Kitten, 6 weeks old leaving stools in litter box

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Cats Up
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Kitten, 6 weeks old leaving stools in litter box

Post by Cats Up »

Hi, my name is Dave and I am new at kitten rearing, basically following mother cat, Mattie's lead. My question concerns her 3 kittens who apporx. 6 weeks old. All 3 of the kittens are very active and still breastfeeding. Mattie, has trained the kittens to use pee pads however over the past couple days one of the kittens has deposited dark brown stools in their play area. I thought I would assist Mattie weaning the kittens by introducing them to supplemental milk KMR approx. 1 oz per kitten. I am under the impression if the kittens are breastfeeding stools would not be an issue until they started on semi-solid food to begin>?

Comments/suggestions appreciated!
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Mollycat
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Re: Kitten, 6 weeks old leaving stools in litter box

Post by Mollycat »

You don't need to do anything at all with kittens' litter training, mum should deal with it completely.

She will also wean them and the best food for them is mother's milk until she is ready to start weaning them, which should be starting to happen around about now. They certainly do not need any kind of milk other than hers, unless for some reason she can't or won't feed them.

Just curious, how come you're unsure of their age?
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Lilith
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Re: Kitten, 6 weeks old leaving stools in litter box

Post by Lilith »

Yup, as Mollycat says, all is normal. You won't have seen stools before because Mamma will have dealt with them ... yes ... they eat them. Yuck! But once kittens start to be weaned Mother encourages them to use the litter tray - and that IS a good tip, puppy pads. It can be worrying when kittens eat litter, as they do when weaning. Also results tend to be errrm hit and miss at first, although one of my Siamese used to call her kittens into the tray with encouraging 'prrrr's' and scratchings.

Stools can be brown even if the kittens are on milk, but at weaning age, again agree with Mollycat, they will want meat - just mashed up kittenfood with a little warm water is fine. Raw beef mince sometimes sparks them off (and oh the mew-ew-ewing and doing!) but commercial foods are ok and the best balanced unless you're an expert re homemade (I'm not and my recycling bin's full of Felix cartons etc lol.) They're still getting plenty of milk from Mother; they may not be that interested in other sources.

All the best with the little dears - they sound to be doing fine :D
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