VMD 513: Pet animal Breeding, Management, Nutrition and Health Care (1+1)

CARE OF NEWBORN KITTEN

         

• Mother provides most of the care of newborn kitten. At birth the kittens are relatively immature.
• Their eyelids are not yet opened and cannot see. Their ears are also not yet functioning.
• When picked up, healthy newborn kitten should have good muscle tone, feel firm and plump and wiggle vigorously when handled.
• Healthy kittens are also quiet most of the time, crying only when they are hungry or cold.
• Excessive or prolonged crying is the first sign of a problem.
• They spend most of the time in sleeping and when they are awake, nursing.
• Healthy kitten should show normal weight gain.
• They should gain equivalent of their birth weight each week for the first 2 or 3 weeks.
• After 12 weeks of age; male kitten grow faster than female.
• First week they spend 4 hours or more per day for suckling, divided into short period.
• It gradually decreased to 3 hours and 2 hours in subsequent weeks.
• The mother cat gives a characteristic ‘murmur’ cry to initiate suckling and she adopts a body posture that makes the nipple easily accessible.
• Both the mother and the kitten usually purr continuously while nursing, and the kitten show treading movement (kneading) when their paws held against the mother’s abdomen, it facilitates milk ejection.