And boy, have a lot of things happened in the last week! I've become an official foster "parent" for the Orphan Kitten Project out of the vet school at the University of California, Davis. And on the heels of that, I picked up a little grey tabby fellow, who's about a week younger than the two bitties I already have. He's an adorable youngster with some lighter coloration around the eyes that I have always thought gives them the "old man" appearance.. and so his current name is Old Man. He came to the Orphan Kitten Project at a bit over two weeks old, his mother had been a semi-feral kitty who disappeared, so the concerned folks who had been looking after mama and baby called up the OKP looking for someone to take care of the little guy. He stayed with one of the OKP student members until they were able to place him with me for fostering until he's old enough to be weaned and find his forever home. Right now, we're estimating him to be a sneeze over four weeks old, and we're running a little late, but we've started the transition from milk to solid food and so far that's going very well.
I've found that the best way to transition the bottle babies from milk or KMR (Kitten Milk Replacer) to solid food is to buy some Hill's a/d from work and start mixing it in with their bottle. The a/d food is high in protein and nutrients, and it's also very soft- it has been designed to be usable in cases where an animal needs to be syringe, or tube fed. Unlike many canned kitten foods which can still be quite chunky and clog up the bottles.
Right now we're still in the phase of mixing sludgies into the poor lil guy's bottle to get his digestive tract used to the idea that something a little more substantial than milk is soon going to be on it's way. After a few days of this, we'll start experimenting with solid foodies off of a plate.The two older kittens are the black female and orange tabby male previously mentioned.. who are now five weeks old, and have finally gotten themselves dubbed with names. I have a young helper who has been coming to help me take care of the kittens in order to fill her volunteer services requirement for school. She has dubbed the little black "Mellow", and the orange tabby is now "Tiger".
For the last few days, they have been eating entirely solid food quite enthusiastically (if not at all neatly). And as a consequence, get nearly as much of the food ON them as IN them. Unfortunately for the bitties, this requires a slight bath (or at least wiping of the face and paws) before they get to have their playtime running around outside the Box o' Mews after each meal. The after meal bath is met with great protestations of murder, foul play, innocence, and the utterance of many feline bad words that I would be horrified to translate.
But I keep telling them that as soon as they learn how to eat with their mouths instead of their foreheads, the baths will stop. At some point they'll learn to listen to their Mama. Now that they're on the solid wet food, the last transition we have to make is on to the solid crunchies, and then they'll be off to other fosters until they get placed in forever homes of their own. I keep trying to delay the day, but it's creeping up on me slowly and surely.
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