Can You Give Kittens Human Baby Formula

Human formula for emergency use.

Can you give kittens human baby formula. Use this until you can get to your vet or a pet store for the real deal. It is more of a treat minus the lactose so cats and kittens can digest it. If you can t find a bunny nursing bottle at your local pet store purchase a nursing bottle with nipples designed for newborn kittens. While a newborn kitten can digest lactose which is also found in a mother cat s milk kittens lose that ability shortly after they are weaned.

Kittens can be offered canned and dry kitten food starting around 4 5 weeks of age. In an emergency you may be able to use powdered or concentrated human baby formula to sustain an orphaned kitten until you can get some regular feline milk replacer. A new litter of kittens is often an exciting event but if something goes wrong and you need to care for the kittens you may suddenly need kitten formula. However even after she has weaned your kitten should still not consume human baby formula even as a treat.

Many kittens go right to the dry food. However you need to ignore the directions on the package. Homemade formula 1 1 quart whole goat s milk 1 teaspoon light karo syrup. Because human baby formula is made from cow s milk it is high in lactose.

After about three to four weeks of age your kitten can start eating solid foods. This means if the kitten weighs four ounces they should eat about 32 milliliters of formula total in a day so you can give eight milliliters of formula every four hours. To give the colostrum time to settle prepare the homemade milk formula two or three hours before you plan to feed the baby bunny. Kitten milk does not have the vitamins and nutrients that formula for kittens has.

Instead make up the formula at twice the strength indicated for human babies. Human formulas are created to fill the needs of human infants and the ratio of nutrients is different from a kitten s needs. Kittens should eat about eight milliliters of formula per ounce of body weight a day. To transition the kitten to dry food you can make a gruel with it and the formula for a few days offering dry food in a separate dish.

In an emergency you may be able to use powdered or concentrated human baby formula to sustain an orphaned kitten until you can get some regular feline milk replacer. You will need to buy formula. Homemade milk replacer recipes often feature ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen and can help you to get by in an emergency.