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Frank, now I need tips from *you* on how to get an abandoned kitty to poop.
Last week I had to put my 17-year-old sweetie cat, Amber, to sleep. Between her kidney disease and her heart disease, she just wasn't having much fun anymore. I was going to wait years ... yes, years ... before getting another cat. We just picked up Amber's ashes from the kitty krematorium on Wednesday.
Wednesday night I heard a ruckus from the neighbors' yard, and realized that a feral Mamacat was removing kittens from under the neighbors' deck, and moving them, one at a time, to parts unknown. That was fine, except ... she never ever made it back for the last little squeaker, who spent 18 hours yelling its head off. Yesterday afternoon I asked the neighbors what they planned to do about the anguished shrieking coming from under their deck, and they had no idea, claiming they had no way to get to it, and it couldn't find its way out.
So ........... Dan and I used my Burning Man skills and tools to disassemble part of their beautiful deck, just so we could extricate the trapped kitten. (Yeah, I put their deck back together ... mostly.)
The kitten turns out to be between two and three weeks old, eyes open but not walking or pooping or eating on its own yet. So I have joined you there in the Fraternity of Kitten Bottlefeeders and Kitten Ass-Wipers. I'd appreciate it if you could let me know the secret of extracting poo from a tiny kitten. I rub, I wipe, but ... no joy. I'm hoping I won't have to actually lick his/her ass.
Last week I had to put my 17-year-old sweetie cat, Amber, to sleep. Between her kidney disease and her heart disease, she just wasn't having much fun anymore. I was going to wait years ... yes, years ... before getting another cat. We just picked up Amber's ashes from the kitty krematorium on Wednesday.
Wednesday night I heard a ruckus from the neighbors' yard, and realized that a feral Mamacat was removing kittens from under the neighbors' deck, and moving them, one at a time, to parts unknown. That was fine, except ... she never ever made it back for the last little squeaker, who spent 18 hours yelling its head off. Yesterday afternoon I asked the neighbors what they planned to do about the anguished shrieking coming from under their deck, and they had no idea, claiming they had no way to get to it, and it couldn't find its way out.
So ........... Dan and I used my Burning Man skills and tools to disassemble part of their beautiful deck, just so we could extricate the trapped kitten. (Yeah, I put their deck back together ... mostly.)
The kitten turns out to be between two and three weeks old, eyes open but not walking or pooping or eating on its own yet. So I have joined you there in the Fraternity of Kitten Bottlefeeders and Kitten Ass-Wipers. I'd appreciate it if you could let me know the secret of extracting poo from a tiny kitten. I rub, I wipe, but ... no joy. I'm hoping I won't have to actually lick his/her ass.
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Los Angeles
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Re: Now *I'm* Bottlefeeding a Foundling Kitten ...
Fri, September 29, 2006 - 8:19 PMWhile Frank answers, here's what we used to do on the farm-
Heat up some WHOLE milk, until it is just barely luke warm (remember, you're dealing with a smaller, more sensitive life form). Place your finger in the milk, and hold it up to the snout of the kitten. The kit will know what to do from there. So will you.
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Re: Now *I'm* Bottlefeeding a Foundling Kitten ...
Fri, September 29, 2006 - 8:58 PMHoly moley! OK, the not walking thing is normal. Chewie sort of dragged himself around until he was well over a month old, so I wouldn't worry about that.
The pooping...is a pain in the ass. Sorry about the pun. They really don't like it. They won't do it unless you make them. The way their mamas get them to go is by licking them right on the butthole. Which is sort of gross, and puts "feline mother" way down on my list of desirable occupations.
The way you get them to do it is by pretending you're a cat tongue. You should use a fairly coarse sponge, and it should be damp, not wet; get it wet in warm water, squeeze all the excess water out of it, then rub gently all around the kitten's butt area. Not neccesarily _on_ but in circles around it, around on its belly, too. If you're doing it right, it should start screaming about things pretty quick. You might have to do it for five minutes or more.
They don't create a tremendously large amount of poop at first, but they will pee on you. A lot. Keep a soft towel between them and you whenever you hold them and plan on washining it frequently or having lots of towels. How long have you had it/been feeding it? From my recollection it took Chewie several days to produce, er, volume... if it goes on longer then 4-5 days, I would get it to a vet, because he might be impacted down there. You should probably get it to a vet anyway, but have the doctor take a look.
Most important thing at this age, beyond just keeping them fed, is keeping them warm. I would line a shoebox with towels or some kind of warm fabric. It won't last long...once it starts moving around it will easily learn to defeat shoeboxes; by the time I felt comfortable letting Chewie run around on his own, he was up to a U-Haul moving box.
Wow. Good luck! This is going to take a lot of your energy. But it's worth it. Ask me anything you can think of and I'll try to remember what I did; Chewie seems to have turned out more or less normal, so I guess it can't be that hard.
