This page includes a list of the highest-priority items needed to ensure our volunteer kitten fosters can care for their foster babies. We have included details on how these items are used and why they are so important to our program. For a full list of all needed items, please click the button below.
Snuggle Safe Disc
A snuggle safe heating pad is a microwavable disc that stays warm for about 8 hours, making it
the ideal heating source to help raise orphaned kittens, especially bottle kittens. Young kittens
are unable to maintain their own body heat without their mom, so we must supply the heat to
help keep them warm and prevent hypothermia. The shelter provides make shift heating pads at
the moment — usually just uncooked rice in a tube sock! — but it only stays warm for barely two
hours, making maintaining a constant heat for the kittens difficult. The snuggle safe creates a
consistently warm environment, limiting the stress put on the kittens system with constant need
to reheat as well as limiting the chance of the kitten developing hypothermia. Ideally we are
hoping that all orphaned kittens will be able to go home with a Snuggle Safe in their baby bags!
Help us reach our goal!
We would like 50 Snuggle Safes to start the season!
Miracle Nipples
Miracle nipples are a huge need as they help struggling bottle kittens learn to latch after they
become orphaned from their mom, which is a stressful and confusing time for them. Many
orphaned kittens struggle with eating when they first come to the shelter, and using the best
tools to make it as natural as possible helps them begin improving and growing again rapidly.
Even one missed feeding can be detrimental to these fragile kittens’ health! A miracle nipple
“mini” is more natural to the feel of mom and is easier for little kitten mouths to latch onto, rather
than the nipples our regular baby bottles come with which tend to be too big and difficult for
them to latch onto. Ideally, we would love to send every orphaned bottle kitten home with one,
but they are too expensive and so we have to send them out with the neediest kittens. The more
we have, the more kittens we can help!
Food Scale
We use food scales to weigh kittens! Our goal is to be able to assign each foster home a baby
bag, which will include needed supplies to help them succeed in raising their orphaned baby
kittens. This scale will be essential to that! Being able to properly weigh kittens, especially the
bottle babies, will benefit the foster program because we can keep track of weight gain or loss in
the kittens that are being sent home. Weight loss, or the inability to gain weight, is the first sign
that something may be going wrong with the kitten. The sooner we are aware there is a
problem, the better. Our goal is to begin by sending them out with bottle kitten fosters or older
kittens who are sick or a little more fragile, but as we get a bigger supply of scales, we hope to
be able to send them out with every kitten.
Our goal is to have a stock pile of 50 scales this year! Help us reach our goal!
Firm Up Pumpkin
PUMPKIN! It is a huge need in our foster program. Kittens are prone to digestive upset, and
pumpkin, can help turn that around relatively quickly. While canned pumpkin does work well
(and we will never say no to canned pumpkin!) Firm Up! Is a great alternative since it is easy to
store, separate, and hand out to fosters in need. Plus, the added bonus is it doesn’t go bad after
a few days like a can of pumpkin will! Ideally, each litter of kittens would go home with a zip lock
back of Firm Up to help make sure their kittens get treatment at the first sign of symptoms!
Snuggle Kitty
A Snuggle Kitty is an orphaned kitten’s best friend! Kittens who have recently been orphaned
from mom, or kittens who don’t have any siblings with them for comfort, do best with a soft
stuffed animal to snuggle up to. The stuffed animal is comforting, but the added benefit of a
compartment to hide an artificial heartbeat is even more helpful. The heartbeat creates a
soothing feeling, reminding the kitten of how it feels to snuggle up with mom. Many kittens will
begin eating better, sleeping more peacefully, and stop crying for a mom or siblings they lost
when given a snuggle kitty with a heartbeat.
If nothing else, the heartbeat is the key component. Any stuffed animal can help sooth a kitten in
need, but the benefit of a heartbeat creates that healing environment to help relax a stressed or
upset kitten.
Nutrical for Kittens
This is high nutrition and vitamin supplement, specifically made for kittens. As tough as it is,
many kittens come to us malnourished, sick, and have obviously been on their own for a long
time. This supplement, mixed with food, helps replenish some of the lost calories and vitamins
that these troubled kittens have lacked for too long. It also helps when syringe feeding these
needy kittens, we ensure they are getting denser nutrition with each bite. One tube of this lasts
a while, but can help save dozens of kittens who are in desperate need!
Electrolytes
Kittenlyte is a powdered electrolyte supplement used to help kittens who are struggling with
dehydration. While we normally use Pedialyte, which helps, this is a better choice as it is easier
to store and doesn’t go bad and have to be thrown out in a couple of days. We can also portion
it out to give to fosters whose kittens need an extra little boost. Used in conjunction with
Nutrical, it can create a lifesaving gruel mixture that has helped countless kittens bounce back
from the worst of conditions!
Paintbrushes
Probably the oddest thing that we need currently, paint brushes! It is used to help socialize
semi-feral kittens (meaning they have had little to no contact with humans, or were born to feral
moms and have lacked proper socialization). The kittens are terrified of people, but the goal is
to get them socialized to live happily in a home where they can have the best life possible,
rather than sending them into our barn cat program. The paintbrush helps by allowing the foster
who is in charge of socializing to touch the kitten without reaching in with a big scary human
hand. It helps the kitten associate with the person’s smell as well, once the caretaker paints
their own face with it first! Eventually, this leads to more trust in the kitten and they can move
onto the next phase of socialization, actual petting and playing!
The key is they need to be long handled, creating distance between caretaker and kitten.
Doesn’t necessarily have to be this kind of paint brush. Just needs a broad head and a long
handle. Nothing tiny!
Fortiflora
Fortiflora is a probiotic supplement that is helpful for kittens who are suffering from severe
digestive upset. The shelter has a hard time getting this donated frequently, and it is fairly
expensive for the shelter to supply ourselves. It has worked to cure some of the more severe
cases of diarrhea in our kittens! One packet can mix into several feedings, so the box goes
further than it would with a full grown cat. If you would like to donate unused packets to the
shelter from a personal cat, that would be a great help as well!
Kitten Bottles
These bottles are what we would prefer when handing out supplies to fosters to feed their bottle
kittens. The nipples are more flexible and easier for a newborn to latch onto, if we don’t get
enough of the miracle nipples to give out to everyone. The miracle nipples also fit onto these
bottles in place of the nipples they come with, so it is a win/win situation with these bottles!