Premature kitten is a condition where the baby is born before reaching 60 days of pregnancy and usually weighs less than 3.3 ounces and has a thin coat. Sometimes these babies also look smaller than typical babies.
Like in humans, if the cat you keep gives birth to premature children, it must provide extra care. You should try to help the mother so that the kittens can survive.
Causes of premature kittens
Mother cats giving birth to their kittens prematurely is quite common although there are not many cases. Therefore, it cannot be a coincidence, there must be a cause.
Here are the causes of premature baby cats:
1. Stressed Cat
One of the first and most common causes is that the mother cat is stressed. It can be due to the owner, the environment, or other causes that we may previously know. If in wild cats, the stress can be due to difficulty finding food, or even there are wild animals in the region.
The arrival of wild animals in the area where the cat lives will certainly stress the mother cat for fear of being eaten.
Then if it happens to the owner, the stress in question can be in the form of unsuitable food, loneliness, to jealousy after another pet.
2. Genetic Predisposition
Genetic predisposition is a condition where the mother cat has imbalanced hormones, which can cause the cat to potentially give birth prematurely.
This hormonal imbalance is usually owned in parts related to the reproductive tract.
Therefore, when the cat is pregnant, the womb is rather weak so making its birth premature.
3. Injury
What is meant by injury is a situation where the mother cat falls while in deep pregnancy.
So suppose the mother cat is 56 days pregnant, then falls for some reason, it could potentially make the cat suddenly give birth.
Suddenly giving birth at 56 days old is called premature birth.
4. Cysts
Not only in humans, but cysts can also attack cats. Cysts are usually located around the uterus and have a weakening effect on the womb.
In serious stages, cysts can even cause pregnancy loss in young wombs. Or even make it difficult for the mother cat to get pregnant.
Raising Premature Baby Cat
Raising a premature baby kitten is not the same as a normal one, as they are usually quite vulnerable and can easily die.
Therefore as a cat owner, you must take good care of it. Here’s how to care for premature baby kittens:
1. Pick up the Kitten with Gloves
The first way to care for premature baby kittens is to pick them up using gloves. Why wear gloves?
Because to prevent kittens from smelling too human. You need to know, while still small and under 2 months. Try not to hold the kitten too often.
The goal is to let the child not have a dominant human odor. If the human odor is more dominant, the risk is that the kitten will not be considered a child by its mother.
2. Dry the Kitten with a Towel
If the mother has finished giving birth to all her children, then you can try drying the premature child with a dry towel.
Hold and wipe gently, not too roughly. Remember these are prematurely born kittens, so they are very weak.
3. Keep the Kitten Warm
When the kittens are dry, try to keep them all warm with the mother cat. If necessary, organize the place so that the cat’s nest is warm enough.
You can add more fabric, or put the kittens and their mother in a warming box.
Anyway, it can be arranged according to taste and conditions, the important thing is to make it warm. So that kittens can survive.
4. Make sure the mother is breastfeeding them
Premature kittens are vulnerable to many things, so you need to make sure that they can drink milk from their mother to get strong quickly.
Therefore, you need to make sure all kittens are fed. If you find that the mother cat is not feeding all the kittens, take care of it immediately.
You can provide kitten milk purchased from your local pet shop.
5. Feed special breastfeeding cat food to the mother
Because the mother is lactating, the food must be nutritious. Therefore, you can give special cat food for nursing the mother.
Take it easy, some well-known food brands have released versions for nursing mother cats and their kittens.
Can premature cats survive?
Premature kittens have little chance of survival if not properly cared for, as they are much weaker than those born normally. However, not all premature kittens will die.
It all comes down to fate and how you care for them when they are firstborn.
If the care is done correctly, then the chances of the baby kitten surviving will also increase.
