They Are Not Calves
- SNUGGLE Pet Rescue
- Sep 17
- 2 min read
SNUGGLE Pet Rescue is grateful to the people who find newborn kittens in need of help and reach out to us. Some of these individuals act immediately to get the babies into the hands of an experienced person, which is always the best choice for a kitten that has been abandoned, is injured or sick. Neonates are so fragile, so time is not on their side.
On September 15th a woman from Moscow Mills, Missouri contacted us. She had discovered a litter of 4 kittens on her porch and sadly their mother was lying in the dirt under the porch dead. The woman suspected the babies were hungry, so she gave them what she had - cow's milk with some sugar added. We have shared in numerous past posts that feeding kittens when they are cold can cause their organs to start to shut down. Since the majority of the kittens we get are cold, we can only assume these four kittens needed warming up before they were fed.
When the woman contacted us and explained what she had been doing for the kittens, we encouraged her to get them to us ASAP. When they arrived yesterday, they were in better shape than we had expected. They did have dried poop on their rear ends though and all of them were under weight. Not wanting to bathe them and risk them getting cold they were cleaned up the best our Foster Care Volunteer could do and after they were warmed up, they were offered their first bottle. Yale, Yogi, Yuki and Yvette practically inhaled the KMR. This is another opportunity to remind people that cats are lactose intolerant so giving them cow's milk can cause kittens especially, to have some stomach problems. If you can't get access to kitten formula right away, goat's milk can be used instead.
We know that most people don't know how to help a newborn kitten that has been separated from their mother which is why we jump on any opportunity to educate. You will find on our website all the information you need to care for neonates until they can be transported to us or another rescue group. Click on the link below and become familiar with the information if you are unsure what you would do if you found a baby kitten or puppy. This is information that should be shared too.
In addition to this Urgent Help information, there is also information on our website on how to care for newborns, should you decide to take care of them yourself. This is a huge commitment though and keeping up with every one of the 2-to-3-hour feedings does not fit in well into most people's busy schedules. The woman who brought us the kittens yesterday learned that. The link below will take you to the Caring for Kittens and Puppies information on our website.
There are over 6,000 newborn kittens that have survived because someone found them and did the right thing and brought them to SNUGGLE Pet Rescue. We want to thank each and every one of them for reaching out to us. Together we were able to save all these lives and that will continue to be our number one goal.
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