Pinkle

I am trying to hand feed two kittens that are around 10 days old. I discovered them under my porch last Tuesday (September third) and they were obviously very new, probably only a few hours old, a day at most. Their mom was taking care of them so I left them alone. I don't know what happened but their mom clearly abandoned them at some point.

I took them in and have been keeping them warm, and using an eye dropper to give them kitten milk replacer every two hours. I also purchased a kitten bottle, but it's just way too big for them to be able to handle. I've done research online and I think I'm doing everything right, but I'm just worried...for a few reasons.

Ok, first, some sites are telling me that they should be getting around ELEVEN teaspoons of formula every 24 hours. That is way more than I can get them to take. If you know those little glass eyedroppers, I can get each kitten to take about half a dropper full at each feeding, which works out to each kitten taking a scant half teaspoon full every two hours.

No diarrhea, when I make them go potty (using a cotton ball), their stools are yellowish brown and about the consistency of toothpaste, like all the sites say it should be. They pee plenty, and the urine is very very pale yellow. But....the sites that say to check for dehydration all say to do the tent test on the back of the neck for dehydration, and the skin does stay tented up a little...but they are showing no other signs of dehydration. They are quite vigorous when roused to eat, and complain loudly and squirm when I use the cotton ball on them. Another sign was to check for a wet mouth, and they are wet, I check each time before I feed them.

Once they are fed, they settle back down and are pretty quiet until the time for the next feeding approaches. I really can't afford a vet right now but I am pretty attached to these little ones. Is there anything someone can point out that I should be doing, or something I'm doing wrong? I've been caring for them for 3 days now, surely such a little thing would have perished by now if I wasn't doing ok?

A bit embarrassing that I need to ask for help with my 9 year old son's homework, but I am stumped. He has to pick a synonym for "then" out of this list of words:

most

coat

ago

hold

hello

cocoa

open

loaf

over

comb

toast

almost

boat

both

road

gold

Thanks :)

She is 61 days today, mini dachshund. She had the temp dip, and didn't want breakfast this morning. Twice today though, she has gone and taken 2 or 3 small bites, then leaves the rest. She usually gobbles it all right up.

She has also been whining at me a lot, and is doing a lot of digging every once in a while. She doesn't seem like she is in discomfort though.