Questions about feeding an orphaned kitten?

Question

My friends found a kitten on the side of the road, by my estimation she is 4 weeks old but I can't get her to take more then a couple mouthfuls of formula from a shallow bowl and she refuses to use the bottle I got to try and feed her with. She does however keep trying to feed from my female dog (who has taken quite a shine to her.) I can't find specifics on bottle feeding kittens, do dogs still lactate if they've had puppies? If I can't get her to eat I'll have to take her to the humane society and while I know she'd find a good home I hate to do it. She's awfully cute. Any advice on where I should go from here?

Answer 1

did your dog have puppies recently? If so, she may foster the kitten. If not and you cant get it to eat, take it to a vet. They might have some better ideas for you.

Answer 2

try feeding it from a syringe. that seems to work in my experiences.

Answer 3

Don't give it cow's milk.  Give it special kitten formula or goat milk. Is the dog lactating? It would be okay for it nurse from the dog if it is getting an adequate amount of milk. You might try to soften up some kitten chow with water. Let it sit until it's mushy. Be sure it has some fresh water on the side too. It's a little young for this but it can be done.  Good luck.

P.S. The people who advise you to see a vet are right. The cat could have ringworm or something worse and you really need to know.

Answer 4

Are you using kitten replacement formula?  If not try that.  Also try using an eye dropper/medicine dropper to feed her with.  Kittens don't eat large amounts but they need to be fed about every 2 hours.  Keep trying with the bottle. She may want a different nipple.  We bottle fed our cat and as she grew a little we had to make the whole bigger in the nipple because she would get frustrated that it wasn't coming out fast enough.  You could call the humane society and I am sure they would give you pointers on what to do if you want to keep the kitten.  You could also call your vet.  The kitten needs to be seen anyways just to make sure its ok.  Best wishes!!!

Answer 5

Well, if you take her to the vet, they will teach you how to force feed her. She cant nurse from a dog because their protiens in their breast milk are different from cats. But anyway, force feeding may sound mean, but she needs to eat. Its not painful, all you do is put a tube carefullydown her throat and into the stomach and VERY SLOWLY inject food into it. But before you do this, take her to the vet. If you cant afford the vet, phone a friend who might know about this, or call the vet and ask about it, A phone call to the vet is free. Hope this helps!

DO NOT FEED HER MILK! THAT WILL KILL HER!!

Answer 6

make the hole of the nipple larger not to much and let the milk dribble into its mouth hold the kitten in a sitting position  feed it every two hours the formula boxes also has instructions it good luck with your new cat

Answer 7

feed it milk!

Answer 8

The first thing you should do is to take it to the vet to see if it has rabies. If it doesn't eat don't feed it for that time of meal the next meal he/she will defenitly eat. =)

Answer 9

If she is 4 weeks old, you may be able to get her to go straight to some canned cat food, as well as, drinking formula from shallow dish. (mine did) If your dog is currently nursing puppies, than yes, sometimes a dog will foster a kitten.

It has been my experience that getting a kitten to take a bottle can be a challenge and at this kitten's age, may not be worth the effort. They just don't know what to do with it. Often, at 4 weeks, they would rather chew on the nipple instead. If the kitten won't eat from a dish then try a child's medicine syringe with a bulb on the end. It will generally suck the formula from the syringe.

Even if you have to feed the kitten and your dog will take over other fostering duties, you have a great combo, especially since it is a single kitten.

If the kitten does refuse to eat, it may be a simple as a vet check and treating it for a parasite.

Here's a few sites that will help age the kitten and help you decide how best to care for it.

http://www.leblink.com/~wescom/handrase....

http://www.caring4kittens.com/index.html

http://www.messybeast.com/handrear.htm

Good luck with your new baby!