# 3 week old kitten won't latch onto bottle



## ofallxtoxpieceso (Sep 6, 2011)

I'll try to make this as short as possible, but I can't make any promises . A shelter not too far from my home is always overwhelmed with bottle feeding kittens. They get euthanized if no one can foster them by 6pm each day. Unfortunately, they do not have the staff, space, or funding to care for the babies overnight. I ended up taking in a litter of three, approximately 2-week-old, kittens and a single, approximately 3-week-old, kitten. The 2-weekers are not a problem, they suckle the bottles (after several minutes of wild scrambling lol), they urinate with stimulation, and they defecate on their own. The three-week-old on the other hand is much harder. I'm fairly certain it's a boy and he does not respond to stimulation to go to the bathroom. He has peed on his own but he hasn't pooped at all yet. My main problem though is he will not suckle the bottle at all. He's eager to get the formula, if I drip it out of the bottle or a syringe or put it in on my skin he eagerly laps it up but that means it takes a good half hour or more just to feed him and I have 3 others to feed. No matter what I do with the bottle he just licks it and chews the nipple. Is there a slightly quicker way to get the 3 week old to eat? It's not so bad during the day but when I have to get up with them every 3 hours at night and it takes over an hour and a half just to feed them all things get a little hectic lol. Any advice for him is greatly appreciated.


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## Mitts & Tess (Sep 4, 2004)

cut the hole larger in the bottle nipple. Or I use a syringe and syringe newbies. You can get syringes from a vet or local Walgreens give them to us for free. the syringes are the type you get when you medicate a cat. Be sure and wipe the babys bottom with a warm wash cloth after it eats to make it pee and poo.


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## ofallxtoxpieceso (Sep 6, 2011)

I tried cutting the hole larger yesterday and he eagerly laps up the milk if I squeeze it out but he has no interest in suckling. He just bites and chews the nipple. Is it possible for the nipple to be too small?. The shelter estimated him around 3 weeks but he is nearly twice the size of the litter of 2 weekers. I have been using a syringe to drip the formula on his tongue and he laps it up but I'm afraid that he's going to aspirated the formula.


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## laurief (Jun 22, 2008)

Have you tried just offering him warmed formula on a flat saucer or shallow bowl? If he's willing to lap it off of the nipple and your finger, he may very well be able and willing to lap it off of a plate or saucer.


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## Marcia (Dec 26, 2010)

I agree, he may be older than they guessed. Offer him warmed watered down canned food and see what he does. Pics are a must you know!!


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## ofallxtoxpieceso (Sep 6, 2011)

I tried giving him formula in a saucer in a few times today and he will laugh up a little bit but is not drinking very much. He is trying to eat the kitty litter though so I think I'm going to try a little bit of canned food. I will definitely get pictures up asap, my days and nights are a little hectic right now lol. I have 2 human children, ages 5 and 17 months, a 2 year old dog, 3 tree frogs, and now 4 kittens that I have to tend to  I also take care of a 7 year old 6 hours a day during the week and am babysitting my cousin's 6 week old kitten until saturday lol


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## NebraskaCat (Jan 15, 2013)

You are a superhero.


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## laurief (Jun 22, 2008)

You certainly have your plate full!

I'll tell you what got my young kittens eating with GUSTO when I rescued them a few years ago. I guesstimated their ages at 4-5 weeks at the time, so possibly a little older than your baby. Anyhow, they were able to lap up formula and a canned food/formula slurry, but they didn't eat well consistently ... until ... I offered them small pieces of boneless raw chicken. You should have seen their inner carnivores come out! THEY SCARED ME!!! They grabbed those meat pieces and snarled and growled and made all sorts of threatening sounds as they shredded and devoured that meat! They knew EXACTLY what that raw meat was for. Pure instinct! You might want to give that a try with your little one. Oh, if you do try raw chicken, I recommend warming it to "mouse body temp" in a baggie in a sink of warm water first.

Laurie


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## Mitts & Tess (Sep 4, 2004)

Be sure your using non clumping litter, like Worlds Best or Swheat. You need to position him in your hand so he won't allow it to go intohis lungs. Google it. Its hard to put into words how his head should be positioned. Kudos for all your doing fostering. You have mh admiration


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## ofallxtoxpieceso (Sep 6, 2011)

Thanks for all of the advice everyone. I am using a non clumping litter and feeding the 2-weekers on their bellies. The 3-weeker sits or lays (however he gets comfy) and I slowly drip the milk onto the tip of his tongue for him to lap up. He has little interest in lapping the formula from a saucer and absolutely refused the mixture of canned food and formula so the slow dripping seems to be my only option to feed him. He hasn't pooped since I brought him home Saturday so i will be contacting the shelter in the morning to see what I can do for him. The babies are all eating pretty well, their little bellies are quite round after each feeding. I'm exhausted but I love them all. They are adjusting to the bottle very slowly so it takes several minutes or more of frantic scrambling before they latch on to the bottle. They eat every 3-4 hours, it takes about an hour to an hour-and-a-half to feed and stimulate all four kittens, and then I still have to wash and sterilize the bottles for the next use, so I don't sleep much these days  I'm headed off to prepare for another round of feeding and then hopefully I can get some sleep (it's after 1AM here), but I promised some pictures so here they are..









My boyfriend with our whole crew of fosters. The funniest part is that he claims he doesn't like cats haha 









The little grey 2-week-old. I believe it's a boy








The litter of 2-week-olds








One of the black 2-weekers. I believe they're both girls.








And lastly the fluffy white&grey baby that stole my heart. They estimated him at 3-weeks-old and I believe he is a boy. He was alone at the shelter with no siblings and when I saw him I just couldn't leave him there to be put down.


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## 10cats2dogs (Jun 16, 2013)

Aahhh, they are all so adorable!
(And your BF is a Cat Daddy! He just doesn't know it yet!)


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## laurief (Jun 22, 2008)

Oh my. They are tiny babes. I've never taken care of such young ones. All I can suggest is that you keep luring his face down to a saucer of formula by having him lick formula off of your finger while you gradually lower it and dip it into the saucer. Eventually he's bound to get the idea, hopefully before your sleep deprivation gets too bad. You're an angel for having taken on so many needy little souls.

Laurie


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## Marcia (Dec 26, 2010)

How cute they are! Yes, I'd have to have taken them in too! How can you not love these little darlings. BF will be a changed man after this! You can judge a man by how he treats animals and his mother.


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## JungliBillis (Mar 20, 2013)

They are so tiny! And adorable. It's so good of you to have taken them in. It'd be a shame for such young ones to be put down.


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## Mitts & Tess (Sep 4, 2004)

My son sent this to me. Your boy friend will be a different man by the time this is over! They will win his heart.


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## ofallxtoxpieceso (Sep 6, 2011)

Thanks everyone. I picked the worst day to go to the shelter to foster lol. They had received 14 different litters of bottom feeders that day and when I got down there at 5 o'clock there were still at least 8 litters left. It broke my heart. My bf already favors the little gray one, which is of course the loudest a little sucker in the bunch haha

Sent from Petguide.com Free App


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