How To Introduce An Orphaned Kitten To A Foster Mother
Have you ever faced the daunting task of introducing an orphaned kitten to a foster-mother? It is not the easiest task in the world, but it is still doable with lots of time and commitment from you. In this article you will find a proven way to do this, as I had success with this method three times with three different mother cats and kittens.
It is only required to have a foster-mother feed the kitten if it still has not been weaned or it is too small or weak to eat on its own. You need to ensure that the mother cat has kittens of its own who still feed on her milk. You also need to ensure that she is healthy enough to feed another kitten before trying to get her to adopt the orphan. It is also best if she has more than one kitten as she will tend to notice the new addition much less if her brood is greater than one. However this method has worked well for me even with cats who have just one kitten with them.
First you need to ensure that the mother cat has a safe and comfortable place to feed her kittens. While she feeds her kittens. It is also good to introduce an object, which has the smell of the new orphan and let her sniff at it. When she has settled down to feed her kittens it is good to introduce the orphan to suckle from her. You may need someone to guide the orphan to suckle, while soothing the cat if she starts to get agitated. Do not use force on her, but you should proceed to soothe her by rubbing her head or the underside of the chin. This will calm her down.
However if she moves away do not worry, she will be back to feed her kittens again need to repeat the process again and again until she stops becoming agitated and settles down to feeding this kitten. You will need to be here each time it happens. If the kitten does not get much milk, you need to feed it with some formula for kittens or even babies if it is all you can get. I have used a pipette to do this for one of my kittens.
You will gradually find that the mother cat will take to licking the kitten. Sometimes she may hiss and take a spat at it. When this happens remove the kitten to stop it from getting hurt. Reintroduce it later so that it gets another chance. Eventually the mother cat will come around to licking it and before long she will not be able to make it out from her own litter.
This may take two or three days at the most even with the fiercest mother cats and the most wayward kittens. All you need is some patience and time to achieve success. So, next time you find an orphaned cat do not shy away from it you could follow the above steps and get a foster-mother to adopt it as her own.