So my middle daughter filched a kitten. It is now about 3 weeks old, really too young to be taken from its mother. It was a barn cat, the lawful owner doesn't want it back, she sees it as one less cat to get rid of before she can sell the property and retire. The queen (mommy cat) won't take it back. So for the last week, I've been hand-rearing it on a bottle.
Not complaining, about anything other than my kid. I'm capable of this, animals and in particular cats were my first special interest and occupy a special place in my heart, blah-blah-blah.
I'm looking for guidelines on when to start introducing solid food. Everything I read says 4 to 6 weeks. As of this morning, the helpless little puffball has morphed into a 12-ounce tiny tiger. Insatiable appetite, aggressive nursing behaviors (clawing the crap out of my hand trying to get more milk even though it's coming so fast it's running down its chin). It is NOT a feral kitten. Its mother may have been (barn cats often are), but this kitten is comfortable with humans, amenable to cuddling, seeks out human attention.
These behaviors imply to me that the kitten is ready to graduate to "kitty gruel" made with puréed meat and milk replacer.
Can anyone who's done it give me some guidance?? I'm sure our vet will help me out tomorrow, but frankly by tomorrow my hands are going to look like they lost a fight with a briar patch.
I'm 98% positive I have not underestimated his age.
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"Alas, our dried voices when we whisper together are quiet and meaningless, as wind in dry grass, or rats' feet over broken glass in our dry cellar." --TS Eliot, "The Hollow Men"
10 Jul 2016, 12:54 pm
