Special needs kitten?

jenn1984

Hi Folks

We've had 4 kittens from two different litters since the day they were born by their 2 stray mammies in our house 7-8 months ago. One of the kittens (Male- a little under 8 months) has always been slow - took until the 8-9 week point before he got the point of food, licks food off when you're hand feeding him, doesn't get the point of water (gets moisture from wet food) and poops in the litter tray but usually pees wherever he feels like it (theres 2 trays). He does his best to socialize with the other kittens but he's always a bit behind the rest of them. He's due to be neutered this week as it was suggested it might help with the peeing issue - is his 'slowness' something to be worried about?

Thanks,
Jennifer

Shenshen

I wouldn't be too concerned. We got 2 kittens last year, the male was as dozy as they'd come but is now running rings around the others.
If you had them since they were born maybe it just took him a little longer to get his brain round to solid food instead of mother's milk (our little male kept trying to suckle at his bemused sister until he was nearly 4 months), and many cats don't drink a lot if they're being fed wet food. As long as his behaviour isn't impacting his health or safety I don't think you need to worry.

As for the peeing, we've 4 litter trays for our 4 cats. Recommendation is to have 1 more tray than you have cats, but ours are fine with the 4. Maybe introduce some more trays? They can get a bit territorial when they smell other cats' wee.

Ms Doubtfire1

is he by any chance smaller than the other kittens?

jenn1984

Ms Doubtfire1 wrote: »

is he by any chance smaller than the other kittens?

Compared to his brother he's small - his brother is like a proper adult cat even though he's not 8 months yet. Cocoa (the 'special' cat) is getting bigger but just not at the same rate

Ms Doubtfire1

Right. What you're dealing with here is most like a ' brother from another father' so to speak. Female cats can conceive more than once during their mating cycle, so the kittens being born as 'one' litter could be from different fathers. An conceived at different times. But once the contractions start it's 'everyone out'. That's usually the reason for the so called 'runts' of the litters. Your small kitten could have been conceived at the very end of the cycle, up to a week later than the others. A cat carries 63 days at average.Missing 7 days out of that is about 10% less time he was given to develop fully.that has it's impacts and thats what you're seeing. he will catch up in time but he might always be more vulnerable to infections and remain a bit 'slow'.Or not - time will tell. I wouldn't worry at this point in time - nothing you can do just make sure he eats really good and nutritious food and water to allow him to catch up.

jenn1984

Ms Doubtfire1 wrote: »

Right. What you're dealing with here is most like a ' brother from another father' so to speak. Female cats can conceive more than once during their mating cycle, so the kittens being born as 'one' litter could be from different fathers. An conceived at different times. But once the contractions start it's 'everyone out'. That's usually the reason for the so called 'runts' of the litters. Your small kitten could have been conceived at the very end of the cycle, up to a week later than the others. A cat carries 63 days at average.Missing 7 days out of that is about 10% less time he was given to develop fully.that has it's impacts and thats what you're seeing. he will catch up in time but he might always be more vulnerable to infections and remain a bit 'slow'.Or not - time will tell. I wouldn't worry at this point in time - nothing you can do just make sure he eats really good and nutritious food and water to allow him to catch up.

Thanks for the info - he did have bad cat flu when he was born. He and his brother are very different in the looks department so we kinda thought the different fathers thing was a possibility when we read about it - Cocoa is brown/tiger and Zaza (his bro) is Dark Grey/White. It's the same with the 2 kittens from the other litters - one is black/white/ginger and super fluffy and the other is black/tan tiger.