Hello everyone,

To start the story out, one of my female cats was due to have kittens. We have a few other female cats, but they are all spayed. But, two more females run around and are wild. They will not allow a human to be less that three feet away from them before they hiss and attack or run away. They are adults and seem to have no hope. My family feeds them along with the other cats, so they aren't starving or anything like that. They are perfectly fine, they just deny themselves the love of a human.

When I find out the one girl is pregnant, I also see the other two girls walking around with huge bellies. Three litters of kittens are due. Starting last week, each girl gave birth to her litter. I haven't found the litters yet, but have seen one girl go under the house, so one litter is hidden there.

The main point of the story: Yesterday after I came home from school, I heard a kitten crying. I was going to pinpoint exactly where it was coming from so that I could get the litter and bring it inside. Well, I pinpointed it alright. Stuck in between the porch and the house was a newborn kitten. She was soaking wet as it had rained during the day. I do not know how long she was there, but it was a horrible sight to see. But the odd thing about it was that she was still alive. I pulled the porch away from the house and caught the tiny thing in my hands. She is was so skinny and weak, barely making any noise now. I immediately brought her inside to warm her up. I made her a little bed out of a shoe box and since I don't have a heating pad, filled a glass jar with hot water. She put herself up against that jar like it was her mother. After she warmed up, I prepared some milk formula I had my mom pick up as she came home from town. I fed her with an eye dropper, the only thing I had available for such a tiny mouth. She drank and filled her little belly up and probably could have eaten more, but I didn't want her to bloat or anything.

Now, the kitten is still very weak and frail, but is eating very well and is looking so much better than she did before.

It is such hard work taking care of this baby and I've only had her a day. I have tried giving her back to the mother cats, but neither one of them will take her. The tame cat came up to me and smelled the kitten in my hand, hissed, and ran off. I then sat the kitten on the grass near the two wild cats and stepped around the corner where they couldn't see me. They both smelled her and did the same thing. Neither of the three mother cats will except this poor kitten.

So, I need some advice on how I should care for this kitten. Here are just a few questions:

- If she wants to eat a lot, should I let her or should I only give her a certain amount each time?
- How often do I need to stimulate her to go to the bathroom?
- How long can she go without being stimulated?
- How long can a kitten go without food before it starts to starve? (Just curious)
- How else can I keep her warm besides using a glass of hot water? (I have no heating pad)
  What would keep its heat the longest?

Sorry for the long post, I'm sure some of it doesn't make sense, sorry. I'll probably come up with a few more questions, but this is it for now. Thanks for any help!

Hi, Sorry about your plight but will try to help, First of all dont try to give kitten back to mother, she will turn feral, at best, because it is weak the mother would reject it and it would die anyway, best if you can feed and handle it.

Feed only on Lactol, do not feed on ordinary milk or condensed milk, kittens have an intolerance to it and it will go straight through leaving them dehydrated.

Minimun 10mls maximum 20mls to begin with, you will be able to judge when kitten is full, belly should be rounded without being hard or bloated

Feed every two hours round the clock, dont wait till kitten wakes, wake it up, a weak kitten will die in its sleep if not feed and has no stimulus from mother.

Top and tail at EVERY feed, this is a must, the kitten could die if this is not done.

Kitten must be kept warm, hot water bottle wrapped in a towel, if you are a gardener then a heated seed tray under the towel will work, just make sure its set at a low temp.  if you dont have hot water bottle then fill glass or plasic lemonade bottle with hot water and wrap in a towel and place around kitten, kitten needs to stay warm, but make sure it does not get to hot.

When kitten is about 3 weeks, try a little sardine or tuna,

If you need further help try contacting you local Cats Protection, your vet will probably have telephone No.
They will also help set humane traps to catch adult cats and have them spayed for you.

Contact me if you cant find it, I will try to help if I can.

Good luck
Kay

cat
click any of the forums like coming events then if you scroll to the bottom you will find a search bar ....below that theres a scroll bar go to cats and other animals and post a message there are lots of cat rescue people who will try and help :)

There's a good feline site: http://www.catchat.org/forum.html

Thanks for the help everyone, but I guess it wasn't worth it this time. Earlier today, I came home to find my poor little kitten dead. She looked peaceful, though. She was nice and warm as I got ahold of a heating pad for her. It just was her time. I feel better about her death knowing that I made her last few days a bit better. I didn't really name her, but I'd gotten in the habit of calling her Baby. *sigh* Thanks again, everyone.

Sleep well, Baby. I'll see you when my time comes, too.

Sorry to hear about your kitten. Im sure it was worth it to make her short life more comfortable. Nature is cruel at times.

Hi Sibelover
how is the kitten doing ??? :)

see above lel, the baby didn't make it.  :(