Kitten Academy: Mastering Bottle Feeding & Fostering for Tiny Lives

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dixie (00:02):
Welcome to Animal Posse, the podcast dedicated to the
people and rescues, making adifference in the lives of animals.
Today I am bringing you a specialsegment straight from a recent
class that I did all about bottlefeeding and fostering kittens.
So let's dive in.
I'm Dixie.
I run the Unwanted Feline Organization.

(00:25):
I have been a foster forprobably about 17 years.
I primarily do bottle babies.
I do all ages, of course, but Ispecialize more in bottle babies 'cause
I could take 'em to work with me.
First we're gonna go over just tryingto determine the age of a kitten.
Just in case you find a kitten,or in case you wanna get
involved with helping a kitten.
A lot of people on socialmedia will post 'em.

(00:46):
Now, one thing that I do wanna sayabout that is if you ever see people
posting pictures of bottle kittens onsocial media, the first thing, you don't
wanna jump in and take 'em right away.
You wanna tell 'em they need towait for the mom to come back.
Because most of the time the mom's justmoving 'em around and give that mom
time to come back, and pick 'em up.
I say to wait about eight to 10 hours.

(01:08):
If it is gonna be a newborn, especiallylike with the cord attached, then you
definitely don't wanna wait longer than,I'm gonna say six hours probably max.
I.
Now if it's in a bad spot, like busyhighway, middle of a sidewalk, that's
a little bit different story, bad rain.
I know the last ones that were pickedup, they were in a puddle, so they

(01:31):
picked 'em up because if they didn't,they would've most likely drowned.
So the newborn kittensare gonna look pretty bad.
Their ears are gonna be folded in.
Their eyes are gonna be closed.
They're not gonna reallylook like a kitten.
And so if you're gonna get a kittenthis age, of course, one this age is
gonna have to be fed more frequently.
And I'll go through that too aswe go on with the presentation.

(01:54):
When you have a two week old kitten,that's gonna be when they're gonna
start to walk and their eyes shouldbe open at that point, or at least
starting to open at that point.
When you get to a three week oldkitten, they're gonna start moving
around pretty good, and you'll noticethat their teeth are gonna come in.
That's gonna be whenyou're gonna start weaning.
By four weeks old, they should haveall of their teeth, and you're gonna

(02:16):
notice that they're gonna start runningaround and playing with each other.
And then by five weeks, they'realmost fully functioning.
Now, when they are newborns, between likeone and three weeks, they're not gonna be
able to go to the bathroom by themselves.
You have to help them with that.
So you do stimulate themto go to the bathroom.
I'm gonna show you how to do that toowith my stuffed animal because we could

(02:39):
not find bottle babies to bring with ustoday, which I'm not complaining about
these are gonna be your basicsupplies that you're gonna need
if you are fostering for a rescue.
For the most part, the rescue isgonna provide all this to you.
If bottle feeding is something thatyou think you might be interested
in, I would say just get someof the supplies to have on hand.

(03:00):
They're pretty inexpensive, and that wayyou have it if an emergency comes up.
All right, so first thing,we're gonna have a bottle.
This is gonna be the classic nipplethat comes with these bottles.
I absolutely hate these nipples.
I use 'em unless I don'thave the other type.
Now they don't come with a hole in 'em.

(03:21):
So what you're gonna have to do is youdo have to cut a small hole in them.
And when you do cut the hole inthem, you also wanna make sure
that it's gonna just do a drip out.
You don't want it to come pouring out.
'cause if it's pouring out, it's gonnabe too much milk coming out and that
can actually aspirate the kitten.
The nipples that I use are calleda miracle nipple, and you're
gonna see it's a lot smaller.

(03:43):
You'll see this miracle nipple,it is made for tiny baby animals.
So most of them tend totake that pretty easily.
It does fit on the bottle.
What you're gonna do is you wouldactually unscrew that bottle and
you're gonna remove that othernipple and put that one in its place.
Now, another thing that you coulddo is you can use a small syringe.

(04:06):
So you could put either of the nippleson the edge of a small syringe.
And this works too.
Now, only thing with doingthis is sometimes when they use
these syringes, they can easilysuck it out of the syringe.
Sometimes they can't, if they can't,do not push the syringe because
you can aspirate 'em . and thenanother tool that you can actually

(04:29):
use is a small paintbrush like this.
So if you have a kitten , especiallya tiny one that's having
difficulty with using the thenipple or sucking on the nipple.
'cause some of themwill have that problem.
You wanna make sure they'regetting enough fluid.
You can actually use a paintbrush.
So what you do with the paintbrush isyou would just mix your milk, you're
gonna dip the paintbrush in, and then youjust put the paintbrush in their mouth.

(04:52):
This paintbrush is away more tedious method.
You don't wanna rely solely onthis, but this is gonna get them
fluid and it's gonna get them thenutrients that they need to help
them till they get to the point wherethey're gonna start suckling more.
And this is one of the powderedmilks that you can use.
. You can also go buy a can.
The can is a lot easier.

(05:13):
It is also a lot more expensive.
So most rescues are gonna justgo ahead and go with the powder.
There will be instructionson it on how to mix it.
Most of them are one partpowder to two parts water.
Now, when you mix 'em, . Youdon't wanna get it too frothy.
Sometimes when you mix you,you'll get kind of clumps in it.
So you wanna make sure you breakthose clumps up with a spoon or

(05:35):
something when you're mixing it.
Bottled water's always gonna be the bestyou can use tap water, the temperature
of the water, we're gonna use warm water
You don't wanna use cold water.
Another thing, if you don't haveaccess to this, you find kittens.
There are emergencyformulas that you can make.
Don't ever use cow's milk though.

(05:57):
Cow's milk will make them very sick'cause they can't digest it properly.
Another good thing that youwanna have on hand too is gonna
be Turkey or chicken baby food.
you use that for weaning.
And also just training them how to eatin general for them to lick off of your
finger when we get to that weaning stage.

(06:18):
The other thing that you're gonnaneed is some type of heating pad.
These are microwavable discs.
I get these off of Amazon, you put 'em inthe microwave, it has instructions on the
inside of it, depending on your microwaveand the wattage of your microwave.
These last for eight hours.
These are an absolute lifesaver.

(06:38):
These are so much betterthan a heating pad.
'cause I know now a lot of the heatingpads have an automatic shutoff feature,
so I definitely recommend this.
And one of the top things that youwanna do when you have bottle babies
is you need to keep them warm.
Another thing that you're gonna wannahave on hand is gonna be karo syrup.
So most people do have that at home.

(06:59):
'cause you will see, and I'llgo over that a little bit more,
you can have a sugar crash.
If you have a sugar crash, you takea little bit of it on your finger,
not even like an eraser size amountand you just rub it on their gums
and usually that'll bring them backif they're having a sugar crash.
I'm not gonna say it's a common thing.
I've done it several times.
But it happens enough that you wannamake sure you do have karo syrup on hand.

(07:25):
Another thing, this would be somethingthat would be provided by your rescue.
It's called propecatlin.
And what that is it's a probioticand an antidiarrheal medication.
And so you wanna make sureyou do have that on hand.
If you ever take kittens from arescue, ask 'em if they have it,
because it's better to have that onhand to not, then not have it on hand.

(07:47):
Another thing is gonna befor your cleaning supplies.
You wanna have paper towels handy,and you're going to use that to
stimulate them to go to the bathroom.
All right, so a basic setup.
So what I do is I'm gonna usea carrier like this for mine.
This is a pretty big carrier.

(08:08):
This would be good for them for up to fourkittens till they're about four weeks old.
It gives them room to, to move around.
It's big enough so when theystart using a litter box, you can
put a little tiny box in there.
And I like the top load ones 'causeit's easier when you go to take 'em out.
It's not required.
But that's just my preference.

(08:30):
So what I would do is I wouldtake this heating disc you're
gonna put some blankets in here.
You always wanna make sure thatyou do cover the heating pad or the
heating disc so it's not too hot.
If they get directly on top of it, mostof the time they'll move away from it.
That's why you wanna have something wherethey have a little bit of room where
they can move away from the heat too,if they wanna move away from the heat.

(08:51):
And then, like I said, whenthey get a little bit older.
You would put just a likea little tiny shallow box.,
and that's what I put in theback of it for a litter box.
Now we'll get into the feeding.
You wanna feed 'em like they're gonnafeed off of mom, so you don't wanna
flip 'em over like a human baby.

(09:12):
This is an absolute no-no.
If you flip 'em over like a human baby,you're gonna end up aspirating them.
You wanna make sure that they're uprightwhere they would be on their belly.
Think of how they're gonnaeat if they are on their mama.
So when you mix your formula,you do wanna use warm water.

(09:34):
I mix my formula like most people doBaby formula, when I heat it up, I
don't heat mine up in the microwave.
A microwave will not heat it up evenly.
So if you do heat it in the microwave, youhave to make sure you shake it, you have
to give it a lot more time to cool down.
So I will actually do a cup of hotwater and I'll put the bottle inside
of the hot water until it warms up.

(09:57):
And then of course I'm gonnatest it on my wrist to make
sure it's not too hot for me.
Pretty much what youdo, with a human baby.
They're gonna try to puttheir paws on your hand.
Sometimes they get very frustratedand they will just be like
lashing out like crazy, tryingto find a place for them to rest.
So you might wanna get like a rag orsomething, wrap that on your hand . Or

(10:17):
even wrap them up like a little burrito
it's just they get very frustrated'cause they're looking for their mom to
put their hands on and she's not there.
As far as the bottle feeding, you'regonna gently open their mouth.
You're gonna stick the nipple in.
Some of them will take to it right away.
Some of them, it's gonna take alittle bit longer before they realize

(10:38):
they can actually suckle on it.
So you might wanna do a drop of it to putthe milk on the outside of that nipple
so they know what's gonna be there.
Here's a trick that I use.
I like to like actually close myfingers around their mouth and it helps
them to suckle If they take in toomuch milk, they're gonna choke on it.

(10:58):
When they choke on it, it'sgonna go into their lungs.
That's gonna be the aspiration.
It can cause pneumonia.
Now, even if you're feeding them inthe correct posture, you're gonna have
some kittens that eat really fast.
If you have kittens that eat reallyfast, you wanna make 'em slow down.
So make 'em take it slow, give thema little bit, pull the bottle out,

(11:21):
then give them a little bit more.
'cause otherwise, they're going to eatso fast that they will end up choking.
If you do have one that ends up chokingand you'll notice it right away,
you'll hear 'em coughing a little bit.
You're just gonna take 'em, turn'em upside down a little bit and
just do a gentle tap on their back.
Most of the time it has cleared it for me.
I've never had a kitten aspirate.

(11:45):
So big thing, feed in a normal position.
Do not feed upside downlike you would a human baby.
If they do start to choke, just gentlytap them on their back as you're, you
lay their head upside down a little bit.
All right, so the frequency of thefeedings, a newborn kitten that's gonna
be up to a week old is gonna requirea feeding every two to three hours.

(12:11):
I personally will wake my kittens upto make sure that they do want to eat.
So I'm pretty on top of it.
Like for a newborn.
For me, in the daytime, Ifeed 'em every two hours.
Now when it comes to night, Iknow it's a pain getting up every
two to three hours at night.
You can push it closer to thethree hour mark at night, as long

(12:35):
as you're getting up in the dayand doing it every two hours.
Once they get to two weeks, thefrequency's gonna change a little bit.
So at two weeks you're gonna doit every three to four hours.
So two to three weeks,every three to four hours.
When they get to this stage atnight, you can actually sleep like

(12:55):
maybe five hours, so you can push itout an hour, provided that they're
eating really well during the day.
Now I do keep like a baby monitoron mine, so if they do cry, I'll
let that natural cry, wake me upand then I'll go see what they need.
Three to four weeks is gonnabe every four to five hours.

(13:18):
And again, at night when you're lookingat this, if you're feeding them at a
regular frequency during the day, youcan really push it out to six hours.
So you can actually get some sleepand then four to five weeks old, if
they're still on the bottle only,it's gonna be five to six hours.
If they're not on the bottle,of course you can just put the

(13:39):
food out, offer them the food.
You wanna make sure monitor thatthey're getting all the food.
But at night, at four to five weeks, youshould be able to get like a seven hour
sleep provided that they're eating good.
Now, of course all of this canchange if they're not feeling well.
'cause I just had some six weekold kittens that got sick and I was
getting up every two hours in themiddle of the night to feed 'em.

(14:01):
So
provided that they're healthy,this schedule is a pretty good
schedule that you can go on.
We went through mixing theformula, but I'll go over it again.
So again, with the powderedformula, you wanna make sure you
mix it so it's nice and smooth.
It does have a tendency to get lumps,so I use like a spoon to break it.

(14:22):
Now, I've heard a lot of peoplesay, you don't wanna use like
a frother or to froth it up.
So I've never used that.
I'll always just mix it with a spoon.
Now another thing that I'm gonna mentiontoo about the the formula there's a lot
of things online that tell you need tohave a different nipple for each kitten..

(14:46):
I've never done it.
I don't know how anybody does that.
They're all together, so if one of themhas something, they're all gonna get
it anyway, so it doesn't really matter.
Another thing that they say onlineis to throw your formula away
after every single time you mix it.
So if you mix it and you have formulaleft over, they're like, throw it away.
I don't do that.

(15:07):
I'll keep it for up to 24 hours.
After a feeding, what I'll do with theformula that I've mixed up is if I have
any left in my bottle, I'll go ahead andstick it in the refrigerator, take it
out, and warm it up in a cup of hot water.
When you feed 'em, of course, like I said,some of them get frustrated with eating.
Because they're really hungryand they're not understanding how

(15:29):
to suck it through the bottle.
So you do have to have a little bit ofpatience with them, especially if you
were gonna feed with the paintbrush.
This would take a long time.
When they're very young a lot of peoplefreak out over them being constipated.
When I was new to bottle feeding, thiswas during a hurricane, a long time ago.
And I found a kitten.

(15:50):
And so we didn't have any power.
I'm trying to bottle feed this kitten.
Didn't have to worry aboutthe heating pad because it was
like 90 degrees in the house.
The kitten didn't wanna go to thebathroom and she's a little tiny
kitten, so we're like one to two weeksold and I was absolutely freaking out
because I'm like, it's been two days.
This kitten didn't use the bathroom yet.

(16:12):
So I actually went on social mediaand this is how I found my vet.
And like I was all frantic.
I'm like, oh my gosh, I found this kitten.
Nobody's open.
I'm like, the kitten hasn'tpooped in two to three days.
And she's don't worry about it unlessthey're crying and their belly's hard.
So I have gone with thatsince she has told me that.

(16:33):
I don't freak out about it.
'cause once it starts coming out,it seems like it doesn't wanna stop.
So yeah, that initial poop can sometimesbe a little bit of time and it shouldn't
be concerning unless the belly is hardand they're like very uncomfortable.
And you'll know when they're veryuncomfortable because kittens
like human babies, they'regonna cry for a couple reasons.
They're gonna cry because they'rehungry, they have to go to

(16:56):
the bathroom or they're cold.
So for the most part.
The kittens really don't cryunless something's going on.
And if you've ruled all three of thoseout, then at that point is when you'd
wanna say, okay, maybe they're notfeeling well, and so it could be like
they're colicky or something like that.
So now there is a trick of course forconstipation, where you can put some, like

(17:18):
a few drops of olive oil in the bottle.
But the problem with that is if you puttoo much, then you're gonna get diarrhea,
which is gonna be a whole nother thing.
And the diarrhea is more lifethreatening to them than anything,
just 'cause they are so small.
You should see themurinating after every meal.

(17:38):
. And a lot of the times, pooping,it should be a small amount.
You will notice too that kittensdo burp after they eat too.
So don't be alarmed by that.
So a few minutes after you feed'em, you will notice that they're
gonna burp like a human baby
So stimulating to go to the bathroom.
Kittens cannot go to thebathroom on their own.

(17:59):
You do have to stimulatethem to go to the bathroom.
So what you're gonna do is youcan use a warm, wet paper towel
and you just wipe their rear end
do it until you notice that they do go.
You will notice that theygo just give it a few wipes.
Usually they'll urinate right away.

(18:19):
You might have to go a few more timesto see if they're gonna defecate.
They don't always defecate.
Like I said, don't get too upset over it.
A lot of the times when they do defecate,they do sound like it's a shock to them.
And they'll do this up until they'reprobably about six or seven weeks old.
They'll go poop and they'lljust start screaming . So don't

(18:41):
be alarmed if they do that.
It's like the worst thing ishappening to 'em and they all do it.
I've never had kittens not do it
After every feeding you are gonna dothe stimulation until they're about
two to three weeks old, , at two weeksold, you'll notice that you're gonna
have to start changing the bedding inthe carrier a lot because they will
start just going on their own now.

(19:04):
They're not gonna go lookfor a particular place to go.
But now the beauty of this is by the timethey're about three weeks old and they're
a little bit more mobile, if you sticka box in there, with some newspaper, you
gotta make sure it's a very shallow box.
They will start going in that boxon their own, so you don't have to
train 'em to use the litter box.
Now they will have a lot of accidents, andeven up to the point where they're like

(19:28):
six, seven weeks old, they're gonna havea lot of accidents, but they're babies.
It's not fun.
It's a lot of laundry.
Now we're gonna get into the weaning.
I actually find the bottle feedingpart is easier than the weaning part.
Okay.
'cause some of them are verystubborn with wanting to learn
how to eat, and it is very messy.

(19:48):
We call it swimming and cat food.
Before the weaning, this issomething that I have always done.
And this also helps thekittens get a little bit more
nutrients is, I use baby food.
Or the other thing Iused is called a Churu.
So it's C-H-U-R-U and it's a cattreat kind of consistency of baby food.

(20:10):
I will take a little bit ofthat starting at when they're
at like about two weeks old.
Not a lot because it's, we're not ontothe weaning phase yet, but we wanna
start introducing them to solids.
So I will put a little tiny bitof that into their bottle, shake
it up so the bottle's still gonnabe liquidy, but there's a little
bit of a food particle in it now.

(20:33):
You could do that with a cat foodtoo, but the problem with doing that
with a cat food is it's a little bitchunkier , so that'll clog the nipple.
That's why I tend to use the reallysoft foods like that, and I'll mix it
in until we get to a full set of teeth.
When you get teeth, you're at weaningage, and you'll notice when you start
getting teeth too, because they're gonnastart chomping down on that bottle and

(20:57):
they might chomp down on your finger alittle bit and you'll feel those teeth.
At that point you're gonnaadd a little bit more.
I'll do a little tiny bit at twoweeks, and as we get closer to three
weeks to that weaning age, I'm addingmore and more into that bottle.
And once they hit between threeand four weeks old, you can
take a little bit of a gruel.

(21:18):
A gruel is equal parts of the foodand the formula, mix it together.
, It's not a full liquid, so it'snot gonna flow, but it's still
liquidy, if that makes sense.
You're gonna take it, put some onyour finger, and put it in their
mouth and see how they react to it.
So some of them are gonna bereally receptive to it and

(21:41):
they're gonna go right after it.
And others are gonna belike, nah, I don't want that.
Gimme the bottle.
So when you do have the ones that arereceptive to it, you can put it in a dish.
I notice a lot of the times ifyou put the dish in front of
'em, they don't understand how toposition their head to get to it.
I'll put it in a shallow dish.

(22:02):
I will actually hold the dishright up to their head, at an
angle so they can easily get to it.
When they start learning, it's coming outthe dish and put the dish on the floor
and then put 'em in front of the dish.
And that's usually how they'll understand,okay, it's in that dish there, I
gotta put my head down to get to it.
And then that's usually at thepoint where we have the swimming

(22:25):
in the cat food, they are gonna getcovered in cat food from head to toe.
It's not fun.
Make sure you put a wholebig thing in newspapers out.
Put the dish there and beprepared to wipe 'em down.
You're gonna notice that after they eatthe first time that they're gonna actually
shake a little bit after they eat.
'cause it's like a little shock to thesystem and it will affect their stool.

(22:49):
So you might see diarrhea becausethey're getting used to that.
But , if you're not overfeeding,it should clear up right away.
So it shouldn't be anythingthat's gonna be of concern.
If you're weaning them,you can the paintbrush
make sure it's new and you haven'tused it, of course, for paint.
This is actually something thatWildlife Rehabilitators do.

(23:11):
I actually learned this tipbecause I bottle fed rats.
This is the tip that I got fromlearning how to bottle feed rats.
And the funny thing about that isactually, like the rats were faster
to take the bottle than kittens were.
I was actually bottle feedingrats and kittens at the same time.
Any questions before we go on to issues?

(23:32):
How do you know if they aredrinking the bottle too fast?
They just gurgle it down.
When you put the liquid in here, andif it's going down super fast and
you see a lot of bubbles in here,you need to make 'em slow down.
You'll notice too, 'causethey'll start choking.
Once they do it one time,you know what kitten it is.
So you're like typically what I'lldo is take my time and give 'em

(23:52):
a little bit, pull it back, give'em a little bit, pull it back.
Another thing too I would like tomention is there's a whole bunch of
guidelines that are gonna be onlinetoo, about how much that you're
supposed to feed a one week old kitten.
How much you're supposed tofeed a two week old kitten.
I don't really go by that too much.
Okay.
Because every kitten is gonnabe a little bit different.

(24:13):
You wanna make sure that theyare eating, you wanna make sure
that they're gaining weight.
So as long as they're still activeand they're eating and they're
gaining weight, then you're okay.
Okay.
I don't concentrate on the numbers.
I've been doing this such a long timethat, I used to, when I first started out.
It would be like, okay, like aone week old kitten is supposed to

(24:34):
have this amount every single meal.
And I would be feeding 'em andI'm like, okay, this kitten
only got half this amount.
And, it would make me startpanicking that, okay, this
kitten isn't getting enough food.
But I found out over the years,it's a per kitten basis, so as
long as they're getting something,that's what you want 'em to get.
Now another thing that I do wannamention too is when you're in

(24:57):
the weaning stage some of themare fast, some of them are slow.
So when I offer 'em the gruel,at that point I will offer them a
little water, very shallow dish.
And I always find that the thing they'remost reluctant to do is drink water.
That seems to take the longest.
So if they're not drinking water,the only way they are getting their

(25:20):
fluid is actually in their food.
So you wanna make sure that youmake the food nice and soupy so
that they're getting fluid fromthe food because they're not, if
otherwise, they will dehydrate.
'cause they're not drinking the water,they're not taking the bottle from you.
So you just wanna make sure youkeep that food nice and moist.

(25:42):
We'll go through possible issues.
One is gonna be hypothermia, whichis gonna be a low body temperature.
I always keep my kittens on heating pads.
The only time I really see hypothermia isgonna be if somebody brings me a kitten.
If somebody brings me a kitten,I've seen 'em before where they're
like very lethargic, unresponsive.

(26:03):
And at that point I do warm 'em up.
If you notice that your kittens areacting like a little bit lethargic
and they do feel cold, then youdo wanna try to warm 'em up.
So some of the ways that youcan do that, of course you could
put 'em on the heating pad.
We stick 'em on our chest, okay?
Because they get a lotof heat coming from you.
So we'll actually stick 'em in our shirtand we'll hold 'em in our shirt like

(26:26):
that and to see how they're responding.
, With the hypothermia, you don't everwanna feed a kitten that's cold.
So if they're hypothermic, you don'twanna feed 'em anything 'cause it can
cause more of a shock to their system.
Hypothermia is one of those thingsthat they have to go to the vet for.
Okay?
So you're gonna do an emergency measure.

(26:46):
Try to put 'em on a heatingpad to keep 'em warm.
Make sure you flip 'em from oneside to the other to keep 'em warm.
Put 'em on in your chest tohelp keep 'em warm and then
you're gonna get 'em to the vet.
'cause hypothermia is bad.
If their temperature drops below a certainlevel, they're not gonna come back.
So the other big one, and I findthat this is the biggest one.

(27:06):
I touched on this a little bitwith not drinking water on their
own is gonna be dehydration.
The best way to test for dehydrationis to pull up their skin and see
if their skin kind of stands up.
Now, I know on a baby kittenit's gonna be hard 'cause their
mom grabs 'em by their scruff.
So if you pull up the scruff, a lotof the times, even for a hydrated

(27:26):
kitten, I see the scruff staying upbecause that's where the mom grabs.
So actually what I dois I look at the belly.
If the skin looks wrinkly on thebelly and not firm and tight, that's
usually a sign of dehydration.
Another thing is you'll notice when yougo to pick 'em up one day, they might
feel nice and plump and warm and heavy,and the next time you go to pick 'em

(27:51):
up, they feel like they lost substance.
I guess that's the onlyway that I can describe it.
It's like they lost a lot ofweight quickly, but they couldn't
have lost weight that quickly'cause they've been eating okay.
That's usually gonna be dehydration.
So at that point youneed to get 'em fluids.
You can offer them someunflavored Pedialyte.

(28:11):
If I suspect dehydration, I will give'em some unflavored Pedialyte mixed
in with their formula and you can givethem that, but they most likely are
gonna need to get some subq fluids.
So if you're working with a rescue,then of course your rescue should
be able to help you with that.

(28:32):
If you're not working with a rescue,then you're gonna definitely wanna
take 'em to the vet for that.
'cause dehydration is likethe worst thing for 'em.
It'll kill him fast.
If you catch it early, it's not as muchof a problem as if you catch it late.
Get yourself a little foodscale and you can weigh 'em.
if you don't see 'em drinking, assumethat they're not drinking water on

(28:53):
their own yet and you wanna make surethat they're getting it in their food.
The other possible issueis gonna be a sugar crash.
This is gonna be what you'regonna have your karo syrup for.
With the sugar crash, you'lljust notice, like one day the
kitten's gonna be absolutely fine.
You're not noticing the dehydration.
If you check, turn it around, doesn'tlook like it's dehydrated, but the kitten

(29:16):
is just not wanting to move around.
That's usually gonna be a sugar crash.
It's not gonna hurt to put a littlebit of karo syrup on their gums.
, Just dip your finger in the karo syrup.
Tiny little bit.
It doesn't have to be a lot.
And then you're just gonna opentheir mouth and rub it on their gums.
If it's a sugar crash, they'reusually gonna come up it's

(29:36):
like almost instantaneous.
If you do that, you notice that it's notcoming through right away and they're not
becoming more alert, then at that pointyou would wanna getting ' em to a vet.
I'm gonna jump over to illness.
Let's say that you you havethe dehydration, you could
have the possible sugar crash.

(29:57):
Either of those two could meanthat there's some kind of illness
going on that you don't see.
So that's why, if you're doing like thelittle bit of Pedialyte, you're not seeing
them be more responsive, you do the Karosyrup, they're not being more responsive,
then at that point you wanna almostthink there's something else going on.
And so it could be some kind of illness.
The other signs of illness is justgonna be any kind of eye discharge, any

(30:21):
kind of sneezing, anything like that.
If they feel warmer,they could have a fever.
Usually if they have a fever,it's gonna make 'em lethargic.
They're not gonna wanna move around.
If you suspect that they are sick, thatis something that you don't wanna wait on.
you would wanna getting ' em to a vet.
They're very delicate at this age,and they will deteriorate quickly

(30:46):
if you don't act right away.
Normally, I find if you act right away,you can get 'em through a lot of things.
But if you don't act right away,you'll get to that kind of point
of no return, and another sign, ofcourse, is gonna be a loss of appetite.
Now this is gonna be myfavorite topic diarrhea.
The thing that is gonna un-alive yourkitten the fastest is gonna be diarrhea.

(31:08):
'Cause it will lead to dehydration.
'Cause they're essentially gonnahave more fluid coming out of
them than is going in them.
You wanna be very vigilant about it, andyou wanna try to correct the loose stool.
So that's where you would havethat pro-pectalin come in and also,
you're gonna notice the frequency.
If they're going, three, fourtimes a day, it's loose stool.

(31:30):
It's not as concerning ifthey're nonstop with it.
If it's more frequent than that,and you go to pick 'em up to feed
'em, and you notice that there'sdiarrhea in there, then that's gonna
be a sign of a serious problem.
You don't wanna wait.
You wanna, give 'em something likepro-pectalin to try to harden it up.
And then also you're gonna have toprobably think about giving them

(31:50):
fluids because for the most part,if they have diarrhea, they are
gonna be dehydrated, even if theyonly have it for a short time.
So in that case, what I'll do is I willadd usually a little bit of Pedialyte
to the formula or to the gruel.
And a lot of these things when they getolder and they are weaned and they're
eating regular food, these are alsothings that you're gonna look out for.

(32:15):
With the diarrhea somethings that are gonna.
help diarrhea till you caneither get to a vet contact the
rescue that you're working with.
So again, I said pro-pectalin.
It's like a probiotic and then there'ssomething in there that's gonna
help to bind everything together.
So it does help to harden things.
Anytime I notice my stool's a little bittoo loose and watery, I do pro-pectalin

(32:37):
'cause it's not gonna hurt 'em.
The other thing that you can do isyou can actually use some canned
pumpkin and add a little bit ofthat to the food or to the bottle.
I use the canned pumpkin a littlebit more when they're older.
You can use it when they're bottlefeeding but I just find it a little

(32:57):
bit easier when they're actually eatingand wean to give them the pumpkin.
So what I tend to useis more starch water.
You can make rice starch water,you can use pasta, starch water.
So basically what you're doingis you're gonna boil your starch.
So either your potatoes,your rice, or your noodles.
It's gonna be the water that's gonna comeoff of the top when you're boiling it.

(33:20):
So just let a little bit of it boil down.
You want that water up on the top,collect that water, let it cool down, and
then you can mix that into the bottle.
And the starch is gonna help to bind.
Of course, you don't wanna giveit to 'em once it's coming fresh
off as it's boiling and super hot.
You want it to belukewarm and cooled down.
Everybody has some kind of starch athome so they can make starch water.

(33:42):
And it's one thing that really doeshelp to bind everything, to just
help get things a little bit thicker.
And you're not losing as muchwater with the kittens till
you can get 'em to the vet.
But first sign of diarrhea,monitor it very closely.
'cause that's one thingthat'll wipe 'em out very fast.
In addition to that is gonna bethe color and the consistency.

(34:06):
Okay.
And so when I'm talking aboutconsistency too, and a little bit
of diarrhea, if it looks like meltedice cream and a dark brown color,
, that's usually themgetting used to the food.
Keep an eye on it still.
Any other color is gonna be concerning.
So now one thing I do wanna mention iswhen there are very little say a week

(34:26):
old, their poop is gonna look likemustard, like again, newborn babies.
So it'll look like mustard.
And then you'll notice thecolor changes to brown.
That's normal.
If it is bright yellow, that is a signthat they need to get to the vet asap.
Bright yellow poop and mucousy poop isusually gonna indicate parasites that are

(34:48):
gonna wipe through your litter very fast.
Everybody in the litter is gonna get it.
It is something that can be taken careof and they can be dewormed for this.
But you need to get them to the vet asap.
You cannot wait on this.
Again, if you notice in a lotof mucus bright yellow, and when
I say bright yellow, it almostresembles like a neon yellow.

(35:11):
And it's gonna smell atrocious.
But once you see that, they absolutely100% have to get to the vet.
They usually will have vomitingassociated with this too.
But anytime you see vomiting anddiarrhea together, do not wait vet visit.
So call the rescue, call whoeveryou're with and tell 'em you
need to get to the vet right awaybecause this is what's going on.

(35:34):
You've got vomiting and diarrhea.
Take a picture of thepoop and send it to them.
When you're in the rescue world,it's a totally normal thing.
First thing you're gonna doif you're worried about it,
take a picture of the poop.
. You always want rolls.
, Concerning poop is gonna bebright yellow poop and green
poop, those are gonna be problems.
Foul smelling is gonna be a problem.

(35:56):
We've covered the wateryis gonna be a problem.
Okay.
If it's very hard pellet and you'llnotice the difference between
that and a roll, that's usuallygonna be a constipation problem.
Of course blood in the poop is a problem.
If you are feeding them too much,you're gonna notice they're gonna
get a little bit of diarrhea.
Okay, so you want 'em to eat, butif they're eating to the point

(36:18):
where they're having diarrhea fromeating too much, and usually that's
gonna be more of a dark brown poop.
It's not gonna be really mucusy.
It's just gonna be a lot of darkbrown, loose melted ice cream poop.
That means you usually are feedingthem a little bit too much.
So just try to cut back onthe food a little bit too.
The other thing is gonna be fleas.

(36:40):
And this will go from the time too,that , you pick up the kittens, or
if you find the kittens, take 'emoff of social media or whatever.
If you see a few fleas.
Try to pick 'em off with a flea comb.
. Don't get overly concernedabout a few fleas until you
can give 'em like a flea med.
You don't give them any topicalsuntil they're a lot older.

(37:01):
But if you pick up a kitten that'syounger than this and you notice
that they are loaded with fleas thefleas can actually cause them to
have anemia and it can kill them.
So at that point you wanna make surethat you get the fleas off of 'em.
Don't use any kind of flea med.
Don't use any kind of flea spray.
The easiest and best thing to do isgonna be to use like dish soap . I use

(37:23):
blue dawn or you can use baby shampoo.
Do not use power wash or anyother kind of detergents.
When you wash the kittens, you alwaysstart at the head first and then go down
and once they're done with their bath,you wanna make sure that you dry them
very quickly because they can chill.

(37:43):
I find a lot of people are tooquick to give a bath sometimes.
I don't like washingthe little tiny babies.
It's not worth risking chilling them whenthey can't regulate their temperature.
I think we covered most everything.
So now we're up to the pointwhere they're gonna be weaned.
So once they are fully weaned and younotice that they're drinking water and

(38:06):
they're not wanting a bottle anymore,they're eating out the dish pretty good.
At that point, what I will do isI'll at offer 'em a canned food.
So I use canned kitten formula.
Make sure that they're eating everything.
Usually they'll go right for it.
The other thing that you cando is offer them a dry formula.

(38:27):
When first introducing them to like adry food, I will moisten it a little bit
another thing I'm gonnashow you is this setup here.
So most rescues have these.
It's a just a little popup thing.
This one is a smaller one.
I'll keep my kittens up to fourkittens will fit in this until
they're about four weeks old.

(38:48):
I do let 'em out for exercise to play.
And then what I'll do is I'll eventuallymove them out to one of these.
I could put a litter box in here.
There's enough room in therefor some food and water.
. There are bigger ones.
Most rescues are gonna have those.
They're portable, they pop up.
I'll line it with some pee pads, puta litter box in there, and when I put

(39:10):
the litter box in there another thing,kittens like to try to eat litter.
. Anything they can put in their mouth.
They put in their mouth.
So once my kittens start going in thebox, so at three weeks I'll just put a
newspaper in there, say by four weeksI'll start adding litter in there.
I'll use either non clumpingclay litter, or I'll use one

(39:31):
of those wood pellet litters
like Catalyst Natural Litter I don'tuse anything clumping because if
they eat it, it can clump in theirbelly and cause 'em some problems.
So I won't offer them any kind oflike clumping litter and usually until
they're about like seven weeks old.
And you can put 'em in this comfortably.
So as far as leaving food and water, soif you work, your kittens should be fine.

(39:56):
You feed 'em in the morningbefore you go to work.
If they're like five weeks old leavesome dry food out for them so they can
eat it all day long and a bowl of water.
And then they should befine till you come home.
They're good to go.
They all should be drinking water.
They should be self-sufficient.
Now I say self-sufficient, butyou still have to monitor 'em.
. Any kind of signs where yousee that they're acting off,

(40:19):
it's gonna be a concern.
It doesn't matter how old akitten is, they can go downhill
very fast if they get sick.
So it's better to justbe proactive about it.
If you think something's wrong,you can call and ask somebody.
. It could be nothing, but it also couldbe something so it's not worth risking it
'cause they do go downhill very quickly.

(40:39):
at Four weeks it's usually a pound.
Of course, this is like a generalization.
Usually it's gonna be a pound a month.
I.
So we say eight weeks aregonna be two pounds their time
to go get spayed neutered.
Of course it's gonnabe a per kitten basis.
You're gonna have some that are gonnabe a little bit chunkier than others,
and you're gonna have some thataren't as big as others, and they're
just gonna be on a smaller side.

(40:59):
So it's just a per litter,a per kitten basis.
So things that you wanna do.
So if you find them, and mostrescues too would be willing to
help you if you do find a kitten.
If you're not working with a rescueor taking kittens from a rescue
your kittens need to be dewormed.
You can deworm 'em as early as four weeks.

(41:21):
That's a must..
They all have worms.
Again, that's something either therescue work you're working with or your
vet can walk you through with that.
The vaccines some rescues are gonnado it as a early as four weeks.
I know other vets are gonna recommend six.
My vet is more on the thescale of doing it at six weeks.
Again, it's gonna depend, butthat's gonna be something that

(41:43):
they're gonna need as well.
So you're gonna wanna get 'emvaccinated and the deworming is a must.
And then of course the definiteis gonna be spay neuter.
And when you get 'em done early, theydon't know anything has been done.
So I like getting them inwhen they're two pounds.
If you're doing bottle babies, justremember sometimes they're in a in

(42:06):
a bad place, people pick 'em up.
That's how we get 'em.
Other times, the momsabandon them for a reason.
. So don't beat yourself up over it.
If you take them, you're givingthem a chance that they didn't have.
Sometimes they don't makeit You're giving them love.
So that is something that they wouldnot have had the opportunity to get
if you did not step up and help 'em.

(42:27):
So don't beat yourself up over it.
Don't say I did something wrong'cause you didn't do anything wrong.
If anything you stepped up to help 'em.
Do you keep separate from your cats?
You wanna keep 'em separatedfor a isolation, quarantine.
'Cause when you come in, you don'tknow if they could have something.
If you keep 'em isolated forthe first couple of weeks?

(42:49):
You should be okay.
As long as you're washing your hands.
They're not in direct contact withother cats . I have cats Most rescue
people have cats and we actually don'teven think about it, I have my separate
little kitten room that I keep 'em in.
Once they're vaccinated, I'll belike, Hey, look at the other cats.

(43:10):
Come introduce 'em to the other cats.
But I don't stress out about it.
If this is gonna be the first timeyou're bringing kittens in, you wanna
take it slow with your cat anyway'cause your cat might get a little POed.
I did not touch on this and thisis an important thing to know.
So if you have a bottle kitten, and it'sa single kitten, you really wanna put

(43:33):
that kitten with another kitten by thetime it reaches five weeks old, because
otherwise it's not learning properkitten behavior from another kitten.
They learn how to bite andthey learn what is too much by
playing with another kitten.
So a lot of the times when youhave kittens that have a behavioral
issue, it's gonna be a singlekitten that was raised by itself.

(43:54):
You wanna have it with anotherkitten up until it's about, seven,
eight weeks old, ready for adoption.
Because otherwise you're gonnahave a little biter on your hand.
If you do have a singleton, put astuffed animal in there with them,
but it is best to get them a friendbecause you want 'em to learn how
to bite another kitten and not you.
Now if they do start biting you,usually you can do a quick ow you

(44:18):
exaggerate it, make it very loud, andsometimes it helps them, but not always.
So it's always best to have 'emraised together with another kitten.
If you would like to support morelife-saving work like this, every single
dollar helps our animals directly.
You can find a link todonate in our show notes.
Thanks for listening.

(44:40):
And that's all the time wehave for today's episode.
If you are in animal rescue or if youknow someone that has a story that
should be told, please contact us.
We would love to haveyou or them on the show.
Thanks for listening, and pleasejoin us next week as we continue to
explore the world of animal rescue.

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