2: Caring for kittens and their mothers (from www.whiskas.co.uk)

Newly born kittens can be an amazing gift to any household. Here we take a look at how best to help a new mother to look after her kittens and give them the best start in life.

Eating for several
Your pregnant cat will gain weight steadily throughout her pregnancy. Feed her as much as she wants, using suitable WHISKAS food. After she starts feeding her kittens, she’ll need to eat even more. She may require up to four times her normal amount of food and several meals per day (your vet can recommend a suitable concentrated diet). If you think your cat’s not providing enough milk for her litter, you can use a kitten milk substitute, like WHISKAS kitten milk.

Weaning kittens
For the first few weeks of their lives, kittens feed only on their mother's milk, but after about a month, they’ll start to nibble at the food in their mother’s feeding bowl. At this time, you can begin to wean them gradually, offering a kitten milk substitute, or moist kitten food. Make sure that the dish you use is shallow enough for the kittens to feed from.

• Kittens need more calories per kg body weight than normal adult cats and a nutritionally balanced diet is crucial for their healthy growth and development.
• Be sure their food contains a full complement of protein, fat, vitamins and minerals in the right proportions for growth
• When you give weaned kittens their first taste of solid food, chop it finely – or if it is dry, soak it (of course, it’s best to use a food specially designed for kittens)
• Until kittens are a year old, give them as much as they want to eat - most kittens are unlikely to overeat
• Kittens (and adult cats) should have clean fresh water to drink at all times
• As kittens get older, feeding them milk can cause diarrhoea

The mother may continue to suckle and clean her kittens until they are six to seven weeks, but by this time, you’ll be providing them with 80% to 90% of their food requirements. At about eight weeks of age, kittens are ready to leave the mother. Your kittens should grow rapidly on a balanced, high-energy diet, and at about six months, they will reach almost 75% of their adult weight.

Orphaned kittens
If you can’t find a suitable foster mother for orphaned kittens, you’ll have to raise them yourself. Kittens that are less than six weeks old can be fed with WHISKAS Kitten milk.

• Kittens less than one week old need to be fed six times a day – or every four hours, day and night
• After they reach two weeks, the routine can be reduced to four meals a day, or every six hours
• Use either a syringe or a kitten feeding bottle - ask your vet to show you how to feed your kittens
• By the time the kittens are about three weeks old, they can lap milk substitute from a bowl, and start to eat kitten food

Keeping warm
Kittens must be kept warm – but not too hot. For heat sources, use heating lamps, hot water bottles wrapped in towels, or heating pads covered with blankets. The positioning of the heat source is important as kittens younger than about 10 days may have trouble crawling away if they get too hot.

Early toilet training
Kittens less than three weeks of age need to be stimulated to pass urine and faeces. Their mother would have licked them to clean them – you can achieve the same effect by gently rubbing a piece of warm, damp cotton wool (similar to her tongue) at the anus, genital area and abdominal wall.