Kitten hand-rearing

3rd June 2020

Kitten Season (the time when we start to see a large number of kittens needing new homes) has arrived! 

This week 5, 2 week old kittens arrived with us from a local vets where they had been brought in by a member of the public. After their vet check the team started the long job of hand-rearing them, where kittens have to be syringe or bottle fed every 4 hours. We were so lucky to find 2 foster volunteers who were willing to take on the challenge and, after a couple of hand-rearing training sessions with one of our team, the kittens are suckling well and hopefully will continue to thrive. Obviously, being separated from their mum at such a young age puts them at great risk, but first signs are looking very hopeful. Already at this young age they are developing their own characters, "feisty", "greedy", "snuggly", "the explorer" and "noisy"! We are so grateful to our hand-rearers, staff and volunteers for taking on this huge commitment to these kittens, which can often be emotional, and for agreeing to lose sleep for several weeks!