How to Raise Kittens without a Momma

Pets, what a joy and love they bring to our lives. I want to tell you a true story avout how my wife hand raised four abandoned kittens.

These kittens were found in the window well of our home, mama cat was not to be found, nor did she return. Being the animal lover that my wife is, she could not just leave them there to die or be killed by a predator.

These kittens were 4 to 6 weeks old, we were able to determine this by the fact that they were just opening there eyes. God only knows how long they had gone without food. When she discovered them they were cold and hungry. We had an old horse tank we moved into the garage, lined it with nespaper and old towels for warmth and bedding, thus there new home.

Now what do we do? The first step she took was to call our veterinarian to get some guidance. So the process began. She was to feed them milk replacement (which you can get where ever they sell pet supplies) with an eye dropper, the veterinarian recommended an eye dropper full every 2 hrs to start then gradually increase the amount and lengthen the feeding as they grew stronger. This was done by her until they learned to eat from a bowl. This process takes a lot of dedication, devotion and love for animals to do.

Since their ages were 4 to 6 weeks old when she started this process it took some time to do. The kittens started to eat a little at about 10 weeks. Even after after the kittens started eating from there bowl it was still a lot of work.

Do not forget the litter box, my wife used a beer box flat to make a litter box, the sides were short enough that they could climb over them. Litter box was no problem, they took to using it right away.

Eventually as they got bigger and needed more space we moved them to the basement of our home. So now in our home there was 4 cats and a dog. The dog was not happy about giving up his space, but eventually he did except them.

Knowing that we could not keep 4 kittens and a dog, we put an adoption flyer up at our local pet store. Two of them were adopted by the same family and we kept 2 our selves.

Our veterinarian told my wife that usually baby kittens that are hand feed do not survive. They all survived and are very loving and ornery. Yes and they think of my wife (Elaine) as their mama.

So if you have a chance to rescue an animal, please do so. They will enhance your life and bring you great satifaction and rewards. by James Horn