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
- Mix together all ingredients in a pint jar.
- Store in fridge for up to a week.
- To serve, mix together one part DIY Kitten Milk Replacer with one part boiling water. (For example, 2 Tablespoons of DIY Kitten Milk Replacer mixed with 2 Tablespoons of boiling water will fill a 2 ounce kitten bottle.)
- Make sure the liquid is warm, but not too hot, before feeding to kittens. You can test the temperature on the inside of your wrist.
Tasha says
Have you had any issues with diarrhea while using this?
Jamie H says
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).
Sarah Jude says
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!
Jamie H says
I’m so glad to hear that!