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Kitten Care:
Bringing Up Baby
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Providing good kitten care during the first few weeks
of life ensures that your new bundle of fur will grow up
to be a confident, healthy cat.
It can all be very exciting having your first kitten,
but it does come with a responsibility to play an active
role in their upbringing.
However it is a fine line
between spoiling them and giving them the confidence to
interact in the human world. Too much spoiling and
cosseting and the kitten may grow up not possessing the
skills to look after themselves properly.
What to
expect In Normal Kitten development
If all goes well with the birth and the mother cat, or
Queen as she is known, is happy and confident with her
kittens, then there is a normal pattern of development
that will occur during the few months of life.
Knowing what this normal pattern is will help you to
notice if anything is wrong or if you will have to
intervene and provide some extra kitten care of your
own.
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There are three main things that are important in the
early life of a kitten.
They are:
Protection from Disease
- Unlike human babies, kittens are not born with some of
their mother's antibodies to protect them from illness.
Instead these antibodies are obtained from a substance
called colostrum, which is contained in the first milk
produced by the Queen.
To obtain the most protection it is important that the
kittens nurse within the first two hours of birth, as
the levels of colostrum in the milk slowly decreases and
is practically zero after 12 hours.
Kittens who do not
receive enough of this first milk are very susceptible
to bacterial and viral disease and will require a lot of
extra care.
Birth weight
- the weight of newborn kittens depends on several
factors, the health and age of the queen, the size of
the litter and the length of gestation. As a guide a
kitten born to a healthy mother after a 65 day gestation
with only 3 or 4 other siblings will weigh around 3 to 5
ounces.
Weight Gain
- Similarly the rate at which kittens gain weight is
also dependant on several factors, the health of the
kitten, the milk production of the queen and the size of
the litter. As a guide in normal situations kittens can
gain 2 to 4 ounces a week and after 7 days can have
doubled its birth weight.
Between 5 and 10 days after birth, depending on the
length of gestation the kittens eyes will open and after
6 weeks the queen will begin to wean the kittens off her
milk onto solid food.
Early Lessons
Most cats are excellent mothers and will teach her new
brood all the catty things they need to know but as an
owner we must stand by to give her a helping hand or to
reinforce certain lessons.
This type of kitten care can often be overlooked as we
think that the mother cat will teach them everything
they need to know, but without our intervention,
sometimes things can go a little awry.
The mother cat will teach her kittens about
hunting,
play,
toilet training and which
food to eat, your role in helping with
these lessons are:
· When
the kittens are ready to move on to solid food (around
four weeks), provide cat food especially formulated for
kittens and also offer them lots of different flavours.
This way they will be less fussy eaters when they grow
up.
· Kittens
will start to use a
litter
tray around five weeks old. Provide soft
litter, which will be easy to dig and will not hurt paws
and put them off. Also make sure that the litter tray is
easily accessible for a kitten to get into. If they have
only positive experiences of using the litter tray
during this time it will avoid any toileting issues
later on.
· Play
pouncing and hunting games with your kitten but never
let them play with your hands. This could develop into a
learned behaviour and although it doesn’t hurt now when
they are kittens, it certainly will when they are fully
grown. It will be very difficult to reverse this
behaviour later on in life and by not encouraging this
type of play now will avoid problems in the future.
Kitten
care not punishment
It is very tempting for kitten and cat owners to
punish
their pets when they do something wrong, just
like we would out children. However cats do not have the
same understanding of punishment.
They do not automatically associate a punishment with a
certain misdemeanour; instead they will associate it
with the person. So instead of providing a positive
outcome i.e. stop chewing the chair for example, you are
creating a negative one between your cat and yourself.
This can lead to aggression towards you and even
avoidance, which in some extreme cases could result in
the cat going off to find new owners.
So from an early age it is important to practice these
rules and teach your furry youngster the right and wrong
way to behave.
Reward good behaviour always with a positive experience,
something that your particular cat really enjoys, it
could be:
· A
treat
· A
game
·
A cuddle etc
Reward bad behaviour with a negative experience by
taking something away that your cat enjoys. The most
powerful of which is the removal of attention. So:
· Stop
playing the game immediately
· Walk
away from the kitten, preferably out of the room.
· Remain
silent
· Have
no eye contact with the kitten
The cat will perceive this as a bad experience and will
not want to repeat it.
What if something goes wrong?
Unfortunately things go wrong and you may find your self
having to provide some extra kitten care for your new
furry family or even in extreme cases have to completely
hand rear
the kittens
your self.
There are many occasions where you may come across an
orphan kitten that
will require urgent care and attention. Knowing when it
is right for you to get involved and how best to provide
those early days of care can be a difficult one.
If you do find yourself in the situation where you are
having to hand rear
orphan kittens, it
is very important that you know how to provide the best
kitten care to prevent illness or even death during the
early weeks.
The requirements of a feline brood is very different to
those of human babies and your main goal for looking
after orphan kittens is to keep them alive until they
are old enough to be weaned. After which they should be
strong enough to survive with less help.
Kitten health can
be a worry but with a little vigilance can be looked
after easily.
Kitten care during the first seven weeks
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These first few weeks are vital to the physical and
mental health of the kittens and you will have to make
sure that you provide such care as:
Providing the most suitable sleeping arrangements:
· Keeping
them warm
· Keeping
them clean
· Feeding
the correct amount and type of
food
· Providing
socialisation skills and experiences
·
Weaning
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July 2009 
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