Hand-rearing an orphaned kitten: bottle, timing and risks of the first weeks

The first mistake is picking up a kitten that is not abandoned. Mothers often leave their young alone to hunt, and a kitten that is warm, clean and full is not in immediate danger. Watching from a distance for a few hours, without getting too close, lets you see whether the mother returns. The mother's milk in the first hours, rich in antibodies, cannot be replaced: no formula matches it.

A kitten should instead be picked up at once if it is cold, motionless, dirty, clearly undernourished or in real danger, or if the mother is dead or does not return after prolonged watching. When in doubt, a vet or a rescue centre can help decide and estimate the age, which determines everything else about the care.

In the first two weeks the kitten cannot hold its own heat and must be kept in a warm nest, with a gentle heat source covered by a cloth and a cooler zone it can move to. The nest temperature is lowered gradually as it grows. The other pillar is the milk: use only kitten specific formula, never cow's milk, which causes diarrhoea and does not nourish adequately.

You need a kitten bottle with a teat of the right size: the hole should let one drop fall at a time when turned upside down, not a continuous stream. A hole that is too large is one of the main causes of milk aspiration. Keep a precise kitchen scale to hand too, because weight is the most reliable measure of whether the kitten is growing.

Position is what makes the biggest difference between a safe feed and a risk of aspiration. The kitten must never be fed on its back like a human baby, but belly down, in the same position in which it nurses from its mother. These steps apply to every single feed.

1. 1

   Check that it is warm

   Touch the ears and paw pads: if they are cold, warm the kitten before going on. Never feed a cold kitten.

2. 2

   Prepare the milk at the right temperature

   The milk should be warmed to body temperature, around 38 degrees, never in the microwave because of hot spots. Test it on your wrist: it should be lukewarm, not hot.

3. 3

   Place the kitten belly down

   Rest it on a cloth with its legs beneath it and its head in line, as when it nurses from its mother. Never on its back, because the milk would go into the airway.

4. 4

   Offer the teat without forcing

   Touch the lips with a drop of milk and let the kitten latch and suckle at its own pace. Do not squeeze milk into the mouth: that is the mistake that leads to aspiration.

5. 5

   Pause if needed

   If milk bubbles appear at the nose or the kitten coughs, stop the feed at once, tilt the head slightly down and resume only when it is breathing calmly.

6. 6

   Stimulate to make it urinate and defecate

   After each feed, in the first weeks, gently massage the genital and anal area with a warm damp cloth, mimicking the mother's tongue: without this stimulation the kitten does not eliminate.

Stimulation should be done at every feed until the kitten learns to eliminate on its own, usually around three or four weeks. It is a step that beginners tend to forget, but it is essential: a kitten that does not urinate or pass stool poisons itself quickly.

Weight is the compass. A healthy kitten gains every day, and a daily weigh at the same time, always on the same scale, tells you more than any impression by eye. A weight that stalls or drops is the first sign that something is wrong and must be addressed without waiting.

• Weigh the kitten every day and note the figure: no gain for a day or two is a warning bell.
• A kitten that cries constantly, is limp, cold or stops suckling is unwell and must be taken to the vet at once.
• Diarrhoea in newborns dehydrates very fast and is always a situation not to underestimate.
• Milk bubbles at the nose during or after a feed mean the milk has gone into the airway: a risk of aspiration pneumonia.
• A cold, floppy, unresponsive kitten is an emergency: warm it slowly and take it to the vet.

Around four weeks the transition to solid food begins. It is not a switch, it is a gradual passage: offer a soft mash of kitten food thinned with formula, while keeping up the feeds until the kitten eats enough on its own. The share of milk drops as that of food rises.

In parallel a window opens that is as important as feeding: socialisation. The first weeks are decisive for building a balanced cat, used to contact with people, to household sounds and to gentle handling. A hand reared kitten risks, if it grows up isolated, becoming fearful or overly dependent, which is why gentle daily contact is part of the care as much as the bottle. At this stage you should also set with the vet the deworming schedule and the vaccination plan, because a hand reared newborn has not received the full protection of the mother's milk.