How to Care for Newborn Cats

If your cat is expecting a litter of kittens, there are a few things you need to do to prepare, more so if the mother, called the queen, ends up rejecting the kittens, dying or is not producing enough milk. If the queen is alive, healthy and has accepted the kittens, there is not much for you to do other than socializing the kittens and monitoring their health. All kittens do need to be examined by a veterinarian to make sure there are no major health problems.

Things You'll Need

  • Nesting box
  • Feeding bottle
  • Milk replacer
  • Kitten food
  • Heat pad, or heated water bottle and towel
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Instructions

  1. Kittens Under a Queen's Care

    • 1

      Monitor the kittens for consistent nursing, which should happen every one to two hours. A well-fed kitten has a round stomach and sleeps restfully, while a kitten that is not getting enough milk will whine and move around.

    • 2

      Keep the nesting box, the area where the kittens are being kept, clean. The kittens will be urinating and defecating there with the mother's help until approximately four weeks of age, when they will start following the queen to her litter box.

    • 3

      Feed the queen about twice the amount of food she was getting before having the kittens to ensure she is producing enough, and make sure she has plenty of water. She should be eating kitten food at this point.

    Caring for Orphaned Kittens

    • 4

      Bottle-feed the kittens with a milk replacer designed for cats until they are three to four weeks old, then switch to giving the milk in a bowl the kittens can easily eat from.

    • 5

      Use the heating pad or wrap a hot water bottle in a towel to provide a source of warmth for the kittens.

    • 6

      Mix milk replacer and kitten food into a soft food easy for the kitten to eat after about four weeks. By six to seven weeks old, the kittens can eat unmoistened dry food. These meals should be given four to six times a day.

    • 7

      At four weeks of age, begin bringing the kittens to the litter box after every meal to teach them where they need to start defecating and urinating.

    All Kittens

    • 8

      Examine the kittens for growth. A kitten should weigh 3 1/2 oz. at birth and will gain approximately 1/4 to 1/2 oz. every day until they are weaned at about seven weeks of age.

    • 9

      Start a deworming program at three weeks of age. The mother should be dewormed with the kittens.

    • 10

      Provide a scratching post that will be the only scratching surface available to the kittens. Kittens will learn to use it to scratch by emulating the queen; if there isn't a queen available to teach them, it is especially important that the scratching post be the only surface available.