Can i touch my cats kittens

Then, either show the kitten to the mother or place the kitten beside a nipple. When the mother licks the kitten or allows her to suckle, these are good signs. It's crucial to handle the kitten gently but with confidence.

Ideally, let the kitten rest on her belly in a natural position in your palm or cupped hands. She may move her head from side to side as if seeking a nipple and mew quietly. This is normal. If you need to check the umbilicus then gently grip the kitten with the forefinger and thumb of one hand forming a girdle around the kitten's chest.

Support the kitten's rear end in the palm of the opposite hand while you gently lift and roll the kitten over. The kitten may cry, which is a warning to the mother she is upside down. Return the kitten to a natural resting position as soon as possible. Small children should not be allowed to handle newborn kittens , and older children should only handle them with supervision.

Remember, kittens are vulnerable and unable to defend themselves, and they should always be protected from other pets. Yes and no. VetStreet explains how the first two weeks of life, kittens are busy eating, sleeping, and pooping. It makes no difference to their friendliness later in life whether they are handled during this period. However, handling is important once their eyes and ears open at around 10 to 14 days of age.

It is crucial kittens are held and touched in a gentle and appropriate manner by a range of different people to hone them into a confident, well-adjusted adult cat. As the Merck Veterinary Manual explains, handling and petting the kittens early in life helps them grow used to people, and they will make better pets. During this time, you can begin to play gently with the kittens. Give the kittens plenty of toys to play with, and try to avoid allowing them to play with your fingers or clothing because this can encourage aggressive behavior later on.

The rule of thumb is to avoid handling newborns unless you have a compelling reason to do so and always balance the benefits against the risks. Ultimately, if your intervention is going to distress the mother, then respect this and only handle the newborns if their lives are in danger. While many pet cats are comfortable with a trusted caretaker touching their newborn, there's always a slight risk Mother Nature has other ideas.

Why Handle the Newborn Kittens? Do Check the Kittens While you don't want to over handle the kittens, you do want to check: The kitten is warm, strong and vigorous For problems such as a bleeding placenta or birth membranes in the mouth The gender of the kittens. Shes the mother cat: skillful, attentive, greatly admired and occasionally criticized.

But even though experts and human companions who have been fortunate enough to live with a mother cat know quite a bit through their observations, myths about her abound. Here are some of the fiction and facts about mother cats. Many people believe that kittens that are taken from their mothers too early dont know how to mother their own kittens.

Other common beliefs include: Mother cats will reject their kittens if something seems wrong with them. A cat may reject — sometimes kill — a kitten if its unresponsive.

Touching newborn or very young kittens will cause the mother to reject them. Mothers grieve a long time if their kittens are taken from them. Its true that its common for a mother cat to move her kittens from their original birth location. You may pick out what you think is the perfect place in your house — soft, quiet and secluded — for your cat to give birth in. She may stay there that long, but the next thing you know shes taken the kittens away.

Brilliant post, thanks. My cat, Bella, had her first litter last night, 6 beautiful black kittens. Lots of good info to help me. Thank you for posting this! My cat was pregnant and we didn't even know and now she has three kittens, Don't think we will be giving them away though! Is it true long haired and short hairs are completely different on timing of opening eyes? Thanks for commenting guys. Rachel, it's completely normal for kittens to shake like that.

When they walk they shake and stumble around for a few weeks until they get used to it. And when they get picked up they can shake too. It's nothing to worry about. Once the kittens are about 2 or so months old that should be done with and they'll be walking around more and playing. And all kittens do things on their own time. So it's completely fine if one is a little slower at things than others, or just different in general.

The kittens are four weeks old and doing pretty well on walking and beginning to socialize with me and my husband. My concern is that the one is walking okay, but not as well as the others. And whenever I pick him up, he starts to shake. He was shaking when he first started walking, which I was told is due to the fact that he isn't used to carrying all of that weight.

I'm assuming he shakes when I pick him up because I am new to him and he may be startled. I guess I'm just asking if it's normal for the one to be stumbling a little more than the others and a little more shy around people.

Honestly Jazzmin.. I did the same thing when I was your age. My dad does not like cats at all, and my friend's cat had kittens and when they were old enough I took one home and snuck her into my room. My dad DID find out though, and I had to give her away. How are you going to get the money to pay for litter and food? I luckily had my friend helping me since she had cats, she would give me some of her stuff. They can't have milk when they are bigger because they are lactose intolerant.

There are a lot of human foods that can harm them, even tuna. The only things that are really okay are chicken and beef that are cooked, but not salted. But they really do just need cat food and water. So you have to be able to provide that for them. And you have to be on top of cleaning the litter box because if it gets full they will go wherever else they can!

Especially if you don't want your parents knowing, you don't want your room smelling like cat pee or worse. So be sure to clean their litter every day or every other day and replace the litter every week. Good luck. Hope if you get caught then you won't get your kitten taken away like I did. The closet was completely cleared out so the mom and the kittens could be in there with their box, food dish, and litter box, with space to come out and lay.

And yes, they are old enough to come out! At 4 and 5 weeks they should start to be pet and socialized with humans. They need to get used to someone holding them and petting them and taught not to bite. They should walk around and come out on their own when they're ready, as long as they have the space to do so.

Where did you keep the kittens? I have been keeping the kittens in my dads closet and put a piece of plywood so they could not get out but they still escape their five weeks old do you think there old enough to run around the house and explore? I'm glad this hub has helped you. Like I said near the end of the hub, 6 or 7 weeks isn't the worst you can do, so that's not so bad, but it really is preferable to wait a few more weeks.

Have fun with the cute little kittens. Great informational Hub! We have had four previous litters of kittens and have been giving them away at about 6 or 7 weeks. We have a new litter which is only 3 days old.

Now that I know that we have been giving them away too soon, we will wait longer to give the new kittens away. Because that's what all the research I found suggested. These were not my cats, they were my friend's, and I hadn't been around them much before. Even my friend though, was wearing gloves. Because it is possible that the mom won't like you holding them and reject them if she smells humans on them.

So it's recommended for at least the first week or two to use gloves when holding them, so that is what we did. And yeah, maybe if the mom is really comfortable with you and she sees you touching them and is ok, then you don't have to worry about it. But I'd rather be safe than sorry. Health Problems. Freshwater Pets. Freshwater Aquariums. Saltwater Pets. Saltwater Aquariums. Exotic Pets. Guinea Pigs. If you come back to the nesting box in a few hours and notice that the whole family is missing, don't worry.

Your precious queen was simply trying to protect her litter and moved them to a safe location. As difficult as it may be, you'll need to avoid touching newborn kittens during their first week of life, the ASPCA reports. Since socializing kittens with humans is an important part of their early growth, carefully start to handle your new fluffy babies starting during their second week of life. Before you pick them up, make sure you allow mama cat to sniff your hand.

Pet her head and show her affection, ensuring her that you are not a threat. If she purrs, licks your hand or otherwise welcomes your petting, gently pick up a kitten -- pick up only one at a time. When it comes time to pick up your fuzzy friends, make sure you keep them warm.