What To Give Newborn Kittens To Drink

A newborn kitten can only digest milk and more specifically the milk from a female cat.

What to give newborn kittens to drink. The stomach capacity of a newborn is about 50 ml kg usually a single kitten absorbes about 10 20 ml of milk so the concentration of the replacement milk is essential to meet the kitten s needs. If you re unsure what to feed your little one consider feeding the kitty some goat s milk. This is very time consuming for someone who is bottle feeding a newborn kitten so if at all possible you will want to try to keep the kitten with its mother or a surrogate lactating cat who can nurse it. Diarrhea s a likely result.

Newborn kittens are able to get all of the nutrition that they need from their mother s milk. If mama cat isn t around then a kitten milk replacer shall do too. Older already weaned kittens just need water to stay hydrated. If the energy density of the lacto alternative is too low we will have to increase the number of shots given.

Provide your kitten with milk in such a way that the experience is as similar to natural nursing as possible. If she s not available or able to feed them you can feed orphaned kittens kitten milk replacement formula by a bottle. Purchase a nursing bottle with a small niple and fill the bottle with milk or formula at body temperature never cold. Goat s milk has less lactose than cow milk.

Although water is essential to keep cats healthy and strong they don t need it straight out of the womb. Whole cow s milk isn t the best idea for nursing kittens because they are lactose intolerant. Young kittens those under 4 or 5 weeks old need to nurse from their mom to get nutrients and hydration.