Newborn Kittens Foster Care

In this manual you will find helpful tips to ensure success.

Newborn kittens foster care. The path to kitten foster parenting can be through a shelter rescue or agency. This is one of the most rewarding foster experiences watching the mom love clean and care for her babies. Thank you for opening your home and heart to orphan kittens. If the mother cat is not around you ll need to prepare and feed them yourself.

By participating in this program you are saving lives and helping kittens find families. Nkr gets a lot of mom cats nursing babies or pregnant teenager cats in the shelter that need foster care. If you ve got space in your heart and home we ll provide all of the supplies and medical care you ll need to help kittens grow up big and strong. Rabies vaccine is required by law and can be given to kittens at 8 10 weeks of age.

Regardless of how you become a foster parent you are playing an important role in animal welfare particularly during the spring and summer which is the peak of feline breeding season. Care for foster kittens includes a strict feeding schedule cleaning and lots of snuggling and play time. Other than feeding kittens need to be kept warm in a toasty 88 92 degrees. Kittens with a mother are much easier to care for.

They should have a quiet safe place to raise their kittens. Fostering orphaned kittens is rewarding process that saves thousands of lives in our community each year and we could not do it without you. At 6 12 weeks old start giving them dry. At 3 4 weeks old provide formula and water softened kitten kibble 4 6 times daily.

Kittens receive this vaccine at 6 weeks of age and then two boosters 3 4 weeks apart. The mother cat will do almost all of the work including nursing cleaning keeping the kitten warm feeding and stimulating the kittens bowels. We know taking care of delicate kittens can be scary that s why we ll be. Orphaned newborn kittens need around the clock care from loving people just like you in order to survive and thrive after rough starts to life.

If you have newborn kittens who ve been separated from their mother consult with a veterinarian shelter or experienced foster care giver who can help you find a new mother cat with a small. To care for newborn kittens when the mother cat is still present feed the mother to keep her strength up but leave the kittens alone for the first week to ensure the mother doesn t reject them. Newborn kittens are precious little things. They need feeding around the clock even if that means it s 3 am.

If you foster a kitten that has a mother you will also be taking in the mother cat. Through fostering we can work together to save them all. If the kittens are 1 2 weeks old bottle feed them with milk replacer formula every 1 2 hours. Fvrcp vaccine is the standard feline distemper vaccine.

Although fostering kittens is a lot of work it is a very rewarding experience. This is a preventative measure against feline rhinotracheitis virus calicivirus and panleukopenia. Kittens younger than eight weeks old are the most at risk population in our shelter.