Kitten rescue...

[jessmarimba]

I know, I know. I have a problem. This little gal showed up in my window this morning. I think she's about 5-6 weeks old. Plenty stable on her feet, jumped to the windowsill by herself, but pretty tiny. Still fits in one hand (barely).

I'm going to take her to the Denver Dumb Friends League tomorrow, when they're open, but I have no idea what to do for a cat that small for now. Can it eat kitten food? Or do I need to get some kind of kitten-milk at the pet store?

Have seen no sign of a mom or other kittens. It's not at all afraid of me, either, so I don't know if it was dumped. No idea why it came here, either, except that my dummycat sits in the window and talks to other cats all day.

So, advice? I'm running to the pet store soon.

[Eden]

How blue are her eyes? That can give you a clue about her age. My boy kitty was about 7-9 weeks when we found him and his were just starting to change over from blue to yellow. He was eating canned food just fine at that time and for the week before (we and our neighbors were putting out food for a few days/nights to try to catch him)

- at that age he was tiny... he definitely fit all in one of my small hands.. We also saw no other kittens and no mama, but the vet said that he was around the age that they start to get kicked out. We thought maybe he'd been lost in a nest move, he was definitely wild. He was absolutely sure we were going to eat him for a day or two. (now he is the biggest mama's boy ever.... I should have named him velcro, because he sticks to me like no other cat I've ever had)

[jessmarimba]

Hmm. Brown already. But the outside kittens are 3 months old and this one looks way smaller than they did a month ago. Maybe it's the runt...looks healthy at least. So adult canned food is ok until tomorrow?

[jessmarimba]

This one is remarkably friendly and doesn't seem to have been around a feral community (one of the tomcats had backed it into a trash can and it seemed happy to be rescued). It sits in my lap and purrs. Unfortunately I have too many already!

[Eden]

Sounds like a cutie... if her eyes are already completely turned she's older than 9 weeks, so canned food should be totally fine. Maybe she's just destined to be little.

[smilingcat]

Another good indication of age is the ear. How much of the ear has unfolded. Between that and the eye you can guess pretty well of their age. I don't remember exactly the amount of unfurled ear to weeks in age.

If it managed to jump to your window sill it may be older than you think.

Do give her high protein food. We mix kitten "milk" formula with wet food for kitten then gradually decrease the kitten "milk" formula gradually. Milk formula needs to be at the consistency per instruction on the container.

At 5-6weeks they should be mostly on wet kitten food.