concerned

Question
My cat cookie had a litter of 3 kittens on sathurday and 2 died today. It is her 4th litter and every kitten past away after 24hrs to 5 days old and this time i am trying to keep this little kitten to live.... just a few min a go my cat was acting up she was making this weird noise and getting in the box and out and purring and biting my leg she was kinda acting crazy,i didn't know what she wanted so i had bought some formula for the kittens in case that the mother wasn't gona feed them so i feed the kitten and she stop acting so crazy ....i am juste wondering what is going on is it the mother cat who can't feed the baby or is it an illness...i am really confuse please help i would like to safe that little cutie kitten alive....

Answer
Tina,

This is unusual behavior for the mama, indeed!!!!!  If she will let you feed the baby and the baby begins to thrive, this will be good news.

Here are some guidelines for feeding the newborn:

I am afraid this kitten will have to be hand raised until it can be weaned (about 3-4 weeks of age). Newborn kittens are not very good at regulating their body temperature yet, so the most important thing is to keep them warm. You should keep them in a warm draft free part of the household with no access by other pets or young children.  If mama will still take care of the kitten, so much the better.

To see if the kitten is doing well when you hand raise it, we like to use a digital postal scale for weighing the kitten. Newborns should gain about 1 oz (30 g) in the first week and nearly 2 oz (50 g) in each subsequent week until weaning.  A good feeding regimen for kittens is 4 times a day (e.g. midnight, 7:00 AM, 1:00 PM, 7:00 PM).  

You can get good kitten milk replacer products, e.g. Justborn or KMR.  Until they get their strength, you may want to add a bit of unflavored Pedialyte tot he formula (about 1 part formula to one part Pedialyte for the first couple of days).

If the kittens will nurse from a pet nurser, this is preferable.  Otherwise you will have to tube feed, and your vet can show you how.

If you are tube feeding, the kitten should take about .3 oz (8-10 mL) of formula for every 4 oz (100 g) of body weight.  Divide this by 4 to get an idea of how much to feed each time. Before you feed each kitten, make sure you push enough formula through the tube so that there is no air in the tube when you begin feeding. If the mixture is too rich or the kitten is being overfed, they can get diarrhea.  

If the kittens are taking formula from a pet nurser they should take what you would tube feed on their own. If any of them do not seem to drink enough, wait a few minutes and try again.

Whether you are tube or pet nurser feeding, make sure the formula is warm on the back of your hand before giving it to the baby. In both cases watch out for over feeding.  This can cause diarrhea and, worse, if a baby regurgitates it can aspirate the formula leading to pneumonia!

Once each baby has been fed, you can potty it.  It should pee each time and poop once a day. To potty the kitten get a soft tissue or cloth and gently stimulate the genital area, it will potty.  You can burp each baby by holding it upright and gently tapping on its back.  With tube feeding, it should not get much air, so you may not hear any burp.

Please get back to me if you have more questions and let me know how the little tyke is doing.  Hand reared kittens are always a challenge and it does not always work out.

I would consider getting mama spayed, since she does not seem to be able to produce viable kittens.

Best regards... Norm.