My boyfriend and i have been crying most of the afternoon. The runt of the litter, Dean, who my boyfriend wanted to keep, passed around 12:20 pm today. 
We tried our best for him. I'm so anxious about the rest of the litter despite them doing well. This is haunting me 
Hold your babies tight tonight. Dean made it 10 days and I'm so proud of his hard work
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I don't know if this will make you feel any better, but this is how it works with kittens. Usually one of them doesn't make it past this phase. That's just how their life cycle works. One dies so the rest can be stronger.
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I understand. Truly, it's not... terribly shocking that it happened. But he faked me out by making it past the first 72 hours. I know we're doing everything and more than the vet told me to do for them nutritionally. But Dean had been really struggling since day one. I just can't help but feel for my poor bf. That was his special kitten
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It's natural for the mother to eat the deceased so she can produce more milk for her living offspring. Since this is a domesticated cat situation where that is unnecessary, I'd recommend taking the following steps:
1. Skin the kitten by placing your thumb in it's butthole and gripping on it's lower pelvic area. Give it a quick tug all the way through.
2. Remove any excess fur and chop the paws and head off (I normally enjoy the crunchy texture but the effort to remove the fur from this area isn't worth the reward)
3. Take a sharp blade and create an incision from the naval to the breastplate. Make sure to remove all organs you do not wish to enjoy later.
4. While you heat up a pot of oil, 1 inch deep, prepare a bowl with a whipped egg.
5. Dip the carcass in the flour, then in the egg, then add panko.
6. Cook in the oil for about two and a half minutes on each side, until golden brown.
7. Season to your preference and enjoy!
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It's fine. He was probably born with an undersized liver or something and would've suffered for years if he somehow lived.
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True, that's entirely possible. We've lost a couple cats to disease and it's heartbreaking
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We used to have a kitten mother that decided this must hold true always and even if no kitten died she made sure one did by herself, either by moving the little ones in random places outside and forgetting about them, or accidentally dropping them from high places
Needless to say we fixed her pretty quickly lol. We joke that she sacrificed her other kittens to make the only surviving one more powerful because he ended up being 3 times her size
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My goodness. Sheila is just barely a year old. She should not be reproducing yet, and so the vet told me to start feeding the babies formula 4 to 5x a day AFTER they drink her milk. These kids need to fatten up
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