Any cat breeders had a kitten THIS small?

[Madwife123]

We have 2 week old Ragdoll kittens. 6 in the litter and 1 of them is TINY. Less than half the size of the others.

At birth he was so small we thought he wouldn’t survive but 2 weeks on he’s going strong, feeding well and seems perfectly healthy, except his size.

We’ve had runts before but never such a vast difference. This kitten looks like it’s from a whole different litter!

Is he likely to always be this small? Could there be an underlying problem causing him to be so small? He seems well so I’m reluctant to take him the vets and risk infection etc. but equally don’t want to be missing doing something that we could do to help him.

These photos show the size difference at birth and also now at 2 weeks old. He is clearly growing but not catching up to the others.

Of course they are!

Thats why I’m taking time off work (unpaid) to make sure this kitten is feeding every 2 hours day and night.

Thats why almost every penny I make goes on the cats and they have literally everything.

If you don’t know a thing about breeding maybe avoid a thread about breeding.

Lol at breeders not making money from it. 🙄

Is that what she said?

My heart skipped a beat at the little thing! Awww!!

You're clearly doing a bloody good job OP, and your long response to everybody yesterday was really satisfying to read! 😂

I didn’t say that.

Do I make money from selling the kittens? Yes

Does that money go on the cats? Also yes

My pet insurance alone is £174 a month. The money made from kittens funds the costs of the cats, breeding expenses, show fees etc.

In case my username didn’t give it away I work as a midwife to make a living. If I was rolling it cash as you naive people seem to think I wouldn’t need to bother working!

Lol at no profit. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I can't believe the hard time you are getting on this thread OP. However your cats are gorgeous, and I really hope the little one makes it. You must be exhausted from 2 hourly feeds!

gosh you're having a lovely time aren't you? all that lol-ing. how fun

How much profit do you think I’m gonna make on this tiny kitten that could have an underlying health issue and may not survive until adulthood? Can you see buyers queueing up to buy him?

No me either. Lucky he’s going nowhere and will be staying with us. So why would I bother trying to save him and losing income having time off work to care for him? Keeping him for his whole life and covering whatever vet care he may need in the future?

You don't know for certain it's inaccurate.

You also wouldn't have to take them to the vets, they could do a house call.

Lol at no profit

Yep. It’s bullshit.

Working in animal rescue for years, my opinion is that breeders are scum. But they make money from exploiting animals.

My partner is taking it in turns thankfully so we’re each sleeping around 4 hours at a time. So far we haven’t had to feed him ourselves yet as he’s latching and feeding well but every 2 hours we make sure he’s latched on, take the big kittens away so they don’t steal his nipple and give the bigger kittens some formula as filling the bigger kittens up means less competition for the little one and he needs mums milk more. It’s tough but it’s par for the course. I always book 2 weeks off work when I have a litter due and I’ve taken another 2 weeks unpaid so that should see us through the danger zone.

I have no idea about the rights and wrongs of breeding and want nothing to do with the arguments but I am now very interested in the future of Malin and hoping he beats any odds. Would you please keep us updated on how he is doing?

Great the vet can come bring the infection to my house instead!

The only way to know if it’s genetic is a blood test. He’s too small for this right now. He doesn’t have enough circulating blood volume to lose some. So this would be something to look into if he survives long enough.

I'm sure the vet would be intelligent enough to change clothes and wash their hands beforehand to prevent infection

Vets making house calls?! This isn’t all creatures great & small, not suggesting it never happens but usually only in an emergency when you have no way to get them to vet

I’ve also worked in animal rescue for years. The 2 are not mutually exclusive believe it or not!

And I guarantee your rescue isn’t flooded with health tested pedigree kittens! The breeders that you come across are the ones letting their unspayed cat roam the streets and mate with any random male. That’s not the same thing.

I feel much more for the mother of the kittens. Used for breeding so OP can sell cats. But yeah, poor OP being up to monitor feeding ever few hours, must be really hard for her. Ffs. 🙄

Every vet I've ever been with has offered house calls. It's hardly an outrageous suggestion, lol.

It doesn't need to be an emergency either, though you would need to wait until after hours unless you lived very close to the surgery.

Beautiful little thing. I hope he makes it x

I have a Malin update post on another forum where I am posting about his journey if you want me to send you the link?

Probably better to keep it over there as this thread has some right crazies who want to do nothing but argue.

@Madwife123 as way as lone feeding the small kitten I think you should also be supplementing several times a day with kitten milk (from a bottle), could you double check this with your vet?

I'm honestly interested to know where people should get their kittens from if breeders are supposedly awful, and people who sell kittens online are even worse? When I got my kitten last year, I contacted 12 different cat rescues, none of whom had kittens available or who had very long waiting lists, as well as my local vet and cat sitter.

OP. I think it sounds as though you're doing a great job with your tiny kitty and I hope he thrives and stays healthy.

You think vets change their clothes in-between every single patient they see? Really??

Even doctors don’t that. Which is why you will find more virus’s and infections in a hospital than anywhere else.

We rescued what we thought was a thin young "kitten".
In fact she was fully grown. We had her 19 years, she never grew, and always looked like a kitten to the end of her (very robust active healthy) life.