Newborn cat
All that you need to know
Neonatal period is often defined as the 4 first weeks of a kitten life. There are other authors that divide this period into neonatal, transitional and socialisation. During this period these animals are really fragile and have peculiar characteristics. Queens usually know what to do and how to rise a newborn. But, unfortunately, there are orphan kittens too.
In this article I will focus on the neonatal period, but the socialisation part you can already check in one of our posts: kitten socialisation.
Characteristics of the newborn:
- Body temperature: Newborns cannot regulate the body temperature efficiently and they lack of shiver reflex, so hypothermia is an easy situation that we need to avoid. We need to keep they warm.
- Suckle reflex: Neonates should have strong suckle reflex, if this is not present or weak, may indicate health problems and the animal may need a feeding tube. The suckling reflex usually disappears after approximately 20 days (1).
- Weight: Normal kitten should gain 10–15g/day, and double their birth weight before the 2nd week. If the kitten is not gaining all the weight that should, it may be related with the kitten itself, but it can also indicate other problems, for example: that is the weakest of the siblings, that the mum has problems in the mammary glands… Supplementation using cat’s formula should be started as soon as possible.
- Voluntary elimination: it starts at 3 weeks of age. During the first 3 weeks if they are with the mum, she is going to stimulate them to urinate and defecate, but if they are orphans, it is the caregiver’s job to stimulate them with an anogenital massage after feeding. The anogenital reflex disappears between 23 and 39 days.
- Senses: after birth only tactile, flavour and olfactory senses are active, hearing will appear at 5 days (but does not orient to sounds until approx. 2 weeks old) and sight will start progressively improving after opening the eyes at 7–10 days of life.
- Grooming: self-grooming begins at approximately 2 weeks of age, but the kitten’s efforts are clumsy and incomplete. Again, is the mum’s job or the caregiver to keep them clean.
- Social relationship: at 4 weeks the kitten begins to move away from the nest and develops social relationships with people and other animals in its environment. You can check our kitten socialisation post.
- Solid food: At 4 weeks weaning begins, and kittens begin to eat solid foods. By 7 to 8 weeks weaning is largely completed, although suckling may continue intermittently for several more weeks (2,3).
If you find an orphan cat, first of all contact your vet or the nearest shelter to see if they have another queen nursing. Queens can rise other queens’ kittens. If there is not one, check if there is somebody raising a litter. Cats shouldn’t be raised without siblings or other cats if is possible. For example studies said: Communal nesting results in kittens leaving the nest earlier: 20 days compared with 30 days for kittens raised in single-litter nests (4).. Or Kittens that were hand raised from 2 weeks of age were more fearful and aggressive (toward people and other cats) were more sensitive to novel stimuli, learned poorly, and developed poor social and parenting skills (5,6).
If none of this is possible and you want to hand raise the kitten, use this guide
to hand-raise orphan kittens.
Do you need professional help with your cat? Check our website.
You can join our instagram community to learn even more about cats :)
References:
1. Kovach JK, Kling A: Mechanisms of neonate sucking behaviour in the kitten, Anim Behav 15:91, 1967.
2. Bateson P: Behavioural development in the cat. In Turner D,Bateson P, editors: The domestic cat: the biology of its behaviour, ed 2, Cambridge, 2000, Cambridge University Press, p 9
3. Martin P: An experimental study of weaning in the domestic cat, Behavior 99:221, 1986.
4. Feldman H: Maternal care and differences in the use of nests in the domestic cat, Anim Behav 45:13, 1993.
5. Mellen J: Effects of early rearing experience on subsequent adult sexual behavior using domestic cats (Felis catus) as a model for exotic small felids, Zoo Biol 11:17, 1992.
6. Seitz PFD: Infantile experience and adult behavior in animal sub- jects: II. Age of separation from the mother and adult behavior in the cat, Psychosom Med 21:353, 1959.
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Today I want to introduce this wide topic, I will cover the main causes of a cat biting you and how can we prevent it from happening. There are many causes of a cat biting you, you need to ask yourself why? (see summary pictures below) 🔸Attention seeking 🔸Inappropriate or predatory play 🔸Associated with petting 🔸Disease or pain related 🔸Redirected aggression 🔸Anxiety/fear or phobia related
Hello Catlover! You wanted a post about homemade diets (including BARF, raw, cooked...) and I tried to avoid it, because I don't have experience with this kind of food; but I'm here to help you understand cats and their needs, so there we go.
BARF means Biologically Appropriate Raw Food, and it was proposed in 1993 by the veterinarian Ian Billinghurst . But I would like to include as alternative diets, those homemade (including cooked and raw meat sources). 🥩In the lasts years, the interest for this kind of diets is growing because of some potential benefits to our furry friends, such as healthier coats and skin, cleaner teeth, reduced faecal odour, etc. and the aim to move to a more natural diet. Although changes may be anecdotally reported by pet owners and veterinarians, potential health benefits have not undergone scientific evaluation (1). Hopefully, as it is a growing practice, further studies will come soon.
😈But not everything is good from BARF diets or Homemade diets, there are many potential risks: 🦴Nutritional concerns: Poor balanced commercial diets of raw food (2, 3). ⚠️Safety risks: risks of contamination with pathogens, such as salmonella, and many others (1, 4, 5). Shedding of these organisms by pets is a risk factor for infection of humans (zoonosis), especially those with immunity problems, elderly people or children and pregnant women (1) 🛑Other risks from diets containing bones: fractured teeth and gastrointestinal injury.
✳️Cooking destroys potential pathogens, but also some nutrients from the food! Alternative diets with cooked meat will ALWAYS need supplementation.
✅If you decide to feed your pet an alternative diet based on meat and bones, do it right: - Always consult with a nutritionist or veterinary nutritionist for a personalised balanced diet according to your cat's lifestyle, life stage and requirements. - Use products intended for human consumption; if possible, use food from your region (Km0 or proximity food). - Hygiene is extremely important when feeding raw food! Wash your hands, surfaces, knives, food bowls, etc. before and after touching the food. - Freezing food can kill some parasites, but it doesn't kill bacteria (it only stops the growing): cooking the food kills pathogens, but it also destroys nutrients and vitamins! If you cook it, you will always need supplementation! ❗️Although AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) doesn't recommend it ; and recently in the UK, cats with TUBERCULOSIS from eating raw food have been reported! I’d love❤️ your feedback about this polemic post! What do you feed your cats? Let me know in comments! Do you know anyone feeding their cats “alternative diets”? share the post! Please leave all the questions in comments, and everybody can see the answer ☺️ References: 1.Freeman LM, et al. Current knowledge about the risks and benefits of raw meat–based diets for dogs and cats J Am Vet Med Assoc 2013, Vol. 243, 11: 1549-1558 2. Sarah A. Wilson et al. (2019) Evaluation of the nutritional adequacy of recipes for home-prepared maintenance diets for cats. J Am Vet Med Assoc 254:10, 1172-1179. Online publication date: 30-Apr-2019. 3. Freeman LM, Michel KE. Evaluation of raw food diets (Erratum published in J Am Vet Med Assoc 2001; 218:1716). J Am Vet Med Assoc 2001; 218: 705–709. 4. KuKanich KS. Update on Salmonella spp contamination of pet food, treats, and nutritional products and safe feeding recommendations. J Am Vet Med Assoc 2011; 238: 1430–1434. 5. LeJeune JT, Hancock DD. Public health concerns associated with feeding raw meat diets to dogs. J Am Vet Med Assoc 2001; 219: 1222–1225. If you want to know more about feline nutrition you can have a look at this posts: - What's best wet or dry food? - How to choose the right wet food for your cat? or the right diet for strict carnivores - How much should I feed my cat? - How do you feed your cat ? - Senior cat diet or kittens and food - Choosing a cat feeder
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I'd like to approach to toxoplasmosis disease because this one can affect cats and humans. Unfortunately, I've found myself many times in the situation where one of my clients wants to get pregnant or is already pregnant and their doctor says: "Get rid of your cat". Do you know that you can acquire toxoplasmosis without having a cat? and even being vegan? Before reaching this point, I need to make you understand how this toxoplasmosis works (have a look to the picture above). Toxoplasmosis is a disease caused by Toxoplasma gondii, an intracellular obligate parasite (coccidian) (1). The cat is the definitive host, it means, that even that this parasite can survive inside other animals (included human being), it only will be able to reproduce (sexually) inside the cat. That's why when we think about toxoplasmosis, we relate this disease with cats. But how can a cat acquire Toxoplasmosis ? There are two different ways: (To understand better, check the image) - Eating contaminated meat with Toxoplasma cysts (mice, rats, rabbits…) - Eating directly the "eggs" (oocysts) when grooming another infected cat or eating from contaminated surfaces. (When a cat is already infected, will get reinfected grooming itself). How is toxoplasmosis in cats? In healthy adult cats the clinical signs of infection are uncommon (2). Cats that develop clinical disease often have an episodic course with vague signs (3), that will depend on the body system affected. This disease can be riskier (even fatal) in a kitten or in a combination of other diseases such as FeLV, FIV, FIP… When we treat infected cats, our main goal is to reduce the shedding of oocysts and to control the clinical signs. But unfortunately, there is no drug to clear all the tissue cysts, so cats can remain infected for life (that is not the same as infectious). Now that we understand the disease, let's go to the main point: How can a human become infected with toxoplasmosis? Let's check again the image of the "life cycle of Toxoplasma gondii". A human can be infected eating raw meat, raw vegetables, drinking water or from a cat … And the only "risky" moment is the first time that you have contact with Toxoplasma, after that, your body has immunity and you don't need to worry about pregnancy or the disease. Raw meat : the animal ate oocysts, and formed cysts in the muscle. If we eat these cysts (without cooking or freezing), we will become infected with toxoplasmosis. Raw vegetables: if we don't appropriately clean the vegetables before eating them, we can become infected. Drinking tap water : if we drink untreated tap water and this was contaminated, we can become infected with toxoplasmosis. From a cat , the important point. Let's come back to the life cycle of toxoplasma gondii. The "infective" phase of a cat is only the time that they are shedding the oocysts. This is a period of time up to 14 days. Okay, still 2 weeks of risk. But what needs to happen for you to become infected with toxoplasmosis? You need to ingest these oocysts from the faeces. But not only this, fresh stools with oocysts are not immediately infectious! Before becoming infectious, they must go through a process called sporulation, which takes one to five days. But this is not all, you need to be "virgin" of this infection, if you ever in the past had contact with toxoplasma gondii, you can't be infected again! In short: if you pick the stools after deposition and clean the litter box once daily and you use gloves and wash your hands after doing this, the risk of contracting toxoplasmosis from your cat is nearly 0. Conclusions of toxoplasmosis and pregnancy: If you keep your house and litter boxes clean and you have good hygiene, you don't need to get rid of your cat when you want to get pregnant. Do you need professional help with your cat? Check our website . You can join our Instagram community to learn even more about cats :) References: 1. Dubey JP, Lappin MR: Toxoplasmosis and neosporosis. In Greene CE, editor: Infectious diseases of the dog and cat, ed 3, St Louis, 2006, Saunders Elsevier, p 754. 2. Lappin MR: Update on the diagnosis and management of Toxo- plasma gondii infection in cats, Top Companion Anim Med 25:136, 2010. 3. Lappin MR: Toxoplasmosis. In Bonagura JD, Twedt DC, editors: Kirk's current veterinary therapy XIV, St Louis, 2009, Saunders Else- vier, p 1254.
You may think, a post just about cat feeders? Really? You put a bowl down, and that’s it. But no, it’s not as simple. Image for post To understand better this post it will be helpful for you to check our post about how to feed a cat. In short, cats need to express hunting behaviour, and some of them don’t have access to small preys. We can use toys to cover this need, or we can use the feeding action. Feeding can be an activity per se, using time and effort to eat which can prevent obesity and help to improve the environment and give mental stimulation : as they spend more time eating, they don’t have as much time to get bored during the day. There are lots of different feeders, but how to choose the right feeder? As you know, cats are really special, maybe sometimes… too much? I’ll give you a list of different types of feeders and their pros |and| cons. But as you know, the one who will decide will be your furry friend. Traditional bowl : cheap. || Some cats may eat too fast and vomit after; no mental stimulation. Puzzle feeder : with these feeders, cats need to do something to get the food. Pros and cons: mental stimulation; difficult to eat too fast || Some cats can find it too difficult or tiring; affordable, but not so cheap as the traditional bowl. Feeding ball/toy: same pros as puzzle feeder (PF) || same cons as PF + can be too noisy to use; some of them break easily. Automatic feeder : easy to divide the food in different meals and prevent eating too much in one go, and some automatic feeders can give each cat its own portion using the microchip number; a good option if cats are alone many hours during the day || poor mental stimulation; expensive. Whiskers Friendly bowl: It is a shallow flat dish. Pros and cons like the traditional bowl, but whiskers friendly. Another cheap “homemade” option that gives lots of mental stimulation is to hide food around the house. The worst of it is that some cats won’t try to find food around the house, but like anything, training can help. Location is another important point; feeding stations should be placed away from litter boxes, ideally separated from water bowls too, in a quiet accessible place. And in a multicat household , we should follow the rule number of cats (n) +1, to know how many feeders or feeding stations we need. Comment here about more homemade cat feeders, or show us your own feeder! Do you need professional help with your cat? Check our website . You can join our instagram community to learn even more about cats :)