Conference misery::feline_v1

    
    Karen, can't give you tips on bottle feeding, but can you separate 
    the kitten and the mother and let the kitten nurse by its self.
    
     

      What exactly do you mean?? If the kitten isn't getting tnough to eat,
    she/he should be getting hungry enuff so that the nipple will be
    readily accepted.
    
      We found an abandoned new-born and nursed it to adulthood. We bought
    a tiny little bottle and nipple from the pet store, using KMR Kitten
    formula. I personally like the liquid a lot better, since it's a ral
    pain to mix the powder so there aren't any lumps...but it's a personal
    preference mainly. 
    
      The initial contact with the mouth is sometimes a bit tricky. I used
    to sit down, hold the kitten in my lap, and force the nipple gently
    into the kittens mouth..squeezing a bit of formula into the area...it
    usually did the trick..resulting in two front feet eagerly grasping the
    bottle, two little eyes squinting in happiness, and an avid and eager
    suckling of whatever was in the bottle... 
    
      Some patience with the initial contact is sometimes needed...
    
    John McD

    This kitten is only 11 days old, and because of that it is still
    functioning on it's sense of smell only.  I think that two things are
    happening here 1) you probably caught the kitten just after she had 
    nursed off mom,  2) she doesn't recognize the bottle as a source of 
    food since it isn't marked with her scent.
    
    Another thing that I forgot to mention in my mail is that unless the
    kitten isn't gaining weight each day, or is actually losing weight, you
    should probably let nature do it's thing.  If she is gaining, then you
    know that she is getting enough to eat.  She may just be a smaller
    kitten.  The reason that I prefer to let them nurse is that her needs
    may be less cuz she is smaller, and if you start her on KMR, she will
    nurse that much less.  Mom's milk is much better for her than KMR,
    since it has all those antibodies in it.
    
    Keep weighing her each day and if she isn't gaining, then go ahead and
    supplement.  When you have a litter of five, some kittens are born
    smaller and will remain smaller in the early weeks.  Remember, Ruby had
    three kittens squeezed into one horn of her uterus and only two in the
    other horn.  It makes sense that the two that had all that room would
    be bigger than the ones that were squeezed together.  It takes time to
    catch up. :^)
    
    Jo

    I think I read somewhere about soaking the end of a clean cloth
    in "milk" or whatever and letting the kitten suck on that to
    get the idea.  Presumably this is just a starter -- I doiubt
    that much food could be transmitted that way.
    

    re: supplementing   Halie's last litter was 7 kittens.  They were
    all about the same size, but when Tony came over to see them (at
    about 7 days old) he noticed that two of the kittens were a bit
    dehydrated (Spot's MacKenzie and Sugar) and suggested we supplement
    the feeding.  He showed me how to get the kitten to take the 
    bottle and how to tell when the kitten was "plugged in" as he
    called it.  (Their ears move and the KMR disappears really
    quickly).  In this litter's case the "problem" was that there
    were 7 kittens trying to get at the 4 or 5 easily available 
    nipples on the top row.  
    
    Micki wasn't too good about taking the bottle so we fed anyone
    who would eat.  My reasoning was that if the others were full
    the competition of the available nipples would be less.  I don't
    have a scale so I couldn't weight the kittens every day, but we
    could tell that those two were dehydrated.  Their skin was a little
    loose and if you pinched the skin of the scruff together it didn't
    fall back down as quickly when you let go - it tended to stick some
    which was a sign of dehydration.
      Nancy DC

    I should mention that Micki was very happy to nurse off the nipple.
    If you've got a kitten that won't even try to nurse then you've
    got another, bigger, problem.  This happened to Bonnie.  Tony says
    that she would have died except that he force-fed her.
      Nancy DC

    Thanks for all you helpful hints!  I took John's and also Jo's advice
    which was "patience".  She is the smallest but she is gaining weight
    and since I originally placed this note she can scrabble for a nipple
    with the rest of them now, and usually wins!  I also would place her on
    a nipple when the others were asleep to give her an advantage.  I guess
    it all payed off and have also found out that she could be the pick of
    the litter!  Only time will tell now, ...lets see.....last time I
    looked at the clock.....
    KRSW +5