How to Take Care of Newborn Kittens

"Hi! I am Dr. Adrienne Mulligan. I am the owner of Camp Verde Veterinary Clinic, and I am here today on behalf of expertvillage.com. I am here to speak to you about breeding cats. The other important aspects of helping your newborn kitten is, #1, to keep it warm; so you should have a heating pad out underneath it, and you should use towels to dry it and stimulate it. And you can really stimulate the lungs and the bellies, and you can stick your finger into their mouth and try to get them stimulated to suckle; and once they are vocalizing or moving or having mouth movements, then you want to get them onto to that mom’s nipple. Now it always helps to milk that nipple a little bit, and the first milk will look a little yellowish, because it is colostrums…very important for these kittens to get that colostrums; and so you want to get that little mouth onto that nipple and see that it stays there, and that they start suckling and getting that milk. And so you often have to help them do that, but that is the most important part, and when they start doing that and mom starts nuzzling them, then you pretty much home free."