Nursing Orphaned Kittens

For the first couple of weeks after birth, kittens are completely dependent on their mother for survival. This means as much as you want to have a hand in raising the kittens, the best course of action is to take care of the mother. For the next few weeks, she will do all the rest herself, and that includes nursing the kittens, cleaning them, helping them go to the loo etc.

A surprisingly frequent question I get asked a lot, is what happens if the mother cat is introduced kittens not of her own?

Provided that the kittens are mostly scent free from their biological mother, and, they are sufficiently young, the mother cat is most likely going to take them as her own and start nursing them too. Infact, we've seen mother cat's nurse all kinds of animals from baby squirrels, foxes, skunks, puppies and even ducklings.

Sometimes finding a mother cat is absolutely necessary, particularly when a mother cat has babies for the first time and is more incompetent at being a mother.

To make sure the mother continues to nurse the foreign kittens, you must make sure that she is sufficiently fed such that she feels taking them in will not threaten her own survival, or the survival of her own kittens. Provided you do this, orphaned kittens will most likely be adopted by the mother and can save you from hand rearing the kittens yourself!