Newborn kittens: how to care for them and what is normal each week
If the mother is healthy and looks after her litter well, she does almost all the work. Your part is to give her peace and good food, keep the nest clean and warm, and above all keep watch: a newborn kitten can go downhill within hours, and kitchen scales are the tool that warns you first.
The first week
A kitten is born with its eyes and ears closed, no teeth and no ability to regulate its own temperature. It weighs between 90 and 110 g (about 3 to 4 oz), spends almost all day sleeping or suckling, and finds its mother by smell and warmth. It sleeps with little twitches and jerks: these are normal and part of its development. The stump of the umbilical cord dries up and drops off by itself in the first few days; don’t touch it or pull it. Its mother licks it constantly, and not just to clean it: licking its belly and genital area stimulates it to wee and poo, something kittens cannot do on their own for the first three weeks.
From the second to the fourth week
Between seven and fourteen days they open their eyes, which are blue at first in every kitten; their final colour appears weeks later. At around two weeks the ear canals open and they start reacting to sounds. At three weeks they stand up, take their first wobbly steps and begin teething. In the fourth week they walk confidently, play with their littermates, wander over to their mother’s bowl, and some start to take an interest in the litter tray. This is also when their sensitive period for socialisation begins, during which gentle, brief handling by several people will make them trust humans for life.
Weight, the most reliable sign
Weigh each kitten once a day, at the same time, on kitchen scales. To tell them apart if they look alike, you can put a dab of non-toxic nail varnish on one claw or tie a loose strand of wool round the neck as a collar, which you check every day. A healthy kitten gains 10 to 15 g (about half an ounce) a day and usually doubles its birth weight in one to two weeks. It is normal to lose a little on the first day, but from the second or third day the weight has to go up. A kitten that stalls for two days running or loses weight needs a vet, even if it seems fine: in newborns, the scales warn you long before any symptom does.
A warm nest
Kittens cannot regulate their temperature properly until three or four weeks, and cold is one of the main causes of death in the first few days. With the mother there, she keeps them warm, but the room should be warm too, around 24 to 27 °C (75 to 81 °F), free of draughts, with the nest insulated from the cold floor. If you add a heat source, make it gentle and only under part of the box, so they can move away if they get too hot. A kitten that has strayed from the group and feels cold to the touch, especially in the mouth and paw pads, needs warming up gradually before anything else, and it must never be fed while it is cold.
What the mother needs
Nursing is the most energy-hungry time of a cat’s life: with a large litter she may need two or three times what she ate before. Keep her on good-quality kitten food available at all times, plus some wet food, fresh water always and the litter tray close to the nest, because she will not want to stray far. Don’t disturb her more than necessary: go into the room only to clean, top up and weigh, and keep other animals and visitors away during the first week. A mother who feels threatened may move the kittens again and again, or neglect them. If she moves them once, help her by taking the nest there.
Keeping the nest clean
Change the towels or pads when they are soiled, ideally while the mother is out eating, and without using strongly scented products, which can confuse her. Don’t bath the kittens: if one gets dirty, clean it with a cloth dampened in lukewarm water and dry it thoroughly straight away. Check that their eyes are clean, that none has diarrhoea, that the belly button area is not red or swollen and that none has fleas, because in newborns a heavy infestation can cause anaemia. If you see fleas, don’t use any adult flea treatment: ask the vet, who will tell you what is safe at that age and how to treat the mother and the surroundings as well.
Warning signs
Take the kitten to the vet the same day if it cries non-stop or, on the contrary, is limp and not moving; if it won’t suckle or lets go straight away; if it is cold and doesn’t pick up; if it loses weight or doesn’t gain; if it has diarrhoea, which in such a tiny animal dehydrates it within hours; if it breathes noisily or milk comes out of its nose; if its eyelids are swollen with pus before its eyes have opened; or if the mother keeps pushing it away from the group. Sometimes a kitten fades for no apparent reason in its first weeks; vets call this fading kitten syndrome, and the only chance of saving it is to act very early. If in doubt, don’t wait until the next day.
When the litter is large or the mother is not enough
With six or eight kittens, the mother may not have milk for them all, and the smallest end up without a nipple. If one is not gaining weight, put it on the back nipples yourself, which tend to have more milk, and if that is not enough, top up with a bottle of kitten milk replacer, never cow’s milk, without taking it away from its mother. In some breeds, such as the British Shorthair or the Devon Rex, there is a problem called neonatal isoerythrolysis: if the mother is blood type B and the kittens are type A, her colostrum can destroy the kittens’ red blood cells. That is why reputable breeders know their cats’ blood groups; if you have any doubts, raise it with your vet before the birth.
Vet, worming and vaccinations
A check-up for the mother and litter in the first few days helps catch cleft palates, hernias or kittens that are not thriving in good time. The first worming is usually done from two or three weeks and repeated on the schedule your vet sets, with products suited to their weight. Vaccinations start at around eight weeks, because before then the antibodies they get from their mother through the colostrum interfere with them. If the mother was not vaccinated or you don’t know her history, the vet may bring the first jab forward a little. Before the kittens go to their new homes they must be microchipped, as the law in Spain requires.
Handle them, but little and well
In the first week, keep handling to a minimum: weigh them, check they are fine and put them back. From the second week, picking up each kitten for a few minutes a day, gently and by several calm people, is one of the best things you can do for their future, because you are making the most of their socialisation window. Hold the kitten well supported, never by the scruff, let it sniff you, stroke it and return it to its mother before it complains. Children can join in sitting on the floor, always with an adult. That way, when they reach their new homes, they will be kittens that link human hands with something pleasant.
With a healthy mother, your job is to keep watch: weigh each kitten daily (they should gain 10 to 15 g a day), keep the nest warm and clean, feed the mother well and don’t disturb her. A kitten that is not gaining weight, is cold, won’t suckle or has diarrhoea needs a vet that same day.
Educational content from Michipedia, translated from the Spanish original. It does not replace the advice of a vet or a feline behaviour specialist. Every cat is an individual.