My 12 day old kitten hasnt grown since birth

by Lexi
(London, England)

my cat had a litter of 6 but one of them hasnt grown at all since birth. its bones stick out but it seems quite alert. her eyes are open and shes tring to walk around. she is about 1/3 of the size of the other 5!! she has a scab on her nose and her claws are thick and dark brown??? ive tried my hardest to bottle feed her but she wont take it. im so frightened for her and i dont want to watch her starve to death. i would like to know if i should let her fight and hope for the best or if it would be easier to have her put to sleep? thankyou. Lexi


Answer by Kate
i say put up a fight.

it sounds like she may be the runt of the litter and they are much slower to put on weight and thrive etc, but you will have to fight for her and persist in the feeding etc.

i have a few pages about how to look after very small kittens which you may find of further help.

here is the first page but there are other ones attached to it which are specifically about feeding etc.

https://www.our-happy-cat.com/kitten-care.html

best wishes kate

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runt
by: tina

Hi I had a very small kitten in a litter of 5. It was no bigger than a mouse born. He is 6 months old now and still dont weigh 1kilo. He is a very small persian named tiny tim..
All I can advise is keep putting him on mom to suckle as much as you can. Keep trying to bottle feed. Mine would not suck for first 1 week. Put the teat in the side of his mouth and he will eventually suck. Its hard work but deffo worth it. I wish I knew how to upload pics because I could sjow you tiny tim. Vets could not believe his size. This

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