Question:
Last week I took in five foster kitties that were about 2 weeks old, their mom had died and they were brought to Humane Society were I volunteer. I began bottle feeding them, and did so for almost 5 days, when the shelter had a mama cat with only one kitten brought in, almost the same age as mine. They suggested seeing if she would accept the others, and she did. Its just been a couple of days, and all is going well, but I am wondering if I need to supplement bottle feed them some while she is switching from producing milk for one kitten to six. I brought her home Monday evening, and yesterday I ended up going in and sitting with her and feeding one bottle amongst the bigger kitties while the smaller ones nursed, then gave the tiniest one a bit of supplement as all the milk was gone from Mama.
I am not sure of the best way to handle this.... any input would be greatly appreciated. The mom cat is fine with me in there and handling and so on... i just want to do the best i can for them. Her own kitten is a bit younger and smaller, and I notice it gets pushed out of the way by the bigger ones.
thanks,
nyx


Answer:
If the smaller, younger, kitten is not getting enough to eat, I would supplement. Are you able to keep weights on each of the kittens? That should give you a good idea of how they are doing. Mom should be able to produce enough milk for 6 kittens without any "switching" over. Milk release is triggered by the kittens suckling and kneading. Hopefully Sue will be along shortly to help out. She does a lot of foster care for the Humane Society and has much more experience than I do.


Answer:
I would say no- only if one looks like it needs help- the more they suckle, the more she will make- and if they're full on formula, they won't suckle. Very lucky that a good foster mom was available! When we fostered cats, we once had three litters at once and all three moms nursed all the kittens- it got to where we couldn't tell between two of the litters- which were only two days apart.


Answer:
thanks for the advice.... I ended up supplementing some today, one feeding, because they were all crying and it appeared to not be getting anything out of poor Mama. I think I will just keep an eye on them and see how it goes. They went right back to trying to suckle Mama, so hopefully it will work out.


Answer:
Yep.. I agree with Candice & Jenna... the momma cat should be able to feed the kittens on her own... I'd just keep an eye on their progress & like Candice suggested weighing them is a great way... What a good Momma to accept 5 more babies!