What To Feed Newborn Kittens
To bottle feed a kitten follow these steps.
What to feed newborn kittens. For the first two weeks of life you will need to count on feeding the kitten every two hours during the day and every four hours overnight. Kittens under 4 weeks old must be fed every 3 hours around the clock including at night. Some of the best kitten milk replacement formulas are nutri vet hartz just born nurturall c and pet lac. Newborn kittens have a delicate stomach and won t be able to digest average milk.
1 in order to bottle feed the kitten you will need to gather a few supplies. The hydration newborn kittens need from their mother if the kittens have their mother she will be in charge of feeding them. Feeding the wrong sort of milk such as cow s milk can have short term and long term effects including diarrhea dehydration nutritional deficiencies and long term health problems due to poor growth. Depending on its size and condition your newborn kitten will need approximately nine to 12 daily feedings.
At about three to four weeks old they can be offered milk replacer from a bowl and then small amounts of moistened kitten food four to six times a. These are available at your vet s office or a pet store. This will continue until they gradually transition to solid foods when they are around four weeks old weaning. This is very time consuming for someone who is bottle feeding a newborn kitten so if at all possible you will want to try to keep the kitten with its mother or a surrogate lactating cat who can nurse it.
And this how to feed a newborn kitten with a bottle choose the best kitten feeding bottle rather than the regular baby bottle. The cat bottle may have an inferior nipple which the kittens can drink. Kittens that are bottle fed should consume about a tablespoon or 15 ml of special kitten formula at each feeding. Purchase kitten milk replacement formula and a bottle designed for feeding a kitten.
A newborn kitten can only digest milk and more specifically the milk from a female cat. The first milk produced called colostrum is rich in antibodies and will help protect kittens against diseases. Feeding newborn kittens newborn kittens should get all of their nutrition from their mother. Therefore you will need to purchase kitten milk replacement kmr formulas to feed the baby kitten.