Okay, long story short, we ended up with an abandoned kitten. The lady found them under her garage or something, and gave one to Mary. I'm thinking probably about only about 4-5 weeks old?!? I have NO IDEA what I'm doing. She said that she was giving them some of the "just born" milk, and wetting kitten food and they were eating that sort of ok. So, off to the store I went... I got some of that milk stuff, and some canned kitten food and some hard stuff too. I think it's a boy, but I'm really not sure. How in the heck do I know when he's ready to use the litter box? Someone please help me. Mary's in love, but I'm really nervous about having a kitten this young.
Thanks.
Oh, and of course, here's some pics of the little guy. We haven't named him yet. As you can see, he's only about the length of a baby wipe box. Oh goodness, too cute, but sooooo tiny!
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Full Version: Hope Someone Can Help... 4 Week Old Kitten?
What a little cutie your daughter is! The little kitty looks so precious. I haven't had a kitten in very many years but I definitely would set up a litter box now so that it gets use to it.
cats instinctively use a litter box, so put one out for him right away.
The general rule of thumb is for every lb. he weighs, he is one week, so 4 lbs = 4 weeks. if he is malnourished he could be a little older. you won't be able to tell until about 7-8 weeks (with an untrained eye) if it is a boy or girl, at 7-8 weeks his testicles (if they are there) will descend. If you were here, I could look and tell you. You can still palpate the testes in the abdomen if he is a boy, and you know what they feel like! Stick with mostly the just born milk for now, you can offer the other food, but dont be surprised if he doesn't eat it yet. Maybe in a week or two he will start getting interested. Plenty of fresh water too!!
The general rule of thumb is for every lb. he weighs, he is one week, so 4 lbs = 4 weeks. if he is malnourished he could be a little older. you won't be able to tell until about 7-8 weeks (with an untrained eye) if it is a boy or girl, at 7-8 weeks his testicles (if they are there) will descend. If you were here, I could look and tell you. You can still palpate the testes in the abdomen if he is a boy, and you know what they feel like! Stick with mostly the just born milk for now, you can offer the other food, but dont be surprised if he doesn't eat it yet. Maybe in a week or two he will start getting interested. Plenty of fresh water too!!
LOL, I have no idea how much he weighs... I only have a bathroom scale, and he won't register on that.
I finally got ahold of a friend of mine that has had baby kittens, and she gave me some ideas too. I soaked up some of the milk stuff in bread, and he ate that really well. She said to make sure he keeps that down and see how he does, since we aren't sure how old he is. We are just pretending it's a boy at this point, and my daughter has named him Stewie. I put the litter box in the guest bathroom, and will lock him in there at night for a while, until we are sure he's using it.
Hopefully we'll figure it out, but it's nice to know that my friend will be around in case something goes wrong. She said I can call her anytime about it, so that makes me feel a little better.
Now.... as far as having him with the birds (another situation I've never had to handle)... I'm assuming that since he's so young, I'll be able to teach him to stay away from their cages, same as teaching them not to sharpen their claws on the furniture? I obviously will never trust them in the same room together without my presence, but anything else I should be aware of? Right now, Stewie won't be alone anywhere in the house since we don't want kitty poo everywhere, but I really want to be prepared for when he's roaming alone.
I finally got ahold of a friend of mine that has had baby kittens, and she gave me some ideas too. I soaked up some of the milk stuff in bread, and he ate that really well. She said to make sure he keeps that down and see how he does, since we aren't sure how old he is. We are just pretending it's a boy at this point, and my daughter has named him Stewie. I put the litter box in the guest bathroom, and will lock him in there at night for a while, until we are sure he's using it.
Hopefully we'll figure it out, but it's nice to know that my friend will be around in case something goes wrong. She said I can call her anytime about it, so that makes me feel a little better.
Now.... as far as having him with the birds (another situation I've never had to handle)... I'm assuming that since he's so young, I'll be able to teach him to stay away from their cages, same as teaching them not to sharpen their claws on the furniture? I obviously will never trust them in the same room together without my presence, but anything else I should be aware of? Right now, Stewie won't be alone anywhere in the house since we don't want kitty poo everywhere, but I really want to be prepared for when he's roaming alone.
I have raised kittens that young, a trip to the vet is in order to be dewormed, and we always try to get them to eat gerber baby food meat, either lamb or chicken, mixed w/ some formula, also you can actually grind the dry food in a food processor and make it a powder, mix it w/ formula and add a lil meat baby food to that and see if it will eat that, dont let her hold him to much at this age, and if he was here he would be in a big ole dog crate w/ food, water, and a litter box, then you can really tell how they are training while keeping it safe at the same time! Good luck
Lucikly cats have a natural instinct for litter boxes. One thing that helped us with our last rescue that was having a hard time getting it was putting him in the box after he ate. We'd feed him, then play with him for 10-20 minutes or until it looked like he had to go. Then we put him in the litterbox and he caught on.
Good luck with your new fur ball.
Good luck with your new fur ball.
Make sure the sides of the litter box are low enough that he can scramble in ... you may want to just put about an inch of litter in the bottom of a cut down card board box until he gets a little bigger and can more easily jump into a 'big kitty' box 
They don't need a lot at that age.
Kitten chow wetted with the just born milk (which I am assuming you got from a pet supply place?) alongside the milk alone AND some water will get him going.
Yes, you can teach a cat to leave the fids alone. NEVER trust them completely, but when they get older, as long as you are there, you won't have to have a heart attack every time the cat moves
You can also let your fids help 'train' the kitten - a good bird nip of a nose, tail or ear works wonders to let the feline know their attentions are NOT welcome and they remember. Again, NEVER trust them completely, but it is a remembered lesson learned if they get a good nip from your feather duster! 
Crating the baby for now along with his food and water bowls is good. Not sure if I would want to be locked up with my toilet 24/7 so think about that, but keep it accessible whenever you have him out and about. And periodically put him IN the litter box to give him the idea. Once he gets it, he'll probably do really well. (Mine did)
Good luck with the little sweetie. He is ADORABLE!!
They don't need a lot at that age.Kitten chow wetted with the just born milk (which I am assuming you got from a pet supply place?) alongside the milk alone AND some water will get him going.
Yes, you can teach a cat to leave the fids alone. NEVER trust them completely, but when they get older, as long as you are there, you won't have to have a heart attack every time the cat moves
You can also let your fids help 'train' the kitten - a good bird nip of a nose, tail or ear works wonders to let the feline know their attentions are NOT welcome and they remember. Again, NEVER trust them completely, but it is a remembered lesson learned if they get a good nip from your feather duster! Crating the baby for now along with his food and water bowls is good. Not sure if I would want to be locked up with my toilet 24/7
so think about that, but keep it accessible whenever you have him out and about. And periodically put him IN the litter box to give him the idea. Once he gets it, he'll probably do really well. (Mine did)Good luck with the little sweetie. He is ADORABLE!!
]OK... so the litter box is set up, and I have put him in there a couple times, to make sure that he can crawl in and out. It takes him a while, but he manages ok. Also, I think that Luka (mini schnauzer) has decided that he is her baby, because she is really protective of him, and wants to be wherever he is. It's too funny. She cleans him, too. I took a couple pics, cause it's really cute.
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Mary got her bike basket for him to hang out in, so he feels a little more protected, I guess, lol.
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Mary got her bike basket for him to hang out in, so he feels a little more protected, I guess, lol.
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Oh Stewie is a cutie alright.
You might want to watch close to see if he's really peeing on his own etc because you know momma takes care of getting them to go for quite a while.
I don't think I would be offering dry food yet with him being so little, I'd be making sure that his meals were really runny with the milk replacer and add the baby food meat or canned kitten food to it and make it a thick broth for a couple weeks, then you can start thickening it up and even though its a pain I wouldn't try and wean him off the milk for quite a while even though he's eating decently. Momma would start introducing them to solid food at about 7 to 8 weeks old and they'd still probably be nursing at least once a day.
Is he walking on all 4's well with his belly well up off the floor or does his belly still drag the floor when he walks? Seems to me that they don't really start walking with out dragging bellies till there nearly 5 weeks old.
Oh he's such a cutie! And I do like the name Stewie....lol
You might want to watch close to see if he's really peeing on his own etc because you know momma takes care of getting them to go for quite a while.
I don't think I would be offering dry food yet with him being so little, I'd be making sure that his meals were really runny with the milk replacer and add the baby food meat or canned kitten food to it and make it a thick broth for a couple weeks, then you can start thickening it up and even though its a pain I wouldn't try and wean him off the milk for quite a while even though he's eating decently. Momma would start introducing them to solid food at about 7 to 8 weeks old and they'd still probably be nursing at least once a day.
Is he walking on all 4's well with his belly well up off the floor or does his belly still drag the floor when he walks? Seems to me that they don't really start walking with out dragging bellies till there nearly 5 weeks old.
Oh he's such a cutie! And I do like the name Stewie....lol
Awwww! 
I raised two puppies to healthy adulthood after they were abandoned at two weeks of age, and my mother has raised three kittens (at different times) and a family of raccoons. I started my puppies out on Similac and used a medicine dropper for a few days, but they objected and we spilled more (they and I) than they ate, so I made up a batch of that Gerber's baby cereal and gently dunked their little noses into it so they'd want to lick it off and then they'd see that it was good stuff. They did, so I showed them the bowl and it took one session for them to figure out they could lap it up. They ate that for a few days and then I started mixing it with canned puppy food and gradually quit giving them baby cereal over a few days, and that was that.
Mom swears by the medicine dropper method until the babies are five or six weeks old and then starts working on the canned food to get them to start eating it. She's never had to teach a kitten about litterboxes; they just figure it out. And you have to burp them after they eat. Their mother would lick their tummies, but you can burp a kitten by holding it in one hand or over your shoulder, just like it was a baby, and rub and pat and rub and pat its little back until it burps. Holding it in one hand works best with kittens, and make sure you're holding it vertically, head up, hiney down. Good luck!
I raised two puppies to healthy adulthood after they were abandoned at two weeks of age, and my mother has raised three kittens (at different times) and a family of raccoons. I started my puppies out on Similac and used a medicine dropper for a few days, but they objected and we spilled more (they and I) than they ate, so I made up a batch of that Gerber's baby cereal and gently dunked their little noses into it so they'd want to lick it off and then they'd see that it was good stuff. They did, so I showed them the bowl and it took one session for them to figure out they could lap it up. They ate that for a few days and then I started mixing it with canned puppy food and gradually quit giving them baby cereal over a few days, and that was that.
Mom swears by the medicine dropper method until the babies are five or six weeks old and then starts working on the canned food to get them to start eating it. She's never had to teach a kitten about litterboxes; they just figure it out. And you have to burp them after they eat. Their mother would lick their tummies, but you can burp a kitten by holding it in one hand or over your shoulder, just like it was a baby, and rub and pat and rub and pat its little back until it burps. Holding it in one hand works best with kittens, and make sure you're holding it vertically, head up, hiney down. Good luck!
I love kitties!! My grandma took in an abandoned kitten when it was about 4 weeks old. She fed him that Just Born milk from one of those little bottles and he took to that very well. When she first got Sammy, he was knocking on death's door but now, you can't even tell he was ever sick! He is now about 10 weeks old and he is a little demon! He loves to climb up legs!!! Good luck with the little guy and keep us posted!
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