Should You Give Your Kitten Flea And Worm Medication
What if your new kitten wont be interacting with other animals or if they stay inside? Does your kitten only need flea and worm medication if they go outside?
Even if your kitten is going to be a strictly indoor cat, it is still advised that you treat your kitten for worms and fleas. It wont do them any harm and it will keep them protected.
How To Prepare Before Baby Arrives
While it may seem overwhelming, there are several items you can add to your baby to-do list that will help your cat transition from being an only child to sharing their home with a new little one. These may include:
Take health precautions. As a cat owner, you may have heard of toxoplasmosis. Toxoplasmosis is a parasite that can spread from cats to humans. It can also spread from mother to unborn baby. This parasite causes many health conditions in an unborn baby, such as blindness, deafness, or hydrocephalus.
To prevent the spread of this parasite from cat to human, avoid stray cats and keep your cat indoors. Be sure to wear gloves when handling litter boxes or outdoor gardens. For pregnant cat owners, itâs best to avoid scooping litter when possible and to undergo regular screening.
Make gradual changes. As you prepare your home for your new baby, itâs important to spend plenty of time with your cat, preparing them for life with a baby. Take these steps to help your cat adjust smoothly:
What Can Go Wrong
There are many things to look out for when caring for a kitten at every stage of its life that could indicate a problem or even a veterinary emergency. If you notice any of the following symptoms in your kitten, contact your veterinarian right away to schedule an appointment.
Here is what you need to keep an eye out for in a newborn kitten:
- Delays or difficulties in motor skills or coordination
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Adopting Out The Kittens
The final step. Successful socialization is the most important part of the process, so make sure you teach them to trust and like humans as early as you are able! Please spay and neuter them before you adopt them out , they will not only be more attractive to adopters, but it will also help prevent this cycle from happening all over again. Once they are fixed, advertise liberally! Use social networking sites, tells friends, relatives, colleagues and acquaintances, and get them adopted out as early as you can! The older the kittens get, the harder it will be to find them homes.
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How To Teach Your Kitten To Go To The Bathroom
Young kittens can’t go to the bathroom by themselves. Usually, a mother cat will clean her kittens to stimulate urination and a bowel movement. If the mother isn’t present, the kitten will rely on you.
Once your kitten is 3 to 4 weeks old, you can introduce them to their litter box. Add a cotton ball to the process in a similar way that you used one on them when they were younger. This will help them to understand what to do.
Gently place your kitten in their litter box and let them get used to it. Keep practicing with them. Ensure that their bathroom is in a safe area away from other people and pets so that they feel comfortable.
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Do Newborn Kittens Need A Litter Box
When litter training kittens, just put a kitten in a litter box right after it has eaten. Give the kitten a few minutes to do its business and put it back with its littermates after it has finished. Then put the next kitten in the box, and continue down the line until everybody has had a turn.
A key part of litter training kittens is accessibility the kitten needs to be able to get in the litter box in order to use it. The litter box should, therefore, have low walls and be somewhere the kitten can easily reach.
You will also need to clean the litter box at least once a day. Cats of any age wont use a dirty litter box.
Provide Newborn Kittens With A Clean Warm And Dry Environment
Firstly, you will need to provide your kittens with a suitable, enclosed bedding area to keep them safe. A queening box or a large cat carrier work well. Kittens of this age are incredibly vulnerable so you will need to keep them away from other animals.
Young kittens are susceptible to the cold so maintaining a constant temperature is essential. The nest temperature should be between 85 to 90 °F for the first 2 weeks of life. Then reduced to 27°C at 2 weeks. When your kittens reach 4-weeks old, the temperature can be reduced again to 22°C. A heat source can be provided for kittens by using a covered hot water bottle, heat pad, or heat lamp. The temperature can be maintained by providing plenty of bedding. However, you should refrain from using too many blankets as young kittens can get tangled in them. A soft pet bed is a safer choice.
Check the temperature in the nest regularly to make sure it doesnt get too hot. You can use a reliable thermometer for this. You will also need to make sure the kittens can escape from the heat if they need to by providing a cooler and a warmer end of the nest.
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How To Feed Baby Kittens
Kittens under four weeks old cannot eat solid food they need kitten milk replacement formula. For the first 24 hours, mix the formula with Pedialyte electrolyte solution to help the kittens transition from their mothers milk to the formula and to reduce their chances of developing diarrhea. A newborn kitten will need about .11 ounces of formula per day. You will have to bottle-feed the kittens until they are three or four weeks old after that, they will start drinking from a saucer.
Never give a kitten cows milk, for they cant properly digest it.
Kittens under a week old will need to be fed and stimulated every three hours or eight times a day. If they are sickly or unusually small, they will need to be fed and stimulated every two hours or twelve times a day.
When the kittens are four weeks old, its time to start weaning them. Offer them a shallow dish filled with formula and another dish filled with soft kitten food. At this age, you should be feeding the kittens four to six times a day.
When the kittens are six weeks old, start giving them dry kitten food and reducing the amount of formula. They should be completely off the formula by the time they are twelve weeks old. Feed the kittens four times a day.
How To Care For A Kitten
Kittens are adorable and lovable household pets, however, they have very specific needs that have to be taken care of. These needs are different for every stage of their life, and if something goes wrong or is missed it can impact their overall health and longevity. Here we talk about how you can care for your new furry friend during their kitten years.
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What You Can Do And What To Leave Up To The Mother
Follow the mother cats lead if she doesnt want you near her babies, stay away. Most mother cats know how to rear their own young, especially if they have had previous litters. Just keep a discreet eye on the family for potential problems.
- The newborn kittens should be nursing frequently, as in every two or three hours. As they mature, they will nurse less often. A healthy kitten will sleep peacefully and have a round tummy.
- When the kittens are about a week old, take them and their mother to the vet for a check-up.
- When the kittens are around four weeks old, the mother cat will start teaching them how to use the litter box. Until then, she will help the kittens urinate and defecate by stimulating their genitalia or bottom. Never interrupt a mother cat while she is helping her kittens go to the bathroom.
- Keep the family in a warm and quiet room, and make sure the mother has easy access to everything she needs like food and water. Your vet may recommend a particularly nutritious cat food for the mother cat so she remains healthy while caring for her babies.
- Provide the family with a cardboard box big enough to accommodate everybody. Line it with towels or the like to keep everybody warm and comfortable. Since very young kittens will relieve themselves here, remove the topmost towel every day to clean it.
How To Help Your Kitten Sleep Well
After playtime, your kitten will likely participate in one of her other favorite pastimes: sleeping! Eight- to 12-week- old kittens can sleep 20 hours a day, but it depends on their activities, says Marilyn Krieger, certified cat behavior consultant and author of Naughty No More! Highly energetic kittens may sleep longer.
To help your kitten establish sleep patterns, play with her an hour or so before bedtime. This helps use up her energy to sleep through the night but still gives her time to come down from the revved up energy of playtime.
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Caring For Young Kittens And Their Moms
We strongly encourage everyone to have their cat spayed or neutered. This is the single most effective way to reduce the over population of felines in our community. If, however, you find yourself with a litter of kittens or have made the decision to care for a stray, please refer to the following information to help you care for your kittens until they are 8 weeks old the minimum age they can be away from their mom and/or littermates.
Mom will do most of the initial care, but you will need to frequently check on the babies to ensure the mother is caring for them and the kittens appear healthy.
A clean, warm, and dry place should be provided for moms and babies. A nesting box is essential for better health and survival. The nesting box should be:
- located in a quiet, secluded, warm, and draft-free area
- just tall enough to prevent the kittens from wandering away but low enough that mom can come and go easily
- large enough for the mom to comfortably lie away from the litter if she chooses, but small enough for the newborns to easily reach her
The bottom portion of a plastic dog or cat kennel works well as a nesting box and easily can be cleaned and disinfected.
A temperature-controlled, draft-free area is extremely important because a kitten’s body temperature can quicklydrop to dangerous levels. A few more tips for creating a quality nesting box:
- congenital defects
- altered respiration
Immediately contact your veterinarian If you notice any of these signs.
How To Care For A Kitten From 4 To 6
At 4 to 6 months of age, your kitten should eat a combination of wet and dry formulas three times per day. By the time theyre six months old, female kittens should be spayed and male kittens neutered, provided they are healthy and weigh two lb. Like humans, a kitten’s first set of teeth is replaced by their adult teeth, so it is important to start and keep up with dental care regularly at home.
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First Trip To The Vet
Your veterinarian should examine orphaned newborns as soon as possible. Stray kittens can suffer from fleas and other parasites and may not have received the benefits of protective antibodies passed through their mother’s milk. Orphaned kittens may need certain immunizations earlier than kittens who nurse until they are naturally weaned. And, any kitten showing signs of illness or distress including low body temperature, watery eyes, runny nose, diarrhea, lethargy, or failure to eatshould be seen immediately by a veterinarian.
Preventing Fleas In Cats
Preventing fleas in cats is much easier than treating a flea infestation, and the best form of medicine is always prevention. You can use one of the medications discussed above to help aid in the monthly prevention of fleas. A veterinarian can help you determine the best option for your cat depending on its lifestyle, so it is safe from future flea infestations. Your cat will thank you for it.
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What To Do If You Find A Newborn Kitten
OOTC EditorThis article is now outdated. An updated version of this information can be found at
During kitten season, its not unusual to discover a nest of unattended kittens or a single kitten seemingly abandoned by his/her mother.
by Valerie Sicignano, NYC Feral Cat Initiative
During high kitten season in the spring and summer, its not unusual to discover a nest of unattended kittens or a single kitten seemingly abandoned by the mother. You want to help, right? Before jumping to the rescue, consider these recommendations.
First: Wait & Watch
You might have come across the kittens while their mother is off searching for food, or is in the process of moving them to a different location. Try to determine if the mother is coming back for them, or if they are truly orphaned.
To do this, stand far away from the kittens 35 feet or more. If you stand too close, the mom will not approach her kittens. You might need to go away completely before the mother cat will return to attend to the kittens. It might be several hours before the mother cat returns until she no longer senses the presence of humans hovering near her litter.
The mother cat offers her kittens best chance for survival, so wait and watch as long as you can. The best food for the kittens is their mothers milk. Remove the kittens only if they are in immediate, grave danger.
If the mother cat returns
If the mother cat does not return
Can I Bathe A Newborn Kitten
It can be challenging to try something new with a kitten, especially bathing. Because most adult cats dislike water, it is reasonable to assume that kittens wont like it too.
Young kittens are fragile creatures. Bath is not recommended for kittens under eight weeks unless you have a perfect reason. We advise you to use a soft and wet cloth to spot clean dirty areas of your kittens fur instead of giving the kitten bath. If there is any severe infection, such as flea infestation, you can bathe your kitten with warm water with a minimal amount of mild kitten shampoo. Do not use human shampoo or adult cat shampoo as they can be too harsh for young kittens. Try to avoid the eyes, mouth and ears when bathing your kitten you can use a towel around the face and rinse well.
The main reasons bathing is not recommended for kittens under eight weeks old are because they are susceptible to environmental changes and the body systems have not fully matured. Kittens cannot regulate their body temperature well, so they can catch colds very easily. Bathing them can be stressful and can lead to other complications that need to be avoided.
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How To Take Care Of A Newborn Baby Kitten Without A Mother
When you are caring for a newborn kitten there are lots of things you will need to know, especially if they don’t have a mother. Today our Murfreesboro vets share with you how you can take care of a baby kitten that doesn’t have a mother, what can go wrong as well as when you should take them to the vet for the first time.
How To Feed Neonatal Kittens
Use kitten bottles, and try to get the elongated nipples if theyre available because they are easier to use. You may have to make your own holes in the nipple with a sterilized pin or razor be sure you do this correctly so that the KMR drips out slowly when the bottle is turned upside down.
If you notice the kitten is having a hard time getting the milk to come out of the bottle, the pinhole on the nipple may need to be larger alternately, if the kitten is having a hard time keeping up with the amount of milk coming out, consider changing the nipple to one with a smaller hole. And cleanliness is key, so sterilize the bottles and wash your hands before and after each feeding.
Hold or place kittens on their stomachs and tilt the bottle so less air gets in. Do not feed kittens on their backs. Always warm the KRM and test it on your wrist to be sure it is warm but not hot, like you would do with an infant.
Remember, do not feed chilled kittens. Follow the guidelines on the formula label for how much to use, but they will usually stop eating when theyre full.
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Caring For Orphan Kittens