An Easy Way to Feed Orphaned Kittens

A good friend brought me two tiny kittens abandoned at the city water department. I guesstimated that they were about a month old. Their eyes were open but they were just starting to push themselves around.

I went right to the pet supply store and found exactly what I needed. A complete kit with everything needed to hand feed kittens, an instruction book, two kinds of formula and a small bottle with nipples of different sizes.

The kitties hated the bottle and refused to nurse. Try as I might, I could not get them to suck on it. There was something about the texture that they just didn't like. I needed something smaller, like an eye dropper. I tore the house apart. I didn't have an eyedropper. What could I use instead?

I needed something small enough to slip past the kitties little kittie lips to reach the back of their tongue. Once there, I know that their swallowing reflex would over.

I began rummaging through my stuff and I have lots of stuff. The light bulb went on. Well, I didn't have and eye dropper but...I found several long narrow plastic straws (they had come on some bottles I used for liquid soap dispensing). So I mixed up the formula, put my finger over the top of the straw, lowered it into the liquid. Removing my finger from the top of the straw caused the formula to move up the straw about an inch. Putting my finger back over straw, I pried open the kitties mouths and put the straw in till it was just past their tongue. Taking my finger off the straw, the milk flowed right down the kittens' throats. I did this until I felt the their tummies get full. By the next day, they know what the straw meant, FOOD and greedily opened their mouths when the straw appeared.

The last feeding of the day seemed to carry them through till the morning.

As they got bigger and could handle more food at each feeding, I started to suck the milk partway up the straw. I found this a very fast and efficient way to feed the kitties. A few straw fulls and they were fat and happy. It took about five minutes at the most to feed two kittens.

  I feed the kitties like this until they were old enough to wean.  They are named Peter and Sinatra and they have certainly made my life fuller and more enjoyable.  Their antics keep me laughing till tears roll down my face.