Plain notes for the first eight weeks with an orphaned kitten, written down after too many 3 a.m. feeds.
A kitten under three or four weeks cannot keep itself warm. A cold kitten cannot digest, so feeding it first can make things worse. Wrap a warm water bottle in a towel, put it on one side of the box, and leave the other side cooler so the kitten can crawl away from the heat.
The ears and paw pads should feel warm to your fingers before the first bottle.
Use kitten milk replacer, never cow's milk. Keep the kitten on its belly, the way it would nurse from its mother, and let it pull at the bottle at its own speed. A kitten fed on its back can breathe milk into its lungs.
Until about three or four weeks, a kitten cannot go to the bathroom alone. After every feed, rub gently below the tail with a warm damp cloth until it does.
Weigh the kitten at the same time every day and write it down. A steady gain of roughly ten grams a day tells you more than anything else you can observe.
This is a small personal page kept by someone who fosters kittens at home. It is not veterinary advice, and every kitten is a little different. When the notes and your vet disagree, your vet is right.