Newborn kittens may be born fully furred but they aren't done growing once they leave their mother's womb. The first week of a kitten's life is full of major changes and growth. If you have a litter of baby kittens, it's a good idea to know what to watch for—as well as know what you can do to help your kitten get off to a good start in life.
When a kitten is born it should fit in the palm of your hand. It will look just like a miniature version of an adult cat with its fur, four legs, two ears, and all its other body parts, but not everything works like an adult cat just yet.
The normal, healthy birth weight of a kitten is about 3.5 ounces which is just a little bit more than a deck of playing cards weighs. By the end of the first week, a kitten typically doubles its body weight putting it at about 7 ounces so these are good weights to record in order to monitor a kitten's growth. If a kitten isn't gaining enough weight it may mean there is something wrong that needs to be addressed.
After two or three days a kitten's umbilical cord will dry up and fall off but its eyes and ears will remain closed for a little while yet. At this point, the kitten is dependent entirely upon its mother (or foster human) for warmth, food, and hygiene. It will crawl around on its belly, cry if it is hungry, sleep, and urinate and defecate when its mother stimulates it by licking it.
You probably won't notice much of a difference between a newborn kitten and a one-week-old kitten but it will start to be more active as the week goes on. Kittens won't be playing with littermates just yet and the only social interaction between each other will be battling for a nipple to nurse from.
Since a newborn kitten is completely dependent upon its mother for the first few weeks of life, you'll need to play the role of mom if your kitten is an orphan or has been neglected by its mother. If the mother is taking care of the kittens then there is little you need to do but some things you should still look for.
Newborn kittens do not have any teeth and get all of their food and nutrition from cat milk. The first few days after giving birth, the mother cat will produce a very special kind of milk for the kittens called colostrum. This milk contains special ingredients called maternal antibodies which help protect the kittens from illnesses until their own immune systems are working. It is very important that kittens start nursing shortly after birth to ensure these antibodies are consumed from the colostrum.
If a kitten is orphaned and needs to be bottle-fed, a special cat milk replacement formula should be used to provide proper nutrition. A homemade kitten formula can be used temporarily. A newborn kitten should consume about seven teaspoons in a day and will eat small amounts every two hours.
At this young of an age there is no effective training that you can do with a kitten. Litter box training will come naturally for a kitten but should not begin until the mother cat is not needed to stimulate it to urinate and defecate.
If the mother cat is present, it is just as important to ensure it stays healthy as it is to monitor the kittens. Kittens need their mother to feed them, clean them, stimulate them, and keep them warm.
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