Can You Give Baby Kittens Infant Formula

Kittens should eat about eight milliliters of formula per ounce of body weight a day.

Can you give baby kittens infant formula. It didn t seem to bother her at all. Instead make up the formula at twice the strength indicated for human babies. I think it was called prosobee or something like that. While a newborn kitten can digest lactose which is also found in a mother cat s milk kittens lose that ability shortly after they are weaned.

If you can t find a bunny nursing bottle at your local pet store purchase a nursing bottle with nipples designed for newborn kittens. The cornell book of cats says that human baby formula can be used if made up to double the normal strength although human baby formula is normally not nutritious enough for kittens. Homemade milk replacer recipes often feature ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen and can help you to get by in an emergency. Nursing kittens need formula if mom isn t around.

This means if the kitten weighs four ounces they should eat about 32 milliliters of formula total in a day so you can give eight milliliters of formula every four hours. We do not recommend using the other formulas for long term bottle feeding but they can be useful should you need to feed your kittens and can t find the ingredients for the homemade goat s milk formula. Because human baby formula is made from cow s milk it is high in lactose. Be aware that milk sold in cartons as cat milk is not suitable.

In an emergency you may be able to use powdered or concentrated human baby formula to sustain an orphaned kitten until you can get some regular feline milk replacer. You use it in much the same way you use infant formula in that you follow the directions on the packaging which guides you as to how many scoops to use to how much water. Kittens younger than 4 or 5 weeks need their mother s milk to thrive. Kitten milk replacement milk comes in a tub or drum and is a dry powder or liquid.

If you find young kittens that have been abandoned or whose mom isn t able to nurse them you ll need to bottle feed them formula yourself. Also we were donating things to our animal shelter a few years ago things like pet food old towels and blankets ect and they said that regular baby formula was fine for kittens to. We give it water now but the formula seemed fine for the kitten. For this reason a kitten or cat should also not be given cow s milk.