Kitten Instructions

Age 4 weeks to 8 weeks

Feeding

 4 weeks old: Some of us will be ready to use the litter box!  Our food should be served slightly warm so we can get the full aroma and stimulate our appetites.

It’s time to start offering us something besides MOM to eat.  Twice a day each kitten should be offered a teaspoon of KMR mixed with baby cereal (each kitten).  You can put this in our saucer but FIRST you need to put a little on your pinky finger and GENTLY open our mouth and put some in!   If, after two attempts, we aren’t interested, we aren’t ready yet.  If we like it, lead us to the plate so we know where we can get some more.  Be ready to wipe our mouths and paws after with a clean towel. (We like to stand in our plate sometimes!)

5 weeks old:  We will be ready to play with you!  Make sure we are ALL eating supplemental food twice a day this week.  You should add beef or chicken baby food to our diet now too.

7 weeks old:  You can now add MOISTENED Kitten Chow to our diet – this is the consistency of wet blown up cheerios.   We should have this mixed with the baby cereal.  Some of us are willing to graduate to coated kitten chow (coated with Friskies Turkey  &  Giblets).  Watch us carefully to make sure our stool is formed and not diarrhea.  If that happens, go back a step and add a small amt of baby cereal to help bind us till that clears up.  Always have at least 1/4 cup of Kitten Chow dry available for each of us.  Our goal is to be eating mostly dry with a tiny tsp. treat of canned (Science Diet Feline Growth if we can get it.) each day.

8 weeks old:  This will be our last week before we are ready for adoption.  We should be spending several hours a day away from our mom (in our own cage).  Provided we all weigh enough (2 pounds!) we can spend the night by ourselves.  During this time Mama’s food and water should be cut to ¼ cup twice a day instead of her regular ½ cup twice a day.  She should also have cold compresses applied to her nipples 4 times a day.   The drying up takes 3-7 days.  She is scheduled for her spay soon after.

IMPORTANT REMINDERS:

1. Keep the litter box clean
2. Look at the box to make sure their poop is the RIGHT color – otherwise they may be ill.  (Reference - The Parma Animal Shelter Kitten Care book, page 14 "The Rainbow of Poop".)
3. Make sure they are getting bigger each day – they must gain up to a pound this next month to be ready to go