Abandoned kittens aren't growing well... PICTURES

[Ksane]

Quote:
This ^.
The mom could have Feline Leukemia, FIP, FIV (to name a few) and not *look sick. I always test new kittens I get. Out of 10 or so the past 15 yrs I've had 2 come back leukemia positive and 1 FIP positive.

 

[Nicole01]

I bet they are ready for real kitten food. Mom will wean them at 4 weeks and then will sometimes have nothing to do with them.

 

[watchdogps]

Quote:
This ^.
The mom could have Feline Leukemia, FIP, FIV (to name a few) and not *look sick. I always test new kittens I get. Out of 10 or so the past 15 yrs I've had 2 come back leukemia positive and 1 FIP positive.

There is no test for FIP, do you mean FIV? Also, young kittens can test positive for FeLV and then test negative later if they are exposed to it when they are babies.

 

[Ksane]

Quote:
This ^.
The mom could have Feline Leukemia, FIP, FIV (to name a few) and not *look sick. I always test new kittens I get. Out of 10 or so the past 15 yrs I've had 2 come back leukemia positive and 1 FIP positive.

There is no test for FIP, do you mean FIV? Also, young kittens can test positive for FeLV and then test negative later if they are exposed to it when they are babies.

Yes, I know that. And there's an antibody test for FIP . A little iffy though since certain recent vaccines can show a false positive. But I'd rather be safe than sorry.

 

[watchdogps]

No, you are getting it backwards. There is NO test for FIP, there is an antibody test for FIV.

 

[Ksane]

From http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/brochures/fip.html

One of the most difficult aspects of FIP is that there is no simple diagnostic test. The ELISA, IFA, and virus-neutralization tests detect the presence of coronavirus antibodies in a cat, but these tests cannot differentiate between the various strains of feline coronavirus. A positive result means only that the cat has had a prior exposure to coronavirus, but not necessarily one that causes FIP.
The number that is reported from these tests is called an antibody titer. Low titers indicate a small amount of coronavirus antibodies, while high titers indicate much greater amounts of antibodies. A healthy cat with a high titer, however, is not necessarily more likely to develop FIP or be a carrier of an FIP-causing coronavirus than a cat with a low titer. A cat with a high titer is also not necessarily protected against developing FIP in the future.
Like I said though-a little iffy.

 

[watchdogps]

Quote:
That's an antibody test for corona, not FIP. That's why I said none for FIP. Most vets won't do this b/c it is so unreliable and uninformative.

 

[mhwc56]

a few years ago we had a feral momma cat with kittens move in next door in a vacant building. She and the kittens looked like skeletons so i ,of course ,HAD to feed them. I was putting out 3 cups of dry kitten chow each morning and evening plus 1 small can of wet food.It was disappearing almost instantly into this little family..the kittens were approximately 4 weeks old.
about 1 1/2 weeks after starting to feed them, i was talking to my elderly neighbors who mentioned that THEY had been feeding the cat family twice a day also.
THEN a few days later we found out that ANOTHER neighboring family was feeding the cats real late every night. NONE of us was aware that anyone else was feeding the cats, they were eating every scrap of food we put out for them and eating it so quickly that no one noticed as we were all picking up the dishes and trash afterwards so there was no signs of each other. those 5 kittens and 1 mama cat were eating a good 10 cups of food a day ! They still took about 3 weeks of this to look like they were being fed enough to survive on .
My point being that mamas with babies go through / need alot more food than you think they will ....FAST.
Perhaps the mama and kittens just weren't getting sufficient quantities...
AND i am happy to be able to say that all 5 of those kittens found excellent indoor safe homes .Unfortunately the mama wouldn't tame down enough to get our hands on her ,then she just disappeared from the neighborhood.

 

[warmfuzzies]

I fed them mid-morning today, and I just went in to give them more and their bellies are still full, but not hard. they have been wanting to eat only once or twice a day, but I thought that was part of the growing up process. Is it something bad?

 

[Kaitie09]

I rescue a lot of kittens, normally at 10 days old to 3 weeks. When I wean, I actually mix baby cereal with their replacer milk. It allows it to get harder, but they can still suck it if they want. I slowly add in more and more until by the end of a week they are eating a mush. I also add a little wet food each time. By the end of 2 weeks, they are normally completely eating partially solid wet food.

If they are 5 weeks, they probably will only want to eat 2-3 times a day. My last kittens were a little over a year ago, but I'm pretty sure by then I was only feeding them 2-3 times a day. I think I fed them around 10, and then at 6. If you want, once they start eating a mash, you can put down a little bit around lunch and see if they eat it.