Kittens

This week my family found a baby kitten in our yard, who knows were it came from but it was there and so dutifully we took it in. Unfourtunately it didnt last the weekend but while we were taking care of it I wish I would have had more information on how to take care of an infant kitten. They are very difficult because they have little abillity to do anything for themselves. Perhaps the biggest mistake we made was that they can not digest cows milk. When we first got him that was all we had so we were kind of forced to feed it what we had. The last day we had it I learned of this and began to feed it kitten formula but I think it was too late.

Another helpful bit of information would be how to keep it warm. I understood that we needed to help keep it warm but I wasnt exactly sure that they didnt generate any of there own body heat. What I found worked really well was a heating pad you placed under neat the kittens "bed" or whatever you keep him in and he should stay pretty warm.

So basically, heres what you should know if you are trying to raise an orphan kitten:

KEEP IT WARM!!! use a heating pad or a hot water bottle or something constantly warm that the kitten can snuggle on/with.

DON'T FEED IT COW MILK!!! cats cannot digest the lactose in cow milk so it is absolutely neccessary to get formula, like at wal-mart, although I've heard goat milk works well too.

If its meow-ing that means it probably needs something. When the kitten is satisfied it stays quiet and sleeps, like any other infant the perfect routine allows it to simply eat and sleep.

The kitten needs help to eliminate waste. Gross I know, but I wish I would have known this or maybe he wouldn't have died.