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I found a little kitten, please Fediverse guide me on how to handle him, what to feed him, etc :ablobcatcry:

@mur2501 feed him cat food, if you lack that some unspiced ground meat, chicken, beef, whatever works great in a pinch. Remember cats dont do well with veggies and carbs so unlike with dogs (where youd add some rice) I wouldnt do that for a cat.

@mur2501 Whoa, that looks to be a very young one. Is momma cat nowhere to be found?
Can try kitty milk (important that it's lactose free) or a bit of meat. Though if it's so young, I'm not sure it's learned to eat properly yet. Bits of cooked chicken could work.

@trinsec
I only have buffalo milk with me, no chicken or meat :ablobcatheartbroken:

@mur2501 Buffalo milk is probably not lactose free. A quick search reveals it's even worse than cow milk.

Bit of diluted coffee milk can work. Dilute the milk otherwise if it needs something now. Water can also work but it does need nutrients.

Go to a store fast and buy some kitten milk and food then you know for sure it's food suitable for tiny kitties.

Basically, younger than 5-6 weeks, they do need milk. After 4 weeks they can have some meat in tiny bits. They need to feed multiple times a day because their stomach is so tiny.

@trinsec
I live in an Indian town where there are no pet shops

@mur2501 Okay, arrange some lactose-free milk somewhere, stuff that even humans take? That's important. Diluted coffee milk would be an easy one, unless you don't have coffee milk in India?

And don't you have any meat at all in the house? Can't you buy any? Though at this point the milk seems more important if it's indeed such a young kitten.

If you can't get anything at all, dilute the buffalo milk bigtime with some (lukewarm) water.

@trinsec
No coffee milk here also no raw chicken in the house. It's dark night

@mur2501 Okay, diluted buffalo milk it is. Then you can go shop when it's light. Keep the poor thing comfortable temperature-wise. And they need to nap a lot.

@mur2501 Well, a tiny young kitten barely a week old would need an environmental temperature of 30C. Warm nest. But this one is more than likely older.. my guess is anywhere between 4-7 weeks from that one picture if it can wander around alone. So, 21C-ish is fine, though having a warm and safe spot somewhere that it can go wouldn't hurt. Some folded blankets that it can hide in, for example.
Though your country is already hot. 😅

@mur2501 Yeah, in that case, have some cool spot for the poor thing. :D Somewhere on a cold floor? Stone floor?

@mur2501 When Suske was a tiny kitten, he loved to nap on my leg. My leg gave him the nice warmth while sleeping. As an example of how kitties like warm temperatures. He was around 7-9 weeks old at that time.

He's now a 12-year old boy and he still loves to nap at my legs at night.

@mur2501 I think he was about 6-7 weeks here. They nap a lot if they're not causing mischief.

I wonder if your kitten looks about the same as Suske at that age.

@trinsec @kranfahrer The problem is my parents want me to just leave him outside

@trinsec @kranfahrer
on the roads. they don't a cat in the house. Also they are currently fighting so the heat is high. Now they are not letting me go outside to see him.

@mur2501
Really can't have a kitten all alone outside on its own. Try looking for momma cat when it's light again?

@kranfahrer

@trinsec @kranfahrer
There are no cats around. Nor anyone keeps a cat here

@mur2501
The kitty has to come from somewhere. So chances are momma cat is hiding somewhere.
Have a bowl of diluted buffalo milk outside for momma cat?

@kranfahrer

@trinsec @kranfahrer
If the momma cat comes and takes him away that is what I hope most

@mur2501 Oh and I'd advise against raw chicken. Boil it first. Don't give it bones. Give it small strips of boiled chicken flesh.

@mur2501 Handling: always support the hind-paws. They’re more like holding a slinky the hard way whereas a small dog is a lot like a football with legs.

Playtime should be before food, not after.

Introduce your friends to it—it’s extremely important for young cats to be exposed to new people frequently (two/three times per week). Also hold it and play with its paws and belly. All of that is about acclimating it to an anthropocentric world and will make vet visits easier later.

@POTATO_UP_MY_BUTT @mur2501 I almost forgot, but it’s super important: playtime is not optional for cat owners.

Cats that don’t get regular, daily playtime develop behavioral issues—waking up owners at 2 am, scratching where it shouldn’t, peeing where it shouldn’t, meowing incessantly, etc. That’s because cats get bored like we do. Zoomies are a symptom if this.

All it takes is about ten minutes of play time before food. That’s a small but necessary commitment and it’s fun.

@mur2501 keep the water bowl far away from the food dish, they'll think it's contaminated and not drink enough leading to health problems in the long run
He looks big enough to eat solid (wet) food.

@Brutus
He is with his adopter, he got adopted the day before yesterday

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