Kitten Season: How to Bottle Feed Successfully
Kitten Season begins at about March of each year. The Orphaned Newborn kittens are often found to have upper respiratory illnesses and eye infections. For the kittens this is turning out to be a tough season because of the extreme sudden cold. For you, bottle feeding is going to be rough on your nervous system. You won’t get any real sleep for about 2-4 weeks until the kittens can go for longer periods off the bottle so plan on supportive measures for yourself too: Drink lots of water; take vitamins and eat healthy meals. If you can meditate I recommend it because in 15 minutes of meditation you get the benefit of 4 hours sleep or more.
You want the kittens to survive and I have to remind you to resist human maternal instincts. People don’t realize that when you’re bottle feeding a kitten you don’t hold the kitten in the feeding position that you hold a human baby. In reality, the kittens naturally nurse on their belly or upright (see image), holding them in the human baby position (on their backs) will cause them to drown because the milk goes down into their lungs. Here’s a video that I made taking you through the entire routine – it’s on YouTube: https://youtu.be/k5yme5Sa31A
It’s hard to have a precise feeding schedule when they’re newborn to about a week or two. They may want to eat more often than every 15 – 20 minutes or they may want more or less of what you offer for them to eat. These are very cautious guidelines and you’ll need to watch and figure out what your particular orphan newborn needs. Some kittens may be very fragile and I recommend the following schedule while a robust kitten will eat more and can go a little longer between feedings. Observe; evaluate and see what the kitten you’re feeding needs.
There is an Emergency Formula and Official Feeding Schedule posted from an ASPCA website on my Facebook page: A Ministry of Cats:
Notice that the kitten in my video is less than 7 days old (their eyes open at about 7 days) I have a full bottle because there were three kittens in that litter. Notice she drank very little. I said I would sleep an hour in that video but at a week old, and in her very good condition, I fed that litter every 30 minutes. They all survived and were eventually adopted.
I’ll keep checking on vitals for very fragile kittens every 15 minutes. Here is my overly cautious schedule:
Newborn: Day 1-3: I offer KMR every 15 minutes. They may only drink a few drops so offering often is important.
Days 3-7: every 20-25 minutes. Watch the amount they drink since more will give them strength and you can increase the time between meals. Never urge the kitten to drink more. Never squeeze the bottle to get more milk into their mouths.
Days 7-11: 25 – 30 mins
Days 11-14: 30 mins – 45 mins
TWO WEEKS: Days 15- 18: 45 mins – 1 hour
Days 19-21: 1 – 1 ½ hours
THREE WEEKS: Days 22-28: 2-2 ½ hours
Things get easier because after Week Four (28 days) they can be fed every 3-4 hours (always depending on the Individual Kitten’s need.) By this time they’re drinking more KMR at each meal.
Once they’re 5 weeks old, it gets even better; they can go 4-5 hours until the next bottle. At this point I mix a little Beech Nut Chicken and Chicken Broth baby food with Nutrical.
Nutrical is a paste that’s sold in a tube. It’s a great nutritional supplement and will help the kittens to thrive. You can mix about an inch of paste into the KMR (Kitten Milk Replacer).
NOTE: Giving them a/d canned food only gives them diahhrea since it’s too rich for their system. Another important caution: giving cats or kittens regular milk will give them diahhrea and they can dehydrate pretty fast when they have the runs.
At 6 weeks I start introducing them to kitten food with KMR. Mix it until it looks like oatmeal. Be prepared to clean up a very messy kitten and be patient with them. They don’t know that they aren’t supposed to swim through their food. They’ll get it all over their faces. Be sure to wash it off with a warm and moist washcloth; if it dries it peels the fur off when you finally clean them. Clean them right away.
Once the kittens have been adopted and you’ve gotten some sleep sit back and think about what you did. This challenge was an opportunity for you to learn and to give life to a kitten or litter that would have died if you hadn’t stepped up to the plate! Congratulations!
