Kitten not feeding

Question
Hi Savannah,

I have a Blue Cat named Piper who had five kittens on sunday. One was a deformed still birth, and the other four were all fit and healthy.

I took Piper (the Queen) and the kittens to a vet on monday who said that everything was fine and the all the kittens were healthy.

Now however there is one Kitten who will not feed. He was at first. Feeding with all of the others but now he will not suckle on the nipple so we have tried hand rearing him with a bottle and Kitten formula but he won't suckle that either.

I'm worried that were going to lose this one so is there anything you know of that we can do?

Piper hasn't rejected the Kitten at all and will still come and retrieve him and take him back to the rest of the litter but he won't eat so he's not growing whereas the other three are much much bigger than he is.

Any help you can give me will be greatly recieved.

Many Thanks

Jason

Answer
Hi Jason,

That doesn't bode well for the little kitten.  Since I'm not as knowledgeable on newborn kittens and pregnant kittens, you may want to ask someone else if you feel this answer isn't adequate.  

Common sense and my medical knowledge tells me that if he isn't suckling or latching onto anything, then he may not make it.  You can try and get the kitten to latch on to a nipple by putting your forefinger into its mouth, and get the rooting reflex started.  This is the reflex where they start suckling.  If he starts rooting with your finger, then slowly put a bottle nipple in there while your finger is still in there.  As you bring the nipple to where your finger is, slowly remove your finger, and the hope is that the kitten will continue rooting on the nipple, and thus, getting its formula.  Or, have you tried putting the kitten directly on the nipple, and seeing if it will suckle if you put the nipple in its mouth?  I have read that trying to get a kitten to suckle that isn't doing it can take a LONG time--sometimes more than hr of trying and trying and trying--and then finally--success!!  And you need to do that every 1-2 hrs!  So, is it possible that you haven't been trying long enough each time you do try?  It's also important for the kitten to remain warm, as it can't self-regulate its body temp at this age yet.  So, if it's too cold, it may not want to eat (or have the strength to eat).  Also, if it's blood sugar is too low, it may not suckle either.  So, it may be worthwhile to have its blood sugar checked by a vet--or you can give it a drop of Karo syrup in its mouth, and see if it becomes more alert and active and starts latching on after some sugar to up its blood sugar.

If neither one of these works, then your only choice (that I know of) is to dropper feed it; however, I just don't know that you'll be able to get enough food into it for it to survive if you use this method.  The other option would be to go back to the vet and let it be tube food (the vet will need to insert a catheter into its stomach) if you've tried for over an hr each time and it's still not latching on to the mother's nipple or the bottle nipple.  At that point, it becomes more of an emergency, because the kitten isn't getting much of anything, and you need to have vet intervention at that point.

I know this isn't a lot of information, but hopefully it helped in some small way.

Good luck!  I hope the little guy makes it!

Savannah