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Should I Take in an Abandoned Kitten?
Be certain kittens are really abandoned before you
disturb a nest. A momcat can be harder to spot than the stealth
bomber, but just because she’s not there now doesn’t mean she’s
not around. If the kittens are clean, plump, and sleeping quietly
in a heap, odds are that they’ve got an attentive mom and should
be left alone. Abandoned kittens will be dirty and the nest will
be soiled, and they will cry continuously because they’re hungry.
Ideally, kittens should not be taken from the mother until they
are 5 to 6 weeks of age. However, kittens born to feral mothers
should be taken away, if possible, at about 4 weeks old. At this
age, it is easy to tame them and they have gotten 4 weeks' worth
of the precious antibodies mother's milk provides. As they get older,
it gets increasingly harder to tame them; kittens over the age of
8 weeks who have had no human contact will probably take months
to tame...if it can be done at all.
From: www.kittenrescue.org/handbook.htm
STIMULATING ELIMINATION
Normally, kittens will have a couple of firm, yellowish
stools per day if they are being properly fed. Also after each feeding,
you will need to gently massage and stimulate the anal and genital
area with a sterile cotton ball or piece of gauze dipped in warm
water. This will cause the kitten to urinate and have bowel movements,
and it is very important that you continue to do this for the kitten
until it is definitely using the litterbox on its own, even though
most kittens can control their own bowel movements at about 10 days
old.
From: www.hdw-inc.com/tinykitten.htm
Should I use a raw diet?
Cats are carnivores, plain and simple. They need
meat to survive. Many cats can subsist for quite some time on grocery
store food, but more and more often we see diseases such as cancer,
hyperthyroidism, IBD, diabetes, and heart disease, all of which
can be linked to a history of poor nutrition. You may believe that
grocery store foods are formulated by nutritionists, and they're
supposed to be fully balanced and complete, right? Wrong. The best
thing you can do for your cat is to feed her the way she was meant
to be fed: meat!
Read the label on your bag of cat food. The first
ingredient is going to be one of two things: a grain / corn meal
or gluten, or a meat by-product. The huge list of ingredients may
include a few of these grains and by-products, and the rest will
be vitamins, preservatives, and additives. Why? Well, first of all,
a meat by-product isn't actual meat. It's waste -- feet, feathers,
beaks, hooves, and floor waste, including feces, dead and diseased
animals -- and those are the quality ingredients.
From: www.holisticat.com/rawrecipe
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