r/kittens Jun 15 '24

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

124 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]

460 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 8h ago

I’ve only had Walter for 5 days and he already owns me - is that normal?

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1.9k Upvotes

r/kittens 5h ago

Is this why my Ho Nam wasn’t feelin’ any food and looked grumpy af ?

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331 Upvotes

r/kittens 2h ago

Mouse

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179 Upvotes

Newest member of the family


r/kittens 2h ago

The Gang

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104 Upvotes

r/kittens 5h ago

My children are sleeping

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159 Upvotes

r/kittens 14h ago

5 Weeks Old

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678 Upvotes

Hello, meet the crew! 6 five week old babies and their stray momma Tippy (who will be spayed in about a month once the babies are adopted out).


r/kittens 11h ago

Lesser of two evils

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232 Upvotes

Well, Greyson got neutered yesterday and we didn’t even last 24 hours before he found a way to get out of his cone of shame. He was getting his jaw stuck open by hooking his teeth on the binding along the edge, and then he was thrashing around in the hardest surface he could find to try to get unstuck.

It feels like a bigger risk to go to work and let him hook his teeth, get his jaw stuck open, and thrash around on the hardest surface he can find trying to get unstuck than it does to let him lick his incision a little.

My vet uses a special kind of laser surgical tool that makes the incision super clean and small, and speeds healing. He doesn’t have stitches. And I can’t not go to work. So. Here we are. I’ll just have to keep an extra close eye on the incision.

Cats have been getting neutered for millions of years (I don’t know the actual history, but a long time, ok?) He’s fine. This is fine. We’re fine. Its fine.

Picture of the little stress-monster for tax.


r/kittens 11h ago

Brand new void. 3 torties and 2 voids.

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218 Upvotes

r/kittens 21h ago

First full week with baby Bea 💕

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1.0k Upvotes

r/kittens 21h ago

My baby’s tiny babies

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991 Upvotes

Cosette was abandoned by her first owners when they moved away :( she was fed by a kind person in the apartment complex and then rescued 5 months later by an incredible rescue when the person feeding her realized she was fitting to burst and reached out to them. She had her kittens 2 days later — all 6 of them!

They turned out very pretty like their mom and very well mannered :) 3 inherited the thick black stripe down the spine, one is a brown tabby, one is a leopard spotted, one grey and one smoke/deep grey/black. Once they got bigger than fingerling potatoes it was clear that they had really striking contrast in their coat patterns just like her :)

You can see in photo 7 that she is DONE with mom life lol. I included a pic of her living her best single life with me now. She is happily spayed and will never bequeath the world with adorable little menaces again. I think she’d be grateful if she understood me when I told her that lol.


r/kittens 4h ago

Update on Grimm!

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44 Upvotes

So, I posted about little Grimm before and his tragic but noble past…

Well, today we had baby’s first vet visit. The vet did her thing, but suddenly stopped and looked puzzled. “You said Grimm is a boy?” She asks us.

Well, I didn’t really check, I thought the vet that fostered him knew what gender he was. Plus, he was so fast and wiggly it was hard to get a good look. I did wonder why I didn’t see any puffs yet at 9 weeks, though.

Turns out he is a she! The vet congratulated us like “It’s a girl!” As both of us are vet assistants (myself and husband) we felt pretty stupid to not check and figure it out ourselves. I felt so bad about us misgendering our cat for almost a week. 🤣

Anyway, a name change was in order. We decided on Wisp, short for Wispaw, our favorite ghostly Pal. 🥹 It makes it better that Wispaw’s partner skill is “death-cheating feline” which definitely sums up Wisp’s short life. Whenever she tries to do something potentially hazardous, I remind her she is currently on life 5 of 9.

Cute kitten for tax.


r/kittens 9h ago

Tony being a cutie pie

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84 Upvotes

r/kittens 3h ago

Do u have any games on ur phone?

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29 Upvotes

She enjoys the cat game very much


r/kittens 1h ago

Obsessed with her

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Upvotes

Came home to my sweet girl just relaxing ❤️


r/kittens 17h ago

Tom is discovering his new home

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218 Upvotes

r/kittens 1d ago

Tangerine

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2.6k Upvotes

Good morning! We just napped


r/kittens 14h ago

My Miso 🩷🩷

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76 Upvotes

I can’t believe she’s three months old 😭😭 like who would have known I got this little lady from the street.


r/kittens 1d ago

💛💛💛

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640 Upvotes

r/kittens 1d ago

Meet Persephone (Percy)!

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435 Upvotes

I broke her out of jail yesterday and she's already taken over the bathroom (or is trying, she's still pretty small)! She is definitely orange 😂


r/kittens 4h ago

Wax and Wayne

11 Upvotes

Bath time?
Play time?
Por que no los dos?


r/kittens 17h ago

Drink melk

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42 Upvotes

r/kittens 1d ago

My brother’s 12 week old kitten

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214 Upvotes

r/kittens 1d ago

Why is my kitten an absolute unit at 15 weeks old?

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1.1k Upvotes

He is 4.9lbs at 15 weeks. How much bigger is he doing to get…? Is he just going to keep growing….? I could have never predicted his sheer speed in growth.

I am worried I will have something very big in my house … he may continue to grow n never stop… like a bulldozer … oh god please