Abandoned? Kitten

[Maybole]

About 3 weeks ago one of the semi feral cats which hang about our house gave birth to a litter.  This morning, Sister-in-law found 4 kittens under a discarded quilt. We put them in a box and moved them to a safer place. A few minutes later we saw the mother running away with one kitten in her mouth and by midday had taken another two. However, by evening the remaining kitten was still in the box and we believe his mother has abandoned him. We have been feeding him fortified goats milk which consumed happily.

I am unhappy that this food may be inadequate. Has any member experience of feeding unweaned kittens, and can recommend a better  food? How often should he be fed?

There no Vet nearby that I can consult.

[Farmerslife]

We found an abandoned feral kitten in the middle of the road and, like you, took on the task of looking after it.

 

I guess ours is a similar age of 3 weeks or so. Initially we started feeding her just goat's milk but have now got her eating a small amount of solid food as well (a little sardine mixed in with rather wet rice). 

 We are probably doing it completely wrong but she seems to be thriving and even our dogs seem to have taken to her, although this may change as she grows. 

 

 No doubt, the experts will be along shortly to tell us where we are going wrong. I am happy to be corrected by those that know their stuff.  

[Nonthaburi Boy]

The kitten has had three weeks of mother’s milk so that is almost enough and you should be fine with what you are doing. Watch out for runny stools and dehydration and better if you can get some kitten formula express-delivered to you. Once the milk/formula is going in a bowl, leave clean water out too - kittens often don’t drink quite enough and I’ve never had one drink too much. Mine have always preferred the water from dirty plates - even with a bit of soap in - but I try to discourage this. 

 

You should really feed every few hours at this age so it’s a bit of a pain.

 

And kittens can start moving on to semi-solids (continuing the formula too, less frequently) as soon as they are ready. We’ve always done that because if we don’t they steal from the older cats anyway, which is worse. Soft rice and canned mackerel in tomato sauce isn’t ideal nutritionally but it’s easily available and in over 30 years of doing this we’ve never noted much health difference between those initially fed this way and those fed special kitten food. Adding vitamins and supplements is a very good idea for young cats but your vet (see below) can advise on that.

 

If you want to allow yourself to fall in love, get the kitten to a vet as soon as possible (probably need two trips at a minimum). If the kitten has issues then special food or pills or an injection at an early stage can make a difference. Vet will also probably advise on what supplements are needed. Having a strict and annoying vet has increased the average lifespan of our stray cats, despite them all being consistently overweight to her annoyance.

And make sure the kitten’s sleeping spot is snake-proof.

 

Noting that all this is from experience and talking to a number of vets a lot of times about practical solutions as we always have 5-8 cats around and the ‘best practices’ simply won’t work without round the clock attention and a lot of caging. 

 

Google will be your friend but read around - there is a lot of stuff that doesn’t make sense with strays in Thailand, especially if you are rurally located.

 

[Nonthaburi Boy]

Oh and yes, your kitten was probably abandoned. I would probably have tried to wait overnight as mothers do sometimes come back some time later and she may have had to go off somewhere to get food or something at a particular time, but cats do accidentally abandon their young and it’s never easy to judge.

[userabcd]

As an aside, I've often noticed that stray cats in Thailand have bendy tails, never seen that in other places.

 

Are they born like that or has someone cruelly and purposely bent the cats tails like that?