This DIY Kitten Milk Replacer Recipe is vital to keep on hand if you have barn cats. If you’re out of KMR, this DIY Kitten Milk Replacer Recipe is easy to whip up, and could save your kittens’ lives.
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We have barn cats on our homestead. These barn cats aren’t the feral type you might picture, when you hear that name. Instead, our barn cats are loved on by our family– they just live in the barn. They are regularly pet, snuggled with, rocked to sleep, and sung to.
Barn kittens are also part of our homestead life. As new kittens are born, we often give KMR (kitten milk replacer) to the mama cats, to help them keep their weight up while they nurse, because nursing takes so much out of the mamas. I normally buy KMR, which is a powdered formula for kittens. However, I had recently run out when we had tragedy strike.
Star, one of our sweetest barn cats, got hit by a car. Her sweet babies were left behind without a mom. They were hungry, and I had just run out of KMR. I got to work whipping up a batch of DIY KMR, following the recipe I found from Kitten Rescue, so they didn’t have to go hungry.
If you’re anticipating feeding kittens for very long, KMR or one of the other recipes from Kitten Rescue is probably the way to go. However, if you just need to feed kittens in a pinch, DIY Kitten Milk Replacer is a great option, that they love.
If you’ve got barn cats, you’ve probably dealt with goopy cat eyes at some point. We treat this with colloidal silver dropped in their eyes. Find out how to make your own colloidal silver so it doesn’t cost hardly anything and you can always have it on hand.
DIY Kitten Milk Replacer
Ingredients
- 1 Can Evaporated Milk
- 1 Egg Yolk
- 2 Tablespoons Karo Syrup
Instructions
I just found a kitten, days old. I have all but kato syrup, what can I replace it with or without it?!
Do you happen to have goats milk? That would be my first choice.
Or wet cat food? If you have a can of wet cat food you could add enough water to make it quite liquid and give them that– it’s not a great long term solution, but would work in a emergency situation.
Or do you have sweetened condensed milk? If so, you could try blending 6 Tbsp sweetened condensed milk, 6 Tbsp water, 1/2 cup plain (unsweetened) yogurt, and 3-4 egg yolks, then warm and serve. Again, this would be only for emergency situation, until you can get some KMR.
Do I use a light caro syrup or a dark caro syrup?
I use light caro, Ruth.
Maple syrup can be used as a sub for Karo syrup
Can I use honey instead of karo syrup?
I wouldn’t use honey, as it’s difficult for cats to digest. I hope the answers I sent via email will help you out, Jennifer!
Have you had any issues with diarrhea while using this?
I haven’t had any issues with diarrhea in the kittens we’ve used it on. However, stomach issues can definitely be a problem with orphan kittens. I would probably use homeopathic arsenicum album 30c if that was an issue we were dealing with. We’ve had great success with homeopathy for our animals (and ourselves).
Our 6-week old kittens love this! Thanks for sharing! 2 days in and they seem more settled and satisfied than when we were using kmr kitten milk replacer. I’ll comment again if anything changes. God bless!
I’m so glad to hear that!