urgent: day old kittens

Question
hi, i live on a dairy farm, and one of the cats just had kittens yeasterday, but she wont take care of them. she never feeds them. so i want to take care of them, but i sadly dont know how. what kind of milk/formula should i give them or what kind of formula? i have tried to twist a little piece of cloth and put milk on it, but they wont try to suck on it. is there a special bottle i should buy, or is there another way? and how often should i feed them? as for peeing i think they kinda do it on theyre own, cuz theyre bottoms are always wet. i would really apreciate a fast reponce if possible, because the cat hasent fed them yet and im wirried that theyll die if i dont feed them soon.

thank you.
cindy

Answer
Cindy,

If you visit a pet store or a vet clinic chances are that they will have a kitten milk replacer on hand. Simply follow the instructions provided in order to mix it properly. You can also find bottles that are meant for hand rearing kittens, but some kittens will not take a bottle. If you go to your local pharmacy and pick up a new oral syringe (like the kind used for giving medication to babies) you should have a bit more luck getting the nutrition into them. These babies will need to be fed every hour and a half to three hours, they will let you know when they are hungry. You will want to make sure that you don't lay them on their backs like a human baby to feed them because they can breathe their formula in and drown. I recommend that you feed the kittens with four facing the floor (exactly what you would expect, four paws facing the floor). If you opt to feed these babies via oral syringe it is important that you be gentle and go slow. To start the kittens off you will likely have to gently put the tip of the syringe in the corner of their mouth and slowly depress the plunger. Make sure that you give them enough time to swallow their milk or they can choke. You can feed them as much as they are willing to take at any given sitting. It is also important that the kittens are kept warm and dry, you can set up a cardboard box with a couple of clean old towels and put a heating pad on one side of the box on low, but be sure that you have a spot for the kittens in that box where they can get away from the heat if they become too warm. Keeping the kittens together should be helpful in keeping them warm because kittens are born without the ability to regulate their body temperatures on their own. Normally the mother cat helps her babies to go to the toilet by stimulating them with her tongue. If you can get mom to at least clean her babie's bottoms then things are made more simple for you. If mom is not at all interested in her babies at all and there is no medical reason for it don't push her. You will be able to stimulate the kittens to pee and poop using a few warm, damp cotton balls. You will wipe the kittens from their genitals to their bums with the cotton balls, it can take up to 5-10 minutes to get the babies to poop. It is a good thing to actually wipe the kittens down after each meal from head to toe as I am sure that you know momma cats tend to keep their babies very clean. It is a good idea to have mom in to see the vet if at all possible because she may have an infection or even a kitten stuck in the birth canal. Mother cats are generally good mothers and rejecting healthy kittens is not the norm. It is a good idea to either have the vet weigh the kittens regularly or to pick up a scale that measures in grams up to two pounds because this will help you to monitor how the kittens are growing and if they are getting enough to eat. I hope that this information helps. I am sure that you will have many questions over the next few weeks, so please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns that you may have. I will do my best to give you answers and solutions to issues that may come up in the next little while.