How To Go About Newborn Kitten Care?

If your cat has given birth to its first litter, it would be but natural if you are collecting as much newborn kitten care information as possible. You obviously would not know how and what to do once you see the cute little kittens all around the queening box. Though the cat herself would do plenty to take care of her litter, here is what you can do to help her.

Caring For The Newborn Kitten Litter

Whether your cat has given birth to a litter or you have brought a newborn kitten home, caring for them would involve the same procedure. Here is some information on new kitten care:

• The first thing you must do is to maintain a warm environment for the kitten. During the first few weeks, the kitten would not be able to maintain her bodily warmth. This is why it is important to help her uphold her body temperature. The kitten would usually snuggle to her mother for warmth. You too can help provide the right temperature by maintaining an 85 to 90 degree Fahrenheit temperature for the first 5-7 days. You could do so by keeping some well insulated heating pads near the cat and its newborn kittens. If you are using electric bulbs to heat up the room, make sure that they are suspended far away from the snooping noses of the cat and her kittens.
• Do not turn off the heating suddenly after the seventh day. Instead slowly reduce the temperature every few days so that by the end of the first month the kitten adapts to a 70 degree Fahrenheit natural environment temperature. The right temperature is very important for the kitten health, as too much chilling or extreme heat can result in serious illnesses or even death at times.
• The next newborn kitten care aspect is to provide it with a clean and healthy environment. The queening box should be thoroughly cleaned everyday. You could either use newspapers or easily washable blankets and sheets to drape the box. Also make sure that the bedding is clean and odor free. Even though your cat would make sure that she cleans up after the litter, then too you should wash the entire area and lay it with fresh sheets and blankets. The genitals of the litter are also frequently cleaned up by the cat herself, so you neednt worry about their elimination needs. Though, you do need to dispose off all all solid waste immediately and wash the blankets and sheets at least once in two days.
• Frequent monitoring is also very important to ensure proper kitten health. Weigh the kitten once everyday for the first few weeks. Maintain a record chart which would help you determine that each kitten is steadily gaining weight. Just in case a kitten isnt, take it to a veterinary doctor at the earliest.
• You could also do proper newborn kitten care by bathing it after every solid meal. Your kittens would stumble around for a few days after they open their eyes. This would make them very dirty especially if they fall upon their own food and mess themselves up. So make sure that they remain clean, bathe them every day.

The above might not be a comprehensive list of newborn kitten care activities but they definitely are the fundamentals of proper new kitten care.