Can You Give Kittens Baby Formula
Oral syringes can usually be purchased from a pharmacy and used for this purpose.
Can you give kittens baby formula. Kittens should eat about eight milliliters of formula per ounce of body weight a day. Begin the weaning process around 4 weeks of age starting puppies on warm oatmeal or rice baby cereal mixed with puppy formula gradually transitioning over a week or two to puppy food soaked in hot water until it s mush. If you can t find a tiny baby bottle you can also try using a syringe without the needle especially if the kitten won t take the bottle readily. This means if the kitten weighs four ounces they should eat about 32 milliliters of formula total in a day so you can give eight milliliters of formula every four hours.
After about three to four weeks of age your kitten can start eating solid foods. Plan to be up every 2 hours or so to feed them just like a baby. Homemade milk replacer recipes often feature ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen and can help you to get by in an emergency. Feeding the wrong sort of milk such as cow s milk can have short term and long term effects including diarrhea dehydration nutritional deficiencies and long term health problems due to poor growth.
As puppies grow you can extend feeding time to three and then four hour intervals. Suppose you find orphaned kittens after all the pet stores in your area have closed. It is more of a treat minus the lactose so cats and kittens can digest it. A new litter of kittens is often an exciting event but if something goes wrong and you need to care for the kittens you may suddenly need kitten formula.
1 quart whole goat s milk 1 teaspoon light karo syrup 1 tablespoon nonfat plain yogurt goat s milk preferred 1 egg yolk knox unflavored. Alternately you can make a temporary formula using one can of evaporated milk one egg yolk and two tablespoons of karo syrup. In a kitten who is already weak dehydration can be potentially fatal. Mix the formula in with cat food starting at 6 weeks depending on the kitten.
Human formula can be dangerous for medically fragile kittens. Such formulas usually made with ingredients you may have in your home won t upset your fuzzy friends tummies when you feed them overcoming the risk of problems like diarrhea. The cornell book of cats says that human baby formula can be used if made up to double the normal strength although human baby formula is normally not nutritious enough for kittens. If you have to give your kitten human formula for any reason choose one that is iron free to avoid an overdose of iron.
These bottles typically hold small amounts of formula so they are easy to handle while also holding a small kitten. A newborn kitten can only digest milk and more specifically the milk from a female cat. However even after she has weaned your kitten should still not consume human baby formula even as a treat. They can cause diarrhea which can lead to dehydration.