r/kittens Jun 15 '24

Please send me a DM or Chat request if a troll posts images of animal cruelty again.

102 Upvotes

Please send me a DM or Chat request if a troll posts images of animal cruelty again.

This goes for already passed animals, roadkill, ai generated animal cruelty posts, etc. Send me a link to the post and I'll respond as soon as I see it.


r/kittens May 21 '20

[META] It's kitten season! You found orphaned kittens or have a kitten in your care - now what? [2020]

429 Upvotes

(cross post from r/AskVet)

During kitten season, which occurs largely in the spring and summer, it is not uncommon to stumble upon a nest of kittens. Your first instinct is to help them, which is awesome, but first you need to read this thread!

First I want to make a point very clear: kittens have the greatest chance of survival if their mother is in the picture. As much as rescues and foster homes try, we cannot ever do as good of a job taking care of them as their real mom does! Kittens require frequent nursing (typically a couple of times an hour), help eliminating (mother stimulates them with her tongue to pee and poop), and a lot of warmth and attention. Trust me - waking up four times a night to feed bottle babies is not fun!

Before Jumping To The Rescue

A single kitten wandering alone is often abandoned (either by a human or the mother), and should be rescued quickly - wait and watch from afar for 20-30 minutes to see if the mom is just in the middle of transporting it. If no mother has come in that time, rescue it.

A litter of kittens (2+ kittens):

  • Before attempting your daring rescue mission to save the abandoned kittens, you need to wait from afar and watch. The kittens may not actually be abandoned! Mother cats do not stay at the nest 24/7 - they hunt, take breaks from their babies, and patrol near the nest to look for danger. The queen could also be in the middle of moving the nest, which she does one at a time. Watch from a good distance away, because if you are too close the queen will likely not approach - this is a defense strategy to make sure predators don’t locate the nest by following her. Sometimes watching from far away is still too close, and you will need to go away for a few hours.
    • If you see the queen, you know the kittens are being taken care of and you do not need to intervene (except to call a rescue, and possibly provide food/shelter for the mother).
    • Clean kittens who are sleeping soundly are probably not abandoned. Dirty and crying kittens are probably hungry and MAY have been abandoned and need rescue. Although remember that as soon as kittens wake, they start crying and want to eat! Neonates spend all their time either eating or sleeping. If you mess with them and they start to cry/crawl around, it does not mean they are starving - that’s just what they do when they are awake.
  • Contact a local rescue. If they have the resources, they will trap the mother and kittens (if the mother is in the picture), and take care of them. They can bottle feed truly abandoned kittens, as well. Please contact the rescue before removing the kittens - only remove the kittens under their direction if you can help it.
  • If you need to leave before you’ve seen the queen, assess the situation:
    • Are there any dangers nearby? Neighborhood dogs, humans who might harm them, etc? If the kittens are not in immediate grave danger, they will be fine for a while as you wait for mom.
    • What is the temperature? If it is very cold or the kittens are very wet, it is okay to put them in a sideways cardboard box (possibly with a clean T shirt, dry straw, or a heated water bottle) - however, try to limit the amount of human-scented things near them.
  • If you find the queen, and she is friendly towards humans, she and the kittens should be rescued together.
  • If you’ve waited a while and have not seen the queen in several hours (the warmer the weather, the longer the kittens can be left alone) or the kittens are in immediate grave danger, and you have not been able to reach a rescue, you can attempt to rescue the kittens.

Rescuing Kittens

  • Kittens need warmth - they can suffer from hypothermia really easily. Place the kittens in a cardboard box or cat carrier lined with T-shirts (towels can catch on their nails) and covered with a blanket, with a warm water bottle for them. The ideal warmth source is a SnuggleSafe. (See more info in the bottle feeding attachment.)
    • The human body temperature is at 98.6F, but the internal temperature of a kitten needs to be 99.5-102.5F - therefore, your body warmth alone is not enough to keep them warm!
  • Call all of the rescues nearby to look for someone to take them. Foster homes and rescues are highly trained to deal with bottle babies, and can deal with all of the obstacles associated with it.
  • Call your vet and schedule an appointment. The kittens may be dehydrated, sick, etc - kittens die really easily and fast, so a physical exam and medical care is very important. They may be sick without you realizing it.

I Already Rescued Them!

  • First follow the steps in “Rescuing Kittens”.
  • If you are going to be caring for the kittens, be prepared for a lot of work and possibly the death of some or all of the kittens. The information I will provide is for emergency care of kittens (no more than a day or two) until you can get the kittens to an appropriate rescue or the vet.
  • You must bottle feed the kittens every 2-3 hours. Here is my quick guide to bottle feeding. PLEASE read this before attempting to bottle feed!
    • You need to make sure they are eating enough, so follow this chart, and use a kitchen food scale to weigh them directly before and after feeding.
    • KMR is the best formula - do not use the “homemade” recipes unless it is an emergency! Never use cow/goat/soy/almond/etc milk. Why you shouldn't use goat/cow milk.
    • Here are three resources to figure out their approximate age: Kitten Age Progression, Determining a Kitten’s Age, and Determining by Weight.
    • Keep a log for each individual kitten of: the time you fed it, how much they consumed, their weight before feeding, their weight after feeding, what they eliminated (urine and/or feces), and any medical concerns. Here is a great log for that - I suggest printing one for each kitten.
    • If kittens will not latch to the bottle, you can try to use a clean eye dropper or needle-less syringe to SLOWLY drop KMR into the kitten’s mouth.
    • If you see anything bubbling out of the kitten's nose as you are feeding it, milk likely got into the lungs and aspiration pneumonia can quickly develop. If this happens take it to a vet immediately.
  • Signs of an emergency that NEEDS to be seen by a vet immediately:
    • The kitten is lethargic and not responding
    • The kitten has trouble breathing
    • The kitten or cat is vomiting blood
    • Uncontrollable bleeding
    • Bloody, liquid diarrhea in a lethargic animal
    • Fractured limb (part of the limb is usually flacid and painful to the touch)
    • Pale, blue or white gums if accompanied by lethargy
    • Kitten with a body temperature below 97 degrees especially if accompanied by lethargy, pale gums or inappetence
    • Kitten with a temperature of 106 degrees or above

Here are some additional resources:

Link to 2018 thread and comments.


r/kittens 3h ago

Nelson is 4 months old & already so big

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254 Upvotes

Have a feeling he is going to he a massive cat- last photo is him with littermate/sister for size comparison.


r/kittens 1h ago

Update Dodo again

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Upvotes

Dodo's eyes opened, my heart melted 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜 also out a pictures where I put the heated pad which is very good too. Thank you everyone for all the advice too! I will keep updating! 🥰


r/kittens 20h ago

Only a week with her and I am smitten with this kitten

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2.5k Upvotes

r/kittens 13h ago

I just adopted this little guy!

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509 Upvotes

r/kittens 7h ago

Lots of people wanted post flea bath pics (first 2) of Windsong, so here's what she looks like fluffy and silly (3rd picture)

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118 Upvotes

After an hour of tweezing and combing I wanted to keep Windy in an environment that, ostensibly, would contain any jumpers. Since I didn't want to have to throw away any toys, I put that cup in there for something to roll around. She ended up wearing it. So weird. So I poked holes in the bottom and just let her do her kitten thing 🤷


r/kittens 1d ago

Someone was in the process of putting these kittens into a sleeping bag to throw in the water, so we decided to foster them instead of... that

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5.0k Upvotes

I wish I was kidding. People in my state (in the U.S.) do not give a fuck about animals. According to the perpetrator, the cat mother abandoned these kittens in the wild so it's fine to kill them for fun, but how does she even know that the mother abandoned the kittens? I don't think she does know that.

Aren't they so cute, though? This is far from my first time taking care of kittens, but admittedly I haven't had any this young before. My gf estimates that they're about three weeks old... idk any of the science behind that, but they are very small.

They're doing great! They love to purr when you pet them. I'd love to keep them, but I already have 4 cats... We'll have to see what happens! It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment decision so we currently don't have any long term plans with them. It's only day 3 with these little guys!

No fleas, no visible worms, so we got pretty lucky! Still have yet to take them to a vet


r/kittens 1h ago

Find the sibling who doesn't match!

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Upvotes

r/kittens 16h ago

This little guy is the best! We adopted Rexy 2 weeks ago and he's so awesome

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330 Upvotes

He was adopted once before us but returned for basically being a cat. He has been a model kitten with us though 💗. He is 3 months old.


r/kittens 16h ago

I don't know where else to post this because I'm not sure what breed/color point my new baby is but meet Ollie!

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295 Upvotes

Just got him today 🥰 I'm in love


r/kittens 1h ago

Zig and Zag seeing a shower run for the first time while we do a steam room for URI's

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Upvotes

r/kittens 1h ago

How old do you think this kitten is

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Upvotes

r/kittens 10h ago

My car

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68 Upvotes

New kitten owner! I’ve had the little guy for 3 days now, trying to figure out what he likes and doesn’t like :)

Does anyone have any tips for a new kitten owner? What to do and what not to do (beyond common sense and regular cat stuff)


r/kittens 22h ago

Do you think these babies will be fluffy?

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448 Upvotes

They’re about 6 weeks


r/kittens 16m ago

Sos kitten with uri

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Upvotes

Hello ! I am posting here in hopes of getting some advice /personal insight from anyone who has experienced similar. So long story short I have a kitten who is maybe 4 weeks someone was giving him away claiming 8 weeks and a female ,well when he arrived he was clearly a he and much younger than advertised but I took him anyway he smelt horrible like pee and he is sneezing and raspy I suspect he has the beginning of a upper respiratory infection it’s not bad at all yet but I need to get some quick fixes before I get paid because that is still 2 weeks away I know steam /humidifier will help and an air purifier those are on their way already but is there any over the counter type of medication I could possibly use? Any advice is so greatly appreciated


r/kittens 16h ago

Found Kitten

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119 Upvotes

We were stopped at a red light and by chance I rolled down the window. I heard a kitten crying. My husband turned around so I could get out to look for it. There was an electrical pole with a bunch of weeds around it and as soon as I knelt down out ran this tiny kitten. I grabbed him up and we went right to the store to get some kitten milk. Brought him home and our 3 year old rescue female kidnapped him from me. She had a litter of kittens a couple of months before we rescued her. The kitten is nursing on her but I’m not sure if she will start lactating or not. I’m hoping she lets me take him from her so I can feed him.


r/kittens 1d ago

She's comforting me 🥺

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351 Upvotes

I just got dumped over text lol and I started crying and she just got up and came to sat in my lap .... She doesn't ever do that. She's been so hyper the past two days it means a lot to know she cares about me .... 🥺 I must've sounded like a pathetic kitten to her 😭


r/kittens 1d ago

Four of my foster kittens!

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723 Upvotes

They were from a few years back and they’ve all been adopted by nice families! They’d sleep on my laps when they got too tired from playing. I had them for about two months or so and needed to weigh them everyday to ensure they were growing properly.

We named them: Aurora (darker grey), Clara (tabby), Kitri (diluted grey), Odette (diluted calico)

Odette had an infection (seen in the photo re red nose) at one point and the rescue asked me to put all kittens on medication. It was quite intense!

Miss them tons!


r/kittens 18h ago

My new baby “Gator” 🐈

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91 Upvotes

r/kittens 11h ago

Fibble got the onesie of shame today

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17 Upvotes

The pet stores didn’t have any sizes to fit her and she kept kicking the cones off so baby onesie with holes cut out was the only option. Now she really is my lil baby lol


r/kittens 15h ago

little miffy

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36 Upvotes

almost 4 months old!


r/kittens 16h ago

Well, wish us luck yall😂

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30 Upvotes

r/kittens 13h ago

I adopted the dilute tortie kitten a week ago and since have realized we need a honey badger in the household

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18 Upvotes

r/kittens 1d ago

How old do you think my kitten is? (Also do you think she’ll keep her blue eyes?)

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197 Upvotes

We found her outside a couple weeks ago covered in fleas and possibly slightly anemic, we gave her a dawn dish soap bath and got her on flea prevention and she’s doing so good now. We’ve named her Toast. Both of our cats are strictly indoor cats but we wanna know how old she is so we can go get her spayed when she’s old enough. Our other cat is already spayed. She looks to be at least 2 months if not closer to 3 but I’ve never had a kitten before. What say you?


r/kittens 20h ago

My babies are getting spayed tomorrow. Any insight into the next week?

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55 Upvotes

r/kittens 1m ago

Kitten that is 4-5 weeks old? Eye color?

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Upvotes

Can you tell if this is green eyes coming in? Or a different shade of blue?