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| We just got through trying to keep 6 kittens alive. They were around 3.5 weeks old when the mom disappeared. It's a lot of work! Neighbors left on a trip and mama cat disappeared about the same time. Now the cats are ours cause the neighbors don't like them tame either! That's ok, the children love it. I don't know your age at all, but if you all dont want the work and the tame cats, maybe you could find a family with children to adopt the kittens??
What worked for us was to use those little syringes that come with children's Tylenol. It was kinda messy till they got the hang of latching on. Once they figured it out they could almost suck the plunger down by themselves. We fed them maybe 4? times per day at first. They didn't eat more than 5 or 10 ml each time right at first. Probably should have fed another time or two but you have to live too! We didn't have any milk replacer so were told to mix evaporated milk and water half and half, with a dollop of yogurt. Was also told to mix infant rice flakes in to help. One kitten still had the runs pretty bad but it survived. To get them to eat out of a bowl we mixed up their formula a little thicker and that seemed to help them get the hang of eating. We were told that kittens dont really drink water till 8 weeks or so. They get all the hydration they need from the milk.
Apparently kittens can't regulate body heat very well till 6 weeks or so. We used a heat lamp also and they seemed to like it. I was told by someone that if they get too hot they will start panting, otherwise they're ok.
As another poster said, they need to be wiped, especially the hind end. I just took a bucket with warm water and a bit of baby soap.
Seemed like keeping them clean took way more time than feeding. It was also a challenge keeping their sleeping area clean!
Hope this didn't get too long. We are no experts, just sharing what we found and some knowledge that was shared with us! Kittens are 8-10 weeks now and the children love them so it was worth it.
Edit for typo
Edited by kwk 8/2/2020 07:44
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Orphaned kittens
