Hand-fed kitten advice needed

[Chicklet]

Meet Degu. My new cute kitten. Not to be confused with a gerbil-lookin-ground-squirrel by the same name.

He's so tiny. He's so cute. Or is pitiful? I'm not sure, there's such a fine line... he's so pitiful it's cute.

Day two at my house, so very very new addition to my family. I've had some time to observe him, and I'm an extremely paranoid new parent. Luckily, I have a vet tech friend who's answering each of my paranoid questions online. So right now I'm really just looking for random experience and advice any of you have.

Degu was hand-fed by his human mother. He's eight weeks old yesterday. He's been to the vet and had his first set of shots, but I'll be making him another appointment when the business week starts. He's super tiny, and a little bit matted because he's not cleaning himself. I bought a brush to take care of that. He's more than likely a little developmentally stunted from not having a cat mother, but my friend reassures me that everything will fall in place eventually. As long as he uses the litter box, I'll stay happy.

Anyways, everybody, what're your #1 pieces of advice for a chick who's just taken on a new baby?



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[ms.read]

Go to animal shelter adopt older female cat that has good mothering skills and add it to your family. She should help your little kitten develop the skills he needs to survive.

 

[ms.read]

oh and get him nuetured other wise when he matures he's gonna spray every where!

 

[Eilan]

I agree that a lot of your kitty's issues will resolve themselves.

Does he eat solid food at all? I bottle/hand-fed an unweaned, abandoned kitten for a couple of weeks, and she wanted a bottle even after she was perfectly capable of eating solid food. Kittens raised with their mamas will nurse as long as she'll tolerate their doing so.

You should be okay with the litter box, but expect him to try to eat the litter at first! They seem to figure things out pretty quickly, though. For the first few days, you might want to try putting the kitten and the litter box in a room, like a bathroom, where accidents are relatively easy to clean up.

 

[FurryFury]

A warm wet washcloth will give him a better bath than a brush. It's also more like mommy would do.

He'll be fine with the same sort of limit setting, discipline, patience, love and consistency you'd give to a human toddler.

Congrats on your new baby!

 

[Chicklet]

so far he's been pretty good about the litter box. i've been feeding him solid food with a little bit of water to soften it up, which is what his former human mother did. i'm adding in some normal food without water though, to see if he'll get used to that.

 

[elib257]

Ohhh he reminds me if my cat, we handfed him milky 'weetabix' with a syringe lol.

It really sounds as if your doing everything right. All I would add is when housetraining the quickest results for me came when we rubbed his nose into the accidents. It's horrible and I couldn't bring myself to do it with number 2's but it works.

 

[LadyG]

Ohhh he reminds me if my cat, we handfed him milky 'weetabix' with a syringe lol.

It really sounds as if your doing everything right. All I would add is when housetraining the quickest results for me came when we rubbed his nose into the accidents. It's horrible and I couldn't bring myself to do it with number 2's but it works.

Never ever rub any animals nose in their mess!! It does not work, it only traumatizes the pet. Any decent animal behaviourist/vet will tell you that

 

[Bizkit_Writer]

Seems to me your doing great. Just have a lot of patience with the little thing and it'll come around and definitely use a washcloth to brush the kitty, it'll almost feel like mama's tongue.

 

[truckerswife83]

Congrats on your new kitty!

Awww, so adorable!! I recommend the warm wash cloth too. We tried the pet cloths and they are a waste of money. It sounds like you are doing great. The litter box will become the norm. I found a kitten and we brought her into our home. We named her Sugar and it turns out she is deaf, so that has been a challenge . But she is healthy and happy and acting like a normal cat, even though she wasn't weaned when we brought her home. Hope all goes well with your new baby.

 

[kajira311]

Two years ago last weekend

I came home from my mom's to find my neighbor holding two of the tiniest balls of fluff I had ever seen. She wanted the black and white male, which left me the calico female, which is the one I wanted in the first place.

The mother's nest had been disturbed and the kittens disbursed; one didn't make it. We estimated the kittens to be between three and four weeks old.

I never had to bottlefeed her, but we did feed her kitten milk for a few weeks and introduced solids gradually.

She's doing great! So will your kitty.

 

[Chicklet]

All I would add is when housetraining the quickest results for me came when we rubbed his nose into the accidents. It's horrible and I couldn't bring myself to do it with number 2's but it works.

the times he went outside of the litter box I just moved the leavings *into* the litter box and used his paw to cover them up. Eventually I caught on that he was going in the same place (under my desk) so I just put his litter box there... I suspect he likes the den-like feeling of it. No accidents since.

The vet thinks that he's actually only 6 wks old, and that the woman I got him from lied to me to get rid of him early ><

 

[elib257]

Never ever rub any animals nose in their mess!! It does not work, it only traumatizes the pet. Any decent animal behaviourist/vet will tell you that

I never claimed to be an expert. It's just what I've always done with my cats as has my mum and none have seemed particularly traumatised and it's worked with every single one - in fact they all seem happy and well adjusted thank you v. much...