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I need help (cat thread)
brandotheninjamaster
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Alright, so heres the story:
At my mother's work there was a stray cat who gave birth under a bush. A week later or later, one of the newborn kittens found his/her way to mother. She has now decided to raise it. Now the problem: She has never owned a cat before. I have been giving her snippets of advice here and there (for instance not to give the cat cow milk). I really think she doesn't know what she is getting into, but I will see to it that the cat is well cared for. I need some tips on newborn kitten care. Thanks in advance!
P.S. Since I just found out about this (literally) there are no pics and no name has been selected yet. But they will come soon.
At my mother's work there was a stray cat who gave birth under a bush. A week later or later, one of the newborn kittens found his/her way to mother. She has now decided to raise it. Now the problem: She has never owned a cat before. I have been giving her snippets of advice here and there (for instance not to give the cat cow milk). I really think she doesn't know what she is getting into, but I will see to it that the cat is well cared for. I need some tips on newborn kitten care. Thanks in advance!
P.S. Since I just found out about this (literally) there are no pics and no name has been selected yet. But they will come soon.
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Hell I agree, it's not as if she's ever faced a similar situation...
The fact that she has already booked the vet checkup etc suggests you might stop being so mid-20's and assuming your parent is utterly helpless & stupid. If you need to find out about raising a kitten, there are lots of threads here if you do a cat search.
Just remember - declawing is evil, fact; and the indoor/outdoor debate is a bizarre largely US abberation (sadly appears to be gaining ground in Australia too) based on dodgy assumptions about naturalised species and political activism by bird conservation groups. Sounds like a conspiracy theory I know, but do a check on the history of the idea (it's only about a decade old), the Cats Indoors! campaign etc which popularised it, and you can decide for yourself.
If I thought she wasn't up to the task I would have told her to take it to the shelter.
That and I live in a city of like 2 million, with most of those 2 million owning 3500-5000 pound 4 wheeled cat killers, and that's very much the norm in the US.
Edit: Also, if it's too young it might need helping making poo and pee. What you do is you lie it on it's back and take a damp luke warm wash cloth and gently rub on their belly and areas (a vet will have a better description). The wash cloth will simulate the mother's tongue.
Take it to the vet and have your mom seriously consider if she wants to keep this cat. Cats live up to 15-20 years, and a "good cat" learns many of its behaviors from mama cat and its litter mates. Things like how to urinate/defecate, where to urinate/defecate, how to cover its waste, how to bite, when to bite, when to use its claws, when to fight and when to play, how to clean itself, and so many other things that people take for granted with cats are learned from the mama cat and litter mates. If your mom takes this kitten in, she will be the one to teach it how to do all of that, and many orphan cats end up as "only cats" with odd behavior problems due to their catless upbringing.
In other words, while it's great that she saved the kitten and is taking it to the vet, if she doesn't think she'll have the time and energy to help and live with the cat for the next 15 years, she should seriously consider taking it to a shelter where it can play with other cats, be around a lot of people and socialized, and quickly adopted -- kittens always go fast.
I don't know if I am or not...I haven't seen the cat yet. My mother called me just before I made this thread and I'm stuck at work.
She'll have the energy. Thats not a big concern for me. Plus there is a full house so it will get plenty of love and attention.
...and of course, nowhere else in the western world, certainly not for example, one of the largest metropolises on the planet like London where I live. :roll:
I'm not going to get into this debate, but that isn't an argument. The potential danger is approximately equal worldwide. The US trend is a social / psychological judgement of the damage of keeping cats indoors versus the benefit of their increased security, and from what I've seen, an over-hyping of that potential danger in the first place. Just want to point out that most of the rest of the world, including rabidly pet-loving nations like Britain, consider it bloody obvious that keeping them indoors is less kind than letting them outside, and we don't brush cat corpses to the side of the road when going to work in the mornings.
EggyToast - though a lot of what you said is correct, the fact that the kitten sought her out (though a week is somewhat short) usually means it was ready to be chucked out. All rather depends on whether it happened several times, or if she just picked it up the first time she saw it nearby.
OP: Make sure the kitten gets a lot of attention. I know people who have kittens, but don't really pay enough attention to him/her and they start to become anti-social in their later years. Social cats are the best, because they are really playful. But that's just from my experience. They aren't too bad to take care of.
I think this is bad advice for any area with coyotes (which is the US, Canada and Mexico, apparently). Anecdotal evidence ahoy, but from people I've known 8 cats to have been eaten by coyotes in the last 15 years (Orange County and San Diego regions), and every now and then you see the things just walking in the street.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coyote
http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/sections/news/focus_in_depth/article_508026.php
If the cat is going to be let outside, make sure you don't have coyotes roaming your neighborhood.
http://www.kittens-lair.net/raising-a-cat.html seems to be a decent resource... caring for orphan kittens is a pretty common thing, there's tons of info out there. As long as she has the time to put into it things should be fine, and she needs to be prepared for the very real possibility that even if she does everything right it might die anyway. just keep it warm, feep it fed and clean (depending on how young it is you have to poop them by rubbing their butts w/ a warm damp washcloth to stimulate them to poop, it's grooooooooooosssssss)
it's fun, tons of work, and totally rewarding. Also, make sure the cat gets handled by lots of people, you want it socialized. I didn't doo a very good job of that w/ my Bella and she pretty much hates everyone but me >< Good luck to your mom
I have a cat that I raised in pretty much the exact same circumstances. My GF's coworker found her under a trailer one day, brought her to work, and we wound up with her. For the first month or so they are very dependent and need a lot of attention throughout the day and night; we wound up leaving the kitten at the GF's mother's house during the day when we were out. During this period we set her up with a bed in a cardboard box (with no top) to ensure that she wouldn't do something like get caught under a couch or something.
Just be extra careful not to step on it or anything like that and it should work out. Before I got my cat I was a 'dog person', now I can't imagine life without her, so I can tell you that your mom (and you?) are in for a wonderful experience.
Obligatory cat pics:
Basically all I did was bottle feed the kitten formula for a month I think and then weened it onto real food. I started with dry food, moistened with water or formula so that it's soft enough to eat. Canned food is a waste at this point, wait another month. The cat should pick up drinking water on it's own, but if not you may need to give it water in a bottle a few times until it figures it out.
Litter box: MOST IMPORTANT THING TO TEACH! If the kitten hasn't figured it out yet, put it in the litter box and gently use your hands to make it scratch/dig in the litter. The cat should figure it out REALLY quick. If not, I hope you keep the cat off your bed until it's able to get up on its own.
Also make sure to play with the kitten when its no longer in the dazed and confused state. That is to say, when the kitten is walking around and climbing on its own. The kitten will think of the caretaker as its mother for life at this point. My cat had a great bond with me, sleeping on top of me until it got to the point where she was too big and would slide off of me.
Also make sure to get the cat fixed. I think you usually have to wait until the cat is about 6 months old or something. Also get all the shots. FLEAS OH GOD FLEAS. If you see ANY sign of fleas, get the stuff that goes on the back of the neck ASAP (double check with the vet that its OK for the age). I didn't think the fleas would be a problem, but I was so wrong. At one point my cat's skin was crawling with fleas so bad I almost cried (I'm not really an emotional guy either!). This is especially bad for kittens because it can lead to anemia and other bad things.
Bathing. Bathe the cat often. Once a week if you can. I bathed my cat twice, period. Now when she gets dirty (from kicking her own crap onto herself) I can't bathe her without suffering severe battle scars.
One thing I can't explain, though, is difference of personality. When she was tiny she was like my favorite cat who passed away a few years ago. Now she will not show affection unless I'm in the bathroom taking a crap, rubbing on my legs and wanting to be pet. Otherwise she will run and hide, then hunt me. Much (play) biting and tackling ensues all day and night. Especially when I'm trying to sleep.
No matter what, be prepared to keep the cat. No matter how much my cat pisses me off at 1 1/2 years old, I cannot under any circumstances get rid of her or declaw her or anything. It would hurt me too much inside.
Hope your mom does well!
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Spaying or neutering will improve both your mom's and her cat's quality of life. Some people wait until six months as the poster above mentioned, but I highly recommend earlier spay/neuter . . . At eight weeks old or when the kitten weighs 2 pounds. My kittens were from the Humane Society and were neutered when they were eight weeks old (and actually only weighed 1 pound 8 ounces.) By the NEXT DAY they had completely recovered and were running around playing. IMO it's kinder to get it over with instead of waiting until the cat's bigger and will recover more slowly and accept strangers (like the vet) less readily.
Good for your mom for rescuing the little fluffball . . . Pictures soon?