In a few weeks, the population of cats will go up because of the Spring season. Many shelters will be bottle feeding rescued kittens. However, a warning needs to be put out to all shelters regarding milk replacement products.
A local animal shelter lost a litter of kittens to dehydration because the milk replacement product turned rancid.
Kittens 6 weeks old or younger without their mother should be fed on milk replacement products. The most popular one is called KMR. The product comes in a powder form where the package does not have any warning signs that say the product needs to be refrigerated. However, the powder can spoil without refrigeration. The company recommends that you sniff the powder in order to make sure it has not gone rancid, but there is no warning of such printed on the product.
"Obviously that's something we have to do now. I didn't know that. It bothers me that people are not going to know if they are not experienced" says Julie Lafferty from Another Chance Pet Rescue.
When asked if the company would add a warning about sniffing the product and a bigger warning about keeping the product refrigerated, the company stated that it is not necessary.
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