Need help ASAP with newborn kitten

Question

Our cat just had five kittens today. Out of the five of the them, the only one that survived was the first one born. The other four were stillborn and some weren't even developed properly/fully. She is very interested in the alive kitten when it cries. But she doesn't know enough to nurse it. When I try to get the kitten to latch on to her nipple and feed, she is still crying. Well momma cat doesn't like this and gets up and fumbles around. When the kitten does finally latch on, I have to sit there and almost babysit otherwise she will get up and move leaving the kitten with no nipple in it's mouth. What should I do? I would rather the mother cat nurse the kitten. So what can I do to help her understand that she should nurse when the kitten cries?

Answer 1

first off, i'm so sorry about the four, :(

you can go to petsmart, and buy kitty formula, and a tiny little bottle and feed the kitty yourself, until the momma kitty learns how to, or is willing to.

good luck, much love!

Answer 2

It could be that the mother cat isn't producing milk, she is in need of food too, try adding a little of the KMR (kitten formula) to her wet food, I would add a little water or pedialyte to help hydrate the mother.  Sounds like she had a hard birthing process and is more than likely depleted. Make sure she is drinking plenty of water as well.  There are over the counter vitamin products you can get for lactating cats.  It will not hurt to help the mother out bottle feeding the baby, but do try to let her start at least and when she leaves it feed it and return it so she can clean and groom the kitten. Remember what ever you introduce to the mother do so in small quantities to not cause diarrhea.

Answer 3

Dude, see a vet.

Answer 4

Mother cat is still very weak now, it usually take sometimes to recover and maybe they will take care of their own kittens, so don't worry.

Answer 5

most likely the cat was to young to have kitten so she doesn't understand the nessity of the cry.

Put the mother and kitten in a small inclosed area so that the mother cat can't move around to much.

for the next few days do this with you cats.

if the mother still responds the same way  you may just have to babysit her til she get the hang of it.

  

Answer 6

Sounds like this is the cats first litter of kittens.  If the mother is acting interested, but yet you have to pretty much babysit them so the kitten can eat...  I really dont know what to tell you to make the mother nurse her kitten; you cant let it starve.

The best thing I could probably tell you to do is seek the help of a vet.  But the only thing that the vet will probably tell you is to get some kitten formula and feed it yourself.

Its fairly easy to do... Ive hand fed/raised at least 4 kittens who were left abandoned.

You can go to your local pet store and get a can of kitten formula.  Get a small bottle (they should be on the aisle somewhere close to the formula).  Go home, pop the top, fill the bottle up with formula.  Score the nipple on the bottle so that formula will flow from the nipple.  While you are doing this, pop a bowl of water in the microwave and heat it up for about 3 minutes.  You want the water to be warm or hot when it comes out of the microwave.  Put the nipple on the bottle and put the bottle into the bowl of water and let the formula warm up.  You dont want it too hot, but you want it warm.  To test this, drop a few drops on the inside of your wrist to test the temperature.  When it is warm, take the kitten, wrap it with a warm towel and let it feed from the bottle.

Once the kitten is full, stroke the kittens back between its shoulder blades.  This encourages it to burp.  Take an end of the towel you wrapped it in and dip it in warm water.  After youve burped your baby, now take the damp end of the towel and "clean" the kitten.  Be sure you swab its private parts for this is how the mother gets the kitten to use the bathroom.  

At this early part of the game, you wont have to worry about p**p yet.  p**p wont come until later when the kitten starts eating more and its digestive system develops more.

Kittens need to eat at least 3-4 times a day.  If the mother is not taking care of the kitten otherwise, I would suggest taking full custody of the kitten and making sure it gets the care it needs.

If you have to take over full care of the kitten, be sure to keep it in a secure, warm and dry place.

Hope this helps....

Answer 7

if you want this kitten to live you will need to help more. i know! we had a premature litter as i suspect your are, on july 21st. we had 1 stillborn,, but the other 4 faded away despite our best efforts, over 4 days.

our other cat had her babies on aug 5th. 6 of them. doing well except for the runt who nearly died. he fed a bit from momma but became too weak so we had to force feed him. now he is feeding a bit from momma and we are just giving him one syringe feed about 4 in the morning and 3 times a day...but for 2 days we got up every 1-2 hours in the night to feed him.

i am soory about the other kittens, and i understand the thought of this feeding can be daunting but if you want this probably premature kitten to  live you have to help.

if you have postal scales or digital kitchen scales, weigh it to determine its weight then you will know if it is gaining as it should which will indicate how much help you need to give.

if momma cat will feed when you are there, devote her lots of time sitting with her and helping her feed. you may only need to do this for a few days. my runt only needs half the time at 6 days old than he did at 2 and 3 days old. please try for him.