Re: Hand reared kittens as adult cats

Tracy Windler RVN — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 21:34:59 GMT

Hi, I've hand-reared about 6 kittens and kept in touch with most of them. All of these have been slightly loopy, but in endearing and affectionate ways - as far as I know, they all grew out of suckling on things eventually. Two of them, however had idiopathic seizures. One had detailed investigations at referall and found no cause. The other had basic biochem/haematology and was controlled by phenobarb. I've never known if it was a random coincidence, but one theory is that it was their poor start in life, rather than the hand-rearing itself. Apart from that, my hand-rears have been very rewarding. xx

Re: Hand reared kittens as adult cats

nin86 — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 17:55:38 GMT

Hiya, Iv got 2 cats that i reared by hand from a week old. Although one of them took a while to take to bottle feeding as a baby, he has more than made up for it and is now a very healthy big boy! Both of them (now 2 yrs old) are average sized cats and are very loyal and loving. Iv'e never had any problems with them and they are a joy to own. I also have another cat who is 3yrs old who iv'e had from 6weeks old, who is still only 2.4kg. Shes a tiny little thing and i think was probably the runt of her litter. But other than being a pint sized mitten, she is also a lovely little thing.

It may be that as a hand reared kitten he might be a little smaller than average perhaps? but as long as he's happy and healthy thats all that matters. Sound like you've done a great job and hopefully he's been well worth the up all hours feeds! lol.