How to help mama-raised kittens thrive (how and when to step in!)

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[WaiferThyme]

My Simba was born literally into the palm of my hand in our backroom. She was the size of my thumb with paws smaller than my baby fingernail. First call was to our vet who didnt hold much hope and told us to keep her warm and not to expect her to survive the night. Survive she did! And grew, albiet far FAR behind her siblings even though our Mamma cat clearly doted on her. Even going so, far as to pushing the other kittens away from one particular nipple she only let Simba nurse from! I supplemented her with kitten formula which helped her grow a bit faster. At 2 weeks old, she developed a nasty URI so we rushed her to our vet. She was so very tiny, she lay in the palm of his hand as he listened to her chest. He had to, weigh her on the gerbil scale! 2 oz. He said he had never in his career treated a kitten that small. He spent 20 minutes just researching antibiotics gentle enough for her and doing the math for her dose! 3 drops, i think it was, twice a day. Later, we found out she had feline dwarfism which explained a whole host of issues. Simba only lived 2 years, but she had fun and found joy in everything!

[paolagrando]

The "rowing ears" while suckling are the cutest 😻
Happy fostering!

[sunnysidesouffle]

The neighbor had a cat that had kittens and she kept putting 1 kitten outside in the bushes.
I heard baby crying and it was dehydrated. The daughter came and tried to take it back to the house to give to mama but when she said that the mom kept removing this kitten I swooped in and took her in. Fed her with a dropper and once her strength was up she started growing and getting very active. My male housecat became her mama and did everything mama was supposed to do besides feeding and when she was big enough she went home with 2 new brothers and she's a very healthy happy adult cat now.
The mom was a new mother with 4 kittens but apparently could handle more than 3.
It was a very rewarding experience for me but not so much my male cat
He gets too attached to fosters and gets depressed when they leave

[lidiananicomauri]

You are the sweetest person on youtube!!

[qrkiuei]

We're having a "kitten explosion" (as per usual) in our area this spring. It feels like a no-win situation no matter how many TNR's we do and how much education we provide. Thanks, Kitten Lady, you always give me a mental boost.

[PippasPrideofCats]

Such great information! We recently adopted a cat and she turned out to be pregnant! We are helping to raise kittens for the first time. So far they have been gaining weight steadily, but this info is great to know just in case! We are documenting everything as well. 😊

[radeenagunawardana]

I hope you read this. Because of your videos I was able to save a four days old kitten. He’s 7 months old now 🥰 All thanks to you ❤

[cookiepop]

I've gone from no cats to 1 mama and 5 kittens so thank you so much I've learnt a lot from you and they are now happy and healthy ❤

[johnzengerle]

Cats often co-parent with each other. Growing up, we had two moms sharing two litters together.

[scrappersdream]

Thank you for all that you and your husband do for these fur babies. Great info ❤

[luciapereyra]

You make me tear up you're so sweet. You are truly an angel.

[sinimeg]

The baby kittens melt my insides, I’m a goo of happiness right now :’) Thanks for the info, this is super important

[marissanicole]

Thank you! I learned how to bottle feed kittens through your videos! You have saved so many babies ❤

[StonedtotheBones]

One on one mama time is so sweet and such a good idea.

[patriciakunz]

Kitten Lady you are a dear soul looking after dear souls. 🙏

[DPlagueDR]

Babyfat has such cool markings! I’ve never seen a cat with both orange tabby and torti markings ☺️

[mysticfox]

This will be very helpful information for anyone who has a pregnant cat and if one kitten is not thriving. The person will know what to do to help out! The kittens crawling all over her is so adorable! 💕

[cheshiredj]

The kittens are adorable, but the mama cats were cute too! 🥰

[lioncrutches]

Thank you for this video, our mama cat Astrid had 3 babies, Troublemaker, Panther, and Orangie. They were all thriving, until Panther had gotten almost half the size smaller than the others, we didn’t know to weigh them in grams and weighed ounces instead. Panther was 7.44 ounces while the other were 10.50 ounces+. We found the problem, that panther wasn’t latching on well to mama. We didn’t have a bottle on hand since they were thriving, and just bought one 30 minutes ago. We’re currently preparing panther some kitten formula, and we’ll continue to watch your videos to help panther thrive like his siblings :)

[kathyjohnson]

That last picture of the tortoise shell mom and kitten was darling!