Dealing With Orphan Kittens, Part 2
spot on the floor to do their business, clean it thoroughly with something that will kill the odour, and then place a small pan of litter in that exact spot. This often moves the training process along a bit faster, as they know the spot, have to go, and seeing the litter it comes to them by instinct. You can then gradually move this extra pan closer to their main litter pan, a little bit every day.
Now that they are on the go, is the time to provide your toddlers with acceptable clawing and climbing material. One of the barrels covered in carpet is excellent for hide and seek, and also claw sharpening, before they are turned loose into the house with furniture.
If you have been rearing a litter, or even two kittens, you have done well to this point, and can start to relax. However, if you have been dealing with a singleton, there are a few more challenges.
A lone kitten is much harder to train, as they have no example to follow. It is best to integrate these orphans into another litter or small group of kittens as soon as possible. In order to do this, they must be vaccinated first. If they have received no colostrum from their mother, they are particularly vulnerable. The Pfizer company makes an intranasal vaccine called Felomune CVR, which can be used as young as three weeks. This protects against calicivirus and herpes virus only, not panleukopenia, which is a vaccine that cannot be given under eight weeks.
If you have a litter of kittens that are perhaps seven weeks old, and a singleton who is three weeks old, they would all need to have the intranasal vaccine before being integrated. This can be done 2-3 days after administering the vaccine. If you waited another week for the older litter to turn eight weeks and have their first injectable vaccine, they would need to wait up to ten days for it to take effect, and the single kitten would still need the intranasal. Doing this will put the normal vaccination schedule of 8 and 12 weeks for the older kittens, back a bit. But it is a small price to pay, when you are trying to avoid socialization and other problems with a single orphan. The regular shots can resume three weeks after the intranasal, or when the kitten(s) reach eight weeks of age.
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