Can Kittens Drink Milk Replacer
Experience in rescue managing feral clonies.
Can kittens drink milk replacer. Kittens lack the proper enzymes to digest the lactose in cow milk and feeding cow milk to kittens can cause diarrhea and dehydration very quickly in very small kittens. Although water is essential to keep cats healthy and strong they don t need it straight out of the womb. In an emergency benson recommends mixing a cup of whole milk an egg yolk a drop of liquid multivitamin and three tums in a blender. But for kitties that are no longer nursing and only as a treat not meals it is alright to give them human infant formula.
But this is strictly for temporary use to get some nutrition into the kittens and you should switch to formula as soon as possible. If no nursing cat is available you can feed a kitten milk replacement formula with a nursing bottle or syringe. One that we highly recommended is kitten milk replacer kmr powder for kittens and cat. If mother s milk isn t available this is same window during which you should feed kittens milk replacement.
Cats and cows milk the bottom line. Kittens typically need 20 to 25 calories for every 100 grams of body weight. Kitten milk replacer can help a kitten when mom isn t around the kitten won t nurse or the kitten is the runt and gets ignored. Newborn kittens are able to get all of the nutrition that they need from their mother s milk.
If mama cat isn t around then a kitten milk replacer shall do too. I m just wondering if how harmful this is. We bucket feed 3 of our calves and sometimes while i m making the buckets up the kittens will dip their heads in and try and drink the milk replacer. According to the mayor s alliance for nyc s animals powdered kitten milk replacer is preferable to canned liquid formulas.
If you are in a situation where you have a kitten yet the mother is not around to provide milk you are best placed to opt for one of the commercial products available. Many kitten milk replacers are made to mimic the mother s milk and others provide a wide range of vitamins minerals and amino acids and sometimes other added ingredients. The only milk that is healthy for kittens to drink is either their mother s or they will need a kitten milk replacer which can also be called kmr or kitten milk formula. Kittens typically suckle at their mother s teats for the first seven to nine weeks of their lives.
To be honest it s not easy to make buckets up and fight off little kittens but if it s harmful to them i will find a way.