My 3-day-old kitten is losing weight and won't suckle. What can I do?

You should be weighing them every day or two to make sure they are gaining weight. If the little on is not gaining weight then you will know it is a problem and you will need to get it to a vet. You can use a kitchen gram scale to weigh them.

Your best bet would be to bring the kitten into your vet. They can check for any issues such as congenital problems causing the weird back arching, cleft palate that affects nursing, etc that you may need to treat differently or take particular care for. If the kitten is otherwise healthy, adding in supplemental feeding may also help with weight gain if it can't nurse enough from mom.

Fading kitten syndrome is not really specific to any one disease, but is a term we use when a kitten is dying. This can be very difficult to manage and requires the help of a veterinarian immediately. Your description of him definitely sounds serious, so my best recommendation is to get him to a vet as soon as possible. For now, you can help keep his blood sugar up by giving a little honey or karo syrup on her gums. You can also try to give a little water in his mouth with a syringe. If he drinks the water, then it's good to give him 10ml every two hours. If he is not drinking, then don't force it, because this can cause him to choke. I hope that helps and he gets better soon.

It would be the right time to start introducing solid food gradually. Initially just mixing it with kitten milk, then over 4-5 days wean her off onto solids completely. She is too big to rely on milk only.

Honey or karo syrup can be placed on the gums every 30 minutes to prevent hypoglycemia, but you have to be careful not to use too much if she has trouble swallowing as it can go down into the lungs and cause aspiration pneumonia. If she is not doing better in a few hours, though, I would recommend taking her to an emergency vet. Small kittens can get dehydrated very quickly, and it appears that she is very sick.

That is not normal. I recommend getting the kitten seen by a vet right away. Such a tiny baby needs to eat every few hours. Many veterinarians will use an ordinary eye dropper or small syringe to utilize as a means of dispensing the milk replacer to the kitten. Most pet stores or veterinary clinics have nursing bottles, too, but be alert to the fact that some kittens cannot suck the contents through the small nipple. You may need to actually squeeze the milk out for the kitten while having the nipple in the kitty's mouth. Warm it up a little, too, under the hot water faucet! If it is after hours at your local animal hospital, your short-term solution will be to mix an egg yolk with a can of evaporated milk (make sure it is not the sweetened condensed milk). This is only a temporary "solution" (!) and should only be used for a couple of feedings. At the first few feedings the kittens will probably only consume a few cc’s worth of milk. (There are 5cc's in a teaspoon.) You will need to feed every couple of hours at first and gradually build up time between feedings as they begin to eat more at each meal. Start by offering a small amount. If the kitten won’t eat readily from the nipple and bottle, try an eyedropper or syringe and drip a little in the mouth, adding more as the kitten's pace. Make sure that the milk just above room temperature; try not to microwave since you can cause hot spots in the milk. Follow instructions on the milk replacer for mixing and storage. You will need to contact your veterinarian if the kitten has not eaten within 24 hours or is extremely weak. Once they get the hang of it, the kittens should consume the milk replacer greedily. You can stop the feeding when the kitten begins to slow down the consumption or becomes disinterested.

At 43 days of age, it's time for Tarcisio to be weaned off milk. Milk won't be enough at this point to meet his nutritional needs, so that may be why he's not gaining weight. To help him wean and to get used to dry food, I would soak a high quality kitten formulated dry food in warm water until soft. Then mix that with kitten formula such as KMR to make a mush the consistency of oatmeal. Over the next two weeks, gradually increase the amount of dry kitten food and decrease the amount of water and KMR you use until he is eating the dry kitten food only.