Helping kittens go potty

Question
QUESTION: Do you just rub their little butt holes or all their private parts?  It sounds ugly, but I feel like a fish out of water...do you lay them on their backs?  Just hold them up, or down on the counter?? They really cry and are stressing over it?? I think they are about 10 - 14 days old.  Their mother was killed and there was 5 kittens...I ended up with 2.  So, they are really scared and freaking out...How long do you have to help them go to the bathroom?  Help...and thank you!!  How do you know if you are doing it right??  Jeez...I have 3 kids of my own, but this is my first go at brand new kittens!! Yikes.  Thanks, again.

ANSWER: Whitney,

When raising orphaned kittens that young there are a few things that you have to know. Kittens are born with really immature immune systems so you will want to make sure that these babies don't come into contact with any other cats and you should always wash your hands before and after handling them. Your vet will be the best person to tell you when he/she prefers to start the vaccines with an orphaned kitten as the protocol can vary as most kittens would be getting mom's antibodies until they were about 8 weeks or so. You should be feeding a kitten milk replacer (I tend to like a kitten formula called KMR, it seems to be of decent quality and it is fairly straight forward to use) that is available in pet stores and vet clinics, do not feed them cow's milk or human baby formula as they don't have enough of the right nutrition for your growing babies. Another thing that you should know is that some kittens will refuse to take a bottle designed for nursing orphaned kittens so you may have to use a brand new oral syringe (like the ones for giving human babies medicine that you buy at the pharmacy). When you feed the kittens you must make sure that they are not lying on their backs as they can inhale their formula and choke this way. You should be feeding the kittens so that their four paws are facing the floor, just like when they nurse from their mom. Another good piece of equipment to have is a scale that measures in grams up to 2 pounds, this will help you to know if the kittens are eating enough on their own or if you need to increase the frequency of their feedings. Kittens the age that you describe (you will want to take them to the vet to be accurately aged so that they get the right amounts of formula) are not able to regulate their body temperatures on their own, what I suggest is that you take a big, thick, fluffy bath towel, fold it in half, then in half again, and in half once more so that you have a nice thick square, you are then going to want to place a heating pad under about half of the towel (the kittens do need to be able to get away from the heat from time to time which is why you shouldn't heat the whole area), and adjust the temperature to low or medium depending on how powerful the heating pad is. These kittens will likely want to be fed approximately every two hours, some will go slightly longer, some will want to be fed every hour, hour and a half. Now, the other really important thing that a mama cat does in addition to keeping her babies warm and feeding them on demand is to clean them from head to toe every chance that she gets. In order to clean these kittens you will want to use a cotton ball dampened with warm water, you will start from the head cleaning the whole face, then you will work back along the body, you will then want to hold the kitten over the sink or a litter box  and you will be wiping their tummy, then moving down to their genital area. You will wipe them from genitals to rectum trying to duplicate how their mother stimulates them to use the washroom. Be patient, sometimes this takes a few minutes, at some points they will poop, they will let you know when they are finished using the bathroom. You will also want to invest in a can of the powdered weaning formula that you can purchase at pet stores because if these kittens are 2 weeks old you may be looking at trying to supplement their formula feedings with weaning formula diluting soft kitten food so that it is about the same texture as paper mache. Initially you will have to show the kittens to eat this off of your fingers, eventually they will understand that they can eat out of the dish. The weaning will take some time, but with a little patience your kittens will be able to eat soft kitten food and kitten kibble around about 7-8 weeks. You will also want to start teaching litter box use fairly soon, if these kittens are 2 weeks old you won't have to be stimulating them to use the bathroom for much longer, you will want to use a non scented clumping kitty litter and have a box small enough for the kittens to get in and out of comfortably. One of the best ways to teach kittens to use the litter box in my experience has been to watch and wait until they are able to go to the washroom on their own, then what you will want to do is any time that the kittens wake up from a nap, eat or drink place them into the litter box very gently and use one of their front paws to make a scratching sound, after that the litter is pretty instinctive for most cats. I hope that you enjoy your new little family members and I would dearly love to see pictures of them. Hopefully I have been able to give you enough advice to get you started on this process. If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me again.

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QUESTION: Ok...one more thought, we have a stray "Daisy" (we named her) on our back porch that had a litter 8 days ago.  One of them passed...Daisy lets us pet her, hold her babies, while we change the box that we bought for her...she loves for us to love on her...do you think that I could introduce her to the kittens and she could be a surrogate??  If so, what are the proper steps?  I don't want her to kill them, and I don't want to stress her little body out.  She has 8 nipples.  Is very attentive to her litter.  What do you think?? I have had several people tell me that that is the best thing to do...and one tell me that she will kill them!! Yikes!! This is crazy!! I have twins of my own and I am having severe flashbacks, which I have had 14 years to get over!! LOL!  Thank you for your help!

ANSWER: Whitney,

If Daisy has kittens that are similar in age you can offer the kittens to her by placing them in a box near her, she has to be the one to make the choice to adopt them. She may hiss at them, but in my experience she isn't too likely to kill them if you don't push the issue. Be prepared that she might show interest in smelling them and may even come to see who is crying when the kittens cry, the magic will be if she decides to make them a part of her family. You will want to sit and watch, see what she does, you can hold the kittens near her and allow her to sniff at them, in most cases she will either ignore them, maybe do a little hissing, and she may or may not adopt them. It is almost a good idea to wait until the kittens are due for a feeding and crying a little. You can try the more aggressive step of actually latching the kittens on to Daisy, but if she doesn't want to adopt them she may actually swat at them if you do that. The best thing for them developmentally and nutritionally would be if Daisy is willing to adopt the kittens, but be aware that this has to be her decision or she will most likely refuse to take care of these little ones. The other thing that you need to be concious of is how many kittens Daisy already has, if she has more than 3-4 kittens she may not be able to nurse these two little ones, but you may be able to work out a joint feeding schedule of sorts in terms of switching things up so that each of the orphans are getting some of mom's milk and some formula. I would also suggest that Daisy and her family come indoors to give the best possible chance to her and her family for good health and survival, it sounds to me like you have already adopted Daisy anyway, so I don't see the harm in bringing her in to keep her and her babies safe from predators and contagious illnesses. You may find that Daisy will be more willing to adopt the orphans if she is secure inside with no worries about protecting herself and her babies from things like dogs and raccoons. You should be aware that animal shelters often try to place orphaned kittens with mother cats who have litters of the same age if they will accept them at all. It is what is best for the kittens, in fact cats make far better mothers to kittens than any human ever could no matter how hard we all try. I hope that the information I have given you is helpful. I would like to suggest that you get Daisy spayed when her milk dries up so that she can live a more care free life and not have to worry about being a mommy again. The reasons that I recommend spaying her are because when she is spayed she will not contribute to the massive overpopulation problem facing cats and creating extremely high euthanasia rates in animal shelters. The other benefit to spaying her is that she will no longer be at risk for things like reproductive system cancers or infections. If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me again.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Good News...My husband is a police officer and was able to find a kennel, who fosters baby kittens.  She is going to take them...that is all that she does is take care of baby kittens.
As far as bringing Daisy in...we adopted Darby a beautiful, neglected brown tabby, and it has taken us sometime to gain her trust...and she is the center of our world...she is freakin' out with the kittens.  We have only had her less than a year.  Anyway, the only reason we started feeding Daisy and Oreo, were b/c they made Darby happy to watch.  We call them her kittys...but when we open the window or door...she is terrified and hides.  So, she is our number one priority.  But I am looking into having Daisy and Oreo spade...through Alleycat.com.  I don't want to add to any kitty's misfortune.  Thank you for all of your help and expertise.  Whitney

Answer
Whitney,

You are very welcome. I am glad that you have worked something out that works for all of the kitties and people involved. Please feel free to keep in touch if you have any further questions or concerns. I will do my best to ensure that you have accurate and useful information. Take good care of your adopted kitties indoors and out.