Taking care of kittens

[jamieg]

Any advice on taking care of a momma cat and her kitties....This is our first time. Momma and kitties are in our pantry now in a large crate which i am leaving open. She has food and water and a litter box to use. They will be going back out into our locked shed when the weather warms up. The mother cat seems fine, but she doesn't seem to be urinating yet. She delivered five kittens on Friday night. My main questions are how can you tell they are getting enough milk? How old do they need to be before tomcats won't bother them? I am sure I will think of more later. Thanks.

 

[Judy]

I've had mamas raise a few litters and never did anything special, just kept plenty of food and fresh water available. Cats may only pee 2 or 3 times a day and the milk uses lots of liquids. If you're really worried or she doesn't drink much water you could always feed a little canned food or moisten some dry food.

 

[jamieg]

Thanks for the advice. So far so good. I see she used the litter box finally.

 

[sumatra]

I've raised many cats, even bottle-fed orphans. If you have a question, pm or email me. Generally cats know what to do. The best thing about cats is that they don't mind people looking at their babies, so it is easy to see if they are all right. The only thing you'll want to watch now is that their umbilical cord dries up and falls off without infection. Almost all will. Then at about 10 days their eyes will open. I start checking at about day 8 to make sure their eyes aren't "bulgy. They will start to open near the nose first and they will look weird until they get that eye opened. All you have to look for is to make sure they don't have an eyeful of pus. I always check eyes at least once a day and handle the kittens a little. They protest but they will make better pets if you do handle them when they are young.