Advice needed for fostering 8 week old kitten

Pumpkinseeds

Hi all, I haven't been on since last week, our UPC Horizon box died on Friday leaving us without tv channels, internet and no landline, so I'm having to use my mums laptop today:( Anyways, my husband found a kitten under pallets in the factory where he works yesterday morning and a rescue are going to take her. The thing is they are overflowing with cats at the moment so we're going to foster her until she finds a home. So she'll probably be with us for quite a while.

She is tiny and only .9kilos, less than 2 pounds in weight. I have her in a safe room with litter tray, igloo bed, kitten food and water. She's been vet checked and is fine, but too small for any spot on treatments. So I need advice on the following:

Best dry and wet food, am thinking of getting RC babycat 34 or Applaws kitten, I can't afford the wet version of those so cheaper alternative suggestions would be appreciated.

She's hiding under a desk in her safe room so I need ideas on building her trust and confidence.

We've never had a kitten this young before so all constructive and helpful advice would be appreciated. I can only check my messages once a day at the moment so if I don't respond I'm not being rude:D

boomerang

Definitely BabyCat would be brilliant but you might find that if she has been underfed up to now, or scavenging, her tummy mightn't cope well with good cat food at first. I would start her out on a small box of Whiskas Kitten and gradually mix in the BabyCat, but don't give her the BabyCat at all for the first week. You might also find that wet kitten food gives her diarrhoea, so restrict it to a small treat, say, at bedtime. Feed her little and often as if she's been going hungry, she'll gorge herself and upset her tum.

Start her straight away on Parazole, 0.45ml per day for three days, and repeat in two weeks - you'll need to weigh her again at that stage for accurate dosage.

I wouldn't give her free run of the room straight away - she will actually feel safer if confined in a crate, and it will make it easier for you to interact with her until she is confident enough to come running when you enter the room.

Edited to add: Stronghold spot-on is safe from six weeks of age and treats roundworms, ear mites, fleas. But if she has no external parasites I would go with just the Parazole right now anyhoo, as it is very gentle and more effective than a spot-on for heavy worm burdens.

mymo

Babycat is great for building them up (we had a 5 or 6 week old kitten weighing just 350g, nothing but a bag of bones, she doubled her weight in just over a week on it), bozita kitten is pretty good cheaper option for wet food. (From zooplus)
As said above parazole is great for small kittens.
If she's under weight give her something warm to snuggle up to.
A dog crate is handy for the first week or two, put a blanket over if she's stressed.

Pumpkinseeds

Thank you for the replies. We didn't have a crate to keep her in, it was all very rushed when my husband brought her home during his shift. She's doing very well, we have to call her something so she's called Molly. She came out of hiding on Thursday night for a play with some toy mice. And we have a few play sessions with her each day now.

She's eating RC Babycat dry and whiskas kitten pouches. She litter trained herself and her confidence is growing by the day. She's timid at the moment but certainly not feral. She is a gorgeous little tuxedo lady with white gloves and white socks and jet black thick tail:)

I'm still having to call to my parents to use their laptop, damn UPC and their horizon box:mad:

Robyn_14

Awww it's great to hear she is getting on well!she sounds gorgeous!

Pumpkinseeds

This is a picture of the little lady. She let me pick her up today and give her cuddles, she's such an affectionate little kitten.

Robyn_14

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

This is a picture of the little lady. She let me pick her up today and give her cuddles, she's such an affectionate little kitten.

She's adorable, are you going to keep her?!

reallyrose

She's lovely! Do the white bands on her back legs go all around like garters? :O

Pumpkinseeds

Robyn_14 wrote: »

She's adorable, are you going to keep her?!

Sadly we can't keep her. We adopted 2 stray adult cats over the past 6 months and my oldest cat is finding it very stressful with the 2 new arrivals, so it wouldn't be fair on him if we kept her. She will stay in foster with us until we find her a home. She is just so adorable.

Pumpkinseeds

reallyrose wrote: »

She's lovely! Do the white bands on her back legs go all around like garters? :O

Hee, no, the garter is only on one leg and it fades at the back of her thigh, the other leg has spots:)

Pumpkinseeds

Molly has settled in really well. She's so playful and affectionate and purrs like an engine. She litter trained herself and only has the odd accident, usually when she's playing with Mr P and gets too excited to go to the litter box:D So far Felix doesn't seem to know she's in the house. Poppy had a growl and hiss at her through the pet gate yesterday, so she won't be on baby sitting duty any time soon.

We're waiting for our Sky box to arrive so we still don't have internet access at home and I'm still having to call to my parents house to check my emails:mad: