# Getting mama to feed more?



## russianxx (Nov 13, 2010)

I have a bit of a problem with one of my mama cats. All of the unspayed female cats decided to get pregnant around the same. Lucky me. Haha. Anyways, one of the cat's had to have an emergency surgery and one of her babies was born premature, the other had exploded inside of her and died, most likely caused by her jumping and hitting her stomach hard on something. She was spayed when they got the kitten out, luckily Khaleigh, whose kittens were about 2 weeks at the time accepted Sparta. The only problem now is that Khaleigh's kittens are almost 5 weeks old and are eating hard food and don't need their mom as much as Sparta does. So Khaleigh doesn't see a reason to feed them as much. I have tried to put Sparta with mama, a cat that just gave birth 2 days ago, however Sparta wouldn't milk from her and only wants Khaleigh. I have sat there and petted Khaleigh, but that only works for so long until she wants to get up. I have tried bottle feeding Sparta but she gets diarrhea and rejects the bottle after a couple sips, it could be the brand I'm using too. Is there anything I can do to make Khaleigh feed Sparta more or is there a particular brand of kitten milk that works? Khaleigh is supposed to be getting spayed mid december, but with the way things are going with Sparta I don't know if that's going to happen now. Thank you in advance!


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## catloverami (Jul 5, 2010)

One thing you might try is to rub a cotton ball on the teat that Sparta uses on Khaleigh and express a little milk on it as well. Most kitties claim a teat and use it exclusively and they go back to it because it has their scent on it. So then rub cottonball on a spare teat (if there is one available) in a similar location on Mama. Try and see if Sparta will nurse there as it now has her scent on it. Give us an update.


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## russianxx (Nov 13, 2010)

I just put Sparta in with Mama and her babies and of course mama accepted her but Sparta was a bit hesistant on milking from her. I just checked in on her and she's laying with the other babies and milking!! I'm sure it's a nice break for her to be with kittens who can't beat her up and play rough. I have to rescue her from her "brothers and sisters" on several occasions from them playing too rough. I will definitely use the cotton ball advice if Sparta decides not to feed again. Thank you so much!!


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