WHY WE NEED TO HUG KITTENS (I'M SERIOUS)

Kittens, like human babies, need physical contact with other living beings in order to flourish. A single nursing kitten needs lots of extra cuddles from a human or other pet, in addition to a constant source of heat and artificial fluffiness, or he can actually die of loneliness.

If you have rescued tiny baby kittens or puppies and are scared to handle them, you must get over the fear! You won't break them, but you will cause them irreparable social, emotional, and even physical damage if you decide to leave them alone to develop in a vacuum. Whenever it is feeding time (remember not to play with babies in between feedings since they need their sleep), make sure to spend a few minutes hugging, kissing, and petting each baby.

A lonely babycat will often stop eating. I always wean my babies by hand, either by hand-feeding (mostly they cannot figure out how to eat from dishes and will bite the edges in frustration) or by simply petting and talking to them while they eat on their own. They will eat much more heartily if mom is there to keep them company and egg them on! Kittens celebrate all happy events (Mom's home! Mom's petting me! Mom gave me a toy! My buddy is over for a visit! I made a big poo!) by running to the food bowl. Make sure the food is there, and that they have ample reason to celebrate life and EAT!!

I decided to write this post because one of the two tiny kittens I just got from the pound was very antisocial and badly traumatized--unusual for her age. She wasn't celebrating well, and only her sister was getting the whole eating thing. I realized that, even though she wasn't yet used to me or so happy about my being there, my company was still a comfort to her and an impetus to chow. For the past few days, I've been luring her out of her box to the food bowl, and petting her until she purrs like a crazy man and goes at the food like a monster cat. Until I get a hearty purr out of her, though, she won't eat. Kittens, unlike human babies, will actually starve themselves to death. We need to be aware of their eating habits and to know how to improve them. Being a eating-time helper can mean the difference between life and death for a baby who is learning to eat on his own.

Hugs and kisses are also essential for another reason: they help us to socialize kittens and ensure that they grow up in to big, fat, lazy, happy creatures that families will love forever and ever. The job of the rescuer/foster is to grow happy cats that will be adopted and cared for by humans who worship them with passion and dedication. If we simply keep the babies in our care alive, they become antisocial and unadoptable...and usually can't be fixed. Then they get stuck...wild cats who live indoors and that no one wants. It happened to me once that I agreed to try to rehabilitate 2 kittens who had been "rescued" and kept in a cage in a trailer for the first two months of their lives. What I got was a pair of wild, fearful, untouchable babies who just grew and grew and grew...until someone eventually found a nice woman with a big backyard and the willingness to keep them there. They held my rescue hostage for 5 months, since I only have limited space and resources and can't take new kittens until my current ones are adopted. The guy who had "saved" the litter had totally ruined them, just by denying them human contact and love. They could have developed into perfectly happy, healthy, adoptable cats if raised the right way!

So, moral of the story is : HUG YOUR KITTENS!!!!! They need it, and it's good for you, too :) <3