Tuesday, September 4, 2012

What to do with my rescued Kittens. Part 1 - Age of the Kittens

     Finding the little kittens, lost or abandoned, is the easy part.  Your heart goes out to these helpless lives, you bring them home, and now what?
     The first step is to put the kittens in a quiet safe place away from young children and other pets. This is for the safety and stress of all involved. This is an important step even if you are only planning to take care of the kittens for a few hours until you can find someone to help.   I have found that a clean bathroom without cords, trash or cleaning supplies around works best.
     The second step is to determine the approximate age of your kittens.  Once you estimated the age you will know what to feed your kittens and how much care your kittens will need.


Notice in the picture some features of the kittens.(Duchess, Princess, Aries, Orion and Gemini)  These kittens are 14 days and 9 days old. The ears are tiny, they feel thick and may look to be out to the side of their head.  You cannot easily see in the ear canal.  If you were to put your finger in their mouth you would find only a couple of budding teeth or none at all.  The eyes are small and very blue.  The tails measure about 2 or 3 inches long.  These are very young kittens and will need around the clock bottle feedings of a milk supplement every 2-3 hours.  Yes, that's through the night, too.  They also will not be able to eliminate urine or poop on their own.  You will have to help by using a soft damp cloth or a cotton ball and gently rub their behind and genitals before and after each feeding. 

     At three weeks old the feedings can spread out to every 3-4 hours of a milk supplement.  A bottle is best, but sometimes a dropper or learning to lap from a saucer is necessary.  The ears get a little bigger but still feel thick.  Watch your fingers since there will be a number of sharp teeth in those mouths. Use of a litter box begins but sometimes they still need help.  It is not uncommon to find a convenient corner of the room used as a potty. Consider this possibility when deciding where you will keep your kittens.  
     By four to five weeks old they will begin eating solid foods, either softened dry kitten food or canned kitten food along with a milk supplement.   They will need to eat every 4-6 hours.  Use of a litter box will become more consistent.  
     This black kitten (Jones) is 5 weeks old.
You can see that the ears are open and pink.  The edges of the ears have a soft thickness.  The tail is about 4 inches long.  The eyes may be blue or will begin changing to the adult color, usually green or yellow.  There are lots of teeth in that mouth.  Also, the claws may be long and sharp like needles.  A healthy kitten at 5 weeks old will be just over One Pound.

This white kitten (Trixie) is 8 weeks old.  You can see her upright large open ears that are a healthy pink.  Her eye color is no longer blue.  Her tail, if you could see it, is 6 inches long. A healthy kitten at this age will be about 2 lbs.  Unless the kitten is sick, you can sleep at night, making sure there is dry food and water available at all times.  A feeding of canned food once a day will help keep the coat shiny and soft.

Knowing the age of your kittens will let you know how frequently and what they need to eat.  If you take in a kitten under 5 weeks old or that is sick you will need to be ready for a couple of weeks of disrupted sleep. You also need a safe place for them to live.  Other factors to consider are if you will be keeping the kitten or finding it a different home when it is old enough at 8 weeks and healthy.  There are costs to consider for food, litter and vet visits.  Kittens become very active by 5 to 6 weeks old and will need safe places to climb and play.

     Finding a local shelter to help with the rescued kittens is another option.  http://www.azfriends.org/azfriends2/home/Portals/0/services%20brochure%20revised%20apr2012.pdf  This link has a list of no-kill shelters in Arizona to consider.  When you contact a shelter it is very helpful if you can give them an approximate age so they can determine what foster homes are available for the varying levels of care needed.

Thank you for caring about these little wonders and doing what you can to find them a safe and loving home.

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