Rise and shine!
It's 5am and time to feed the babies! They haven't eaten since 8pm so they're ready for their food!
So, how do you know how often you need to feed your babies? And how much?
The amount you feed your kitten is a constant: they need to eat 5% of their weight per feeding.
(The best way to guarantee they eat enough is to weigh them both before and after each feeding.)
A newborn kitten with a mother around will nurse almost constantly. Due to their size and weight they eat very little at a time, usually only 5-6 milliliters of milk. Their little tummies can't hold any more than that so you need to constantly be giving them chances to eat.
A bottle baby needs to be fed every 2-3 hours.
Once the kittens have their first set of teeth grow in it's time to switch them to syringe gruel. Syringe gruel kittens should always be encouraged to eat their gruel off of a plate first. Most kittens take a while to figure out just exactly how that works.
Syringe gruel kittens need to be fed every 4-5 hours.
Teaching the kittens to eat on their own is a long and messy process! New gruel babies will practically swim through the food on their plate while they mash their whole face into the food. I like to put my babies in a big plastic bin with their plate of food so I can easily clean up the mess afterwards.
Gruel kittens need to be given fresh hot gruel every 7-8 hours.
During all stages of learning to eat you should provide a small bowl of each water, crunchies, and gruel. Even if your kitten ignores them it is important to have them available. Clean out the bowls at least once every 8 hours to make sure bacteria doesn't start to gather and breed.
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