may get burned or dehydrated – both of which are life-threatening at such a young age.
- An infrared lamp: This can also provide cozy warmth, but it must not come too close to the orphan cats and must not get too hot – lukewarm is usually sufficient.
When a kitten is very young – less than three weeks old – it is best to house it in a box or basket. The “nest” can be lined with cloth to make the orphan cats comfortable. However, you should not use terry towels here, because the kittens could get caught in the mesh with their claws.
It is important that the heat source also finds space in the nest. Once the young are a little bigger, they can find their way into a slightly larger space.
The ideal ambient temperature for orphan cats:
- In the first week: 30 degrees Celsius
- In the second week: 28 degrees Celsius
- In the third week: 26 degrees Celsius
- From the fourth week: room temperature
From about the fifth week, the orphan cat should also be provided with food and a litter box. However, as a precaution, clumping litter or litter, which is poisonous if swallowed, should be avoided. Kittens are very curious and tend to eat litter.
Summary: This is What You Need for Hand-Rearing
So that your kittens don’t lack for anything, the following things should always be in stock:
- Initially syringe, later bottle (sterile cleaned)
- Still mineral water or boiled tap water
- Substitute milk powder
- Soft cloth
- Kitchen scale
- Heat source: infrared lamp or hot water bottle (not too hot!)
- Later: kitten-friendly food
- Later: litter box with non-hazardous litter
- Lots of love, attention, and patience
For emergencies, you should also have the number of the vet you trust and the number of the nearby cat shelter at hand. If the kittens develop diarrhea or constipation, don’t gain enough weight, or become ill, it’s important that they get help quickly.