Help me feed a kitten

They used to be a mom and 4 kittens
Now, DW is seeing only one kitten and the smell in that structure behind outr house indicates other kittens may have starved and died

The kitten is 2 or 3 months old. She is active but seem not smart or experieced enough to climb a ladder we have put there and get to the outside world.

We have been leaving food, and it eats it at night when we are not watching. Problem is that one week from now we are leaving for a 3-4 day trip.

I am saking here for suggestions for long lasting type of food that :
(a) can stand the July heat (around 45 deg C) without spoiling
(b) attract the kitten to eat, without attracting a big male cat that used to visit the area(3 weeks ago)

I am also thinking of a water supply that won't evaporate, but food is my prime concern for now

Thanks

It sounds like your best move is to capture the kitten and bring it to a shelter.

I tried to avoid extra details but to summarize it , these days I am beyond exhausted (loooong story), and need a very quick fix. I will try other things ( maybe capturing it ) after coming back from the trip

Thanks

You can try dry food formulated for kittens. That will probably keep a few days even at 45 degrees. Some cats may not like dry food, though. Dry food is not as smelly as wet food, but that's no guarantee some other cat wouldn't come and eat it.

Leave a lot of water.

The real solution is capturing the kitten.

Would a local humane society, shelter, or animal control department be willing to capture the kitten for you?

I am on the other side of the planet
We have none of those (that I know of, anyways)
But we have many workers looking for extra income doing small jobs here and there. I am planning to hire some of them to clean up the whole thing , but not now.

My hands are more than full with a sick dad , being fasting (Ramadhan : no food or drink from sunrise to sunset in a hot weather) and several other issues. It all have drained the last ounce of energy I have. Not to mention my arm muscles are injured (moving my sick dad to/from toilet ..etc.) at the same time I have to DIY a few home projects before school restarts a few weeks from now.

This kitten thing has come in the wrong time. Due to hot weather and month of fasting, I am not seeing many workers in the street who will do the job. So, I am left with only one strategy : to buy some time by leaving it some food and water until capturing it becomes easier.

I am even not sure how to leave water there. If water container is too deep , the kitten may drown, too shallow, water will evaporate in 2 hours. But I have an idea for a water dropping system that may work for a few days using a 5 gallon water container.

I also have another idea using an AC unit. Due to humid air, AC units produce water that can be collected. I am extending one of those pipes to that area and can put a pan under the pipe. However, this is only to use if we are at home and some critter is thirsty. I am more than reluctant to leave the AC unit running for days while we are away. Not only it will cost money, but will be unsafe.

Sorry for the drama guys
My son has some pet-goldfish and when we leave for a few days, he puts a rock-like thing in the aquarium which the fish feeds on. I just thought there might be a similar thing for a kitten.

Yes, I recall Chisel is one of our international members (well, to us Americans anyway). They may not have the same kind of services where he lives.

I wonder whether this will work: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTVyRW55L4o>. Maybe you can even buy a water bottle for birds and modify it.

Try dry food for kittens. That may be your closest equivalent to the goldfish rock.

Thanks Bingley

Yes, I am international member and appreciate being here , so when I had this delimma, I thought of ETS !

The bird water feeder is what I am thinking right now but instead of one liter bottle I am thinking a 5 liter or even 5 gallon water bottle with a tray on the ground. Reason being we already have these bottles at home ( we buy water from supermarket in 5-10-20 liter sizes). Some are replaceable and some disposable. I will use a disposable one by poking a hole near the bottom and placing it in a tray (sitting upright).

I thought of opening a couple of tuna cans , but it will smell and that big cat may come back. So, I put some yogurt which the kitten ate only little. I opened another one anyway just in case the kitten is too hungry to refuse anything. Plus it provides water.

I hope I can find dry food.
Thanks

I used a 5 liter bottle to provide water.
Made a hole near the bottom and placed the bottle (upright) in a tray.

Seems to be working.
I will watch it for a few days to see how long it lasts.

You just invented a DIY old fashioned chicken water feeder.Good job.If the kitten does eat solid food a feeder can be made in the same principle....

BOATMAN
John

Yes, water problem is solved but still looking for suitable food

Most stores sell canned cat foods that look like tuna cans. I doubt they will be dry foods. I might as well open a tuna can for the kitten.

My son has a pet turtle + goldfish. Among the foods he has a can of dried shrimp. That may work as dry food for the kitten. Hope it doesn't smell too much thou.

Hey you can check with a cat forum. Explain to them that you're not in the US, and you can't seem to find dry food here. See what they suggest for commonly available human food that a kitten will eat, that can survive the extreme heat in your area for a few days. I'll send you a bag of dry food, except it won't get there in time.

Thank you Bingley

I got this from Web MD

I have left a dish of tuna covered with beans (to cover the tuna smell and provide more juicy prietin). But after reading the WebMD , I am going to ask DW to cook some chiken or meat , just for the kitten

We'll see

Hi
I've raised many feral kittens by hand. If it's 3 months old it can eat dry food, just get kitten sized pellets. You could put out half a can of of wet food at a time and collect the can in the evening to help prevent the older cat and other animals from eating what you leave. Also half and half is better for kittens than milk from what I have seen. Good luck with the kitten.

Dry food is the only viable solution. Wet food will spoil in less than a day in your heat.

The only other solution is to find someone to come by and feed the kitten once a day.

Of course water is the most important and you seem to have that solved. Are you also providing shade?

Here, for water, I use automatic sprinkler timers that come on twice a day and drip water into several bowls around my property. These timers just attach to the hose bib and run on a battery. They are sold in hardware stores, plant nurseries, and, of course, online.

I also have a battery powered dry food feeder that opens twice a day according to the times you set.

Guys, Chisel said his country doesn't sell dry food for cats.

True, but might I suggest a thorough search for dried cat food ? It may not be readily available but might be available in a speciality store, perhaps further away than is optimum.
Are there no ex-pat British or American cat lovers in the vicinity ? if there are, they may know where to buy dry cat food, or might be able to spare you some.

If all else fails, I see two options, one would be dried food intended for human consumption something like dried beef.

Or try canned wet cat food that has been frozen. Serve one portion fresh from the can, and another larger portion that is frozen, this will defrost fairly quickly, but might remain frozen for 6 hours, cold for another 6 hours and edible for 12 hours after that. Not really long enough, but better than nothing.

Thank you everyone

I have come back home , the klitten has survived on tuna covered with layers of fava beans. Beans were used to cover the smell of tuna and still provide some protein

You guys mentioned DRY food. Actually it doesn't take much time here to convert any wet food into dry food. LOL



The kitten is hiding in a shaded structure, so that is not a problem. Water was placed in a shaded area and has survived too especially it was in a closed 5 liter container. If it was in a pan, it might have evaportated.

We will now look for someone to remove the cat and clean the place.


Thanks again.

Nice! Glad to see Mr. Kitty is doing okay.