Kitten Care: Stages of Kitten Growth
Birth:
mother cat and newborn kittens
Kittens weight about 2-4 ounces at birth. During the birth process, each kitten will be delivered, then the mother cat will take the newborn, bite open the amniotic sac if she needs to, and clean the kitten off. There is usually a 1/2 to 1 hour delay between the delivery each of kitten, allowing her to care for each one as it comes out.
Kittens are born blind and deaf, but their sense of smell is strong, and they snuggle right up to the mother. They will even push each other out of the way to get to her teats. A newborn kitten will wind its tongue tightly around the mother’s teat and hang on to it for the first few days even while sleeping.
While nursing, kittens will knead on the mother’s stomach to stimulate the production of milk. You may find that your grown cat will still knead on your stomach (mine does), which seems to give comfort and help the bond grow between you and your cat.
During this early stage, the mother will clean their little behinds to keep them clean and massage their stomachs with their tongue to help to stimulate their digestive tracts. The kittens need to stay up close against their mother for her warmth, as they cannot yet regulate their own body temperature.
The First Week:
Little baby kitten
Usually, when the kittens are 2-3 days old, the mother moves out of the birthplace for short spells and later she will move the kittens to a new place one at a time. She moves them by picking them up by the back of the neck and carrying them. They will hang loosely when she does this and it doesn’t hurt them. You should let them mother care for her kittens and not hold them too much at first, as tempting as this will be.
