Zimbabwe Seven

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 23 2008 | By: zimbabwe7

Dear Readers,

 Agy wrote into us via the blog requesting assistance & advice on hand raising two week old serval kittens. We have posted the response here as well for the benefit of all our readers.

Hi Agy,

Thanks so much for referring to us – hopefully this information we are going to give you can help with your kittens. Please remember that we have adapted to what is locally available, so if you have any questions with regards to ingredients please let us know. Below is a milk formula that we have used :

150 mls long life sterilized milk
2 tablespoons full cream powder milk
vits & minerals (A children’s multivitamin such as vidaylin or pentavite – liquid form. Alternatively, any good cat multivit that a vet can recommend) at a ratio of 1 teaspoon per complete formula mix.
20 mls of fish water.

The fish water is something that we have come to discover at the Trust that gives the kittens an overall boost and helps with essential oils and minerals. You can use any fresh water fish, such as tilapia. You boil a complete fresh fish (including the gut content) in a pot of water that just covers the fish. The process takes a couple of hours, the water will take on a slightly gelatinous texture. This is what is used as fish water.

Milk temperature: The milk must be fed at the right temperature, too cold and the kittens will not feed comfortably. Too hot and obviously they will burn – test on the inside of the wrist, if it feels slightly warm on the wrist it should be fine.

Frequency of feeding: At two weeks old some of the hand raised kittens at the Trust were drinking between 80 – 100ml of milk daily, fed at intervals of 2 – 3 hours at a time, taking in anywhere between 2ml to 10ml at a feed. One sign to watch for is a very vocal kitten – if they are mewing a lot they are hungry or there is a problem.

Below is a picture of one of our kittens that was raised by his mother at two weeks of age – it gives you a size comparison.

During the feeding process make sure you stimulate the kittens to urinate and defecate, using warm damp cotton wool works but sometimes even this may be a bit abrasive. Watch for red and hot anus – this indicates that it is sore!

Weaning
If you are hand raising keep the youngster on milk for as long as they want to drink it. Up to five months. As soon as the teeth start to cut through introduce lean minced meat and chicken breast. If the kittens are lapping well off a plate you can mix a little of the meat with the milk to introduce them to the taste. You will find as soon as the solids are introduced the kitten will naturally wean him or herself off the milk.

We hope this information gets you off to a good start – please do not hesitate to contact us if you have problems, we would also love to hear of your progress with the kittens and how you acquired them?