These foster kittens were so young that their foster mom had to bottle-feed them. But when they grew up and learned how to eat food, they had very big appetites and often got messy.
Someone to care for them
These six kittens were brought to animal services without their mama cat when they were only 10 days old. Rescuers found their mama later, but she was in bad condition and needed too much medical treatment to be able to care for them. They needed someone else to raise them, so they were sent to the home of Stephanie, a kitten fosterer.
For a short time, she tried to match them with a surrogate mama cat who didn’t have her own kittens, but it didn’t work out. You can read more about their surrogate mom, Bliss, in another of our articles here.
Bottle-fed Butter babies
Stephanie realized that the kittens wouldn’t have a mama or surrogate mama cat, so she had to step up and bottle-feed them herself. It was difficult work, and the hungry kittens drank a full bottle between them every three hours. But Stephanie was happy to put in the time and effort.
The six kittens had been rescued from a place on Butters Road, so Stephanie gave them all adorable butter-themed names: ButterFinger, ButterNut, ButterCup, ButterFly, ButterBall, and ButterScotch.
Even as the Butter kittens grew up, Stephanie wasn’t sure if they’d ever grow out of using the bottle and move on to solid food. They were still stubbornly milk-drinkers only.
Messy eaters
But then one day a little less than a month after they arrived at the foster home, two of the kittens, ButterFly and ButterFinger, started eating solid food.
Not too long after that, the other kittens followed their lead. Although he wasn’t the first to start, ButterBall quickly turned into the messiest eater.
Every time he ate, he stuck his whole face in, as if it would help him eat faster. Maybe it didn’t make him faster, but it did make the food go everywhere! Stephanie said:
“ButterBall is the messiest kitten I’ve had in ages. He’s constantly wearing his food and his face is going to be permanently stained.”
He even got so messy that she had to give him a bath. He didn’t seem to mind. In fact, it looked more like he enjoyed it.
ButterBall wasn’t the only messy eater. ButterNut also had a habit of messy eating that was a little more bizarre. He liked to stand in his food when he ate, getting it all over his feet too.
All together
Some of the Butter kittens were cleaner eaters than the others, but when they all got together to eat, they were all very noisy too. We love hearing the sounds of these noisy kittens enjoying their food!
All six kittens had good appetites and grew up healthy and playful. When they were old enough, they were all adopted in pairs into their new forever homes. We hope they enjoy their food just as much in their new homes.