Newly born kittens are fragile & delicate. I work hard to ensure that my cats are in robust health & that when they become mothers they are able to nurse their kittens independently & see them thrive.
Sometimes though, hand rearing a kitten, completely or temporarily, or giving supplemental feeding is necessary to support her if her milk supply is not quite there with sustaining them fully especially if the litter is larger than average - imagine 10 permanently hungry babies all driven to survive and thrive!
Supplemental feeding is actually pretty common & is useful in ensuring kittens get a good start & during their first few days of life this has to happen every 2 hours night & day. You can see the determined ‘fight for survival’ playing out from the moment of birth. My heart is always in my mouth as I wait for a kitten to take its first breath. That silence stretches interminably waiting for the first squeal which is a momentous moment as the mother licks her newborn into life.
Born blind the kitten will instinctively begins to search for the mother’s nipple to begin receiving the all important colostrum. In furred cats, the mother will have stripped the fur away from around the nipple and created a pathway for the newborn to follow shortly before birth, however, this signposting is missing from the Sphynx thus making the journey & locating the life-giving teat very difficult. Once there are more kittens born the competition is fierce. You see these bald heads bobbing & the noses seeking the feel for that all important bump of flesh. As they grow, smaller kittens are ousted unceremoniously from the nipple by their larger, more dominant siblings. Their bald heads become scabbed with scratches made by constantly scrabbling claws. For these smaller kittens stepping in to provide supplemental feeding means survival.
When I first began breeding I was nervous to intervene. I did not wish to interfere or risk my help causing kitten rejection. Breeding with my cats is a privilege & a joy, but I quickly discovered that there’s a tough side to it too & that husbandry requires constant vigilance, strength & resilience. Sometimes no matter what you do kittens do become weak & can fail.
What I also learned was that rather than resent it, my wonderful cats welcomed my presence at birth & my support with their kittens. Consequently as my experience grew, learning that stepping in early will boost the kittens who need it most so that they stay alive, can be strong & can get established has resulted in supplemental feeding becoming a normal part of my endeavours. Not every kitten needs it but for those who do, I’m ready. Once stronger, if their mum is able to produce enough milk ( & continues to do so as her babies demands increase ) I may stop but overall, it’s best to ensure that kittens who want it are topped up & can receive all of the the nutrient they need..
In really weak newborns I will ‘drip feed’ using a very small syringe (without the needle) even if it’s only to get 1ml of formula into them per hour. In a dire emergency with a comatose & cold kitten I once had to make a life or death judgement call. I’d just lost one & did not wish to see this one fade away so I quickly & carefully inserted a small tube down into the kittens tummy to fill it with a milk solution made from half strength kitten formula, boiled water & Manuka+15 honey warmed to blood temperature. It took a lot of courage (& skill) to do this but the kitten was on the very brink. Thankfully he was revived & went on to suckle from his mother like there was no tomorrow. Lesson learned, step in sooner rather than later.
I’ve never needed to do this but in some cases delivering fluid subcutaneously is life saving. In this intervention, a vet prescribed sterile fluid warmed to blood temperature is delivered via a sterile syringe needle placed like a fluid bubble under the surface of the skin where the body can use it quickly.
.. Become this snuggling beauty
…..l in just 10 weeks
