Stimulating orphan kittens to poop

Question
A friend and I frequently rescue feral cats.  Normally any kittens we catch are weaned, however, four days ago someone dumped a box of week old kittens on my street.  We are feeding them KMR every three hours and stimulating them in order for them to go to the bathroom.  All of the kittens will pee with stimulation, but only a couple will even produce the tinest amount of poop (most of the time it is only a smear).  We cannot seem to get them to defecate and are concerned.  Any tips?  How much should kittens that are now approx 10 days (a few of them have eyes that are starting to open, and they seem to be teething) poop after each meal?  Warm water cotton balls aren't doing the trick and neither are warm water on paper towels.

Thank you!!!

Answer
Please avoid the paper towels; they are too rough. The cotton balls or simply your dampened finger can do. Kitten's pooping will vary. There can however be intestinal blockages in stray kittens caused by intestinal worms. Deworming can be done as early as two weeks of age and in found kittens like yours I do recommend that you do it at that early age - even if they start pooping better. They are very likely to have worms and this can be a very serious problem so even if there were no problems evident, I would still recommend you start this young for these foundlings. When you see the vet, tell him/her that these are foundlings and a recommended schedule will be given to you for dewormings (they need it more than once) as well as tests for feline leuk and feline aids, and shots.

You can read more about deworming at:
http://www.myvetonline.com/website/layout.jsp?section=newsletter_detail&topicId=...