Good morning kitten ladies and gentlemen. . . and good morning to you, Zuma!
I am reporting live from the kitten bathroom where I am about to give the kittens a bunch of butt baths.
These guys are just over three weeks old, and one of the things that starts happening
between three and four weeks old is they start to discover the litter box.
These guys haven't quite mastered the litter box yet,
so sometimes in between their feedings, they will accidentally poop on themselves,
doing what I call an "oopsy poopsy."
Who's got poop hanging from their butts?
Is it you? Oh, yeah, you got poop hanging from your butt.
Eww! Yeah, you got poops.
Balboa looks nice and clean though! Good job Balboa!
Now these guys are orphans, and if they had a mom cat their mom would be meticulously cleaning them.
I do the same thing with baby wipes,
but sometimes the oopsy poopsies are a little too strong and they have to get a butt bath.
You have to be really careful when you're bathing these little guys because they can't regulate their own body temperature.
So you have to do it quickly in a way that's warm and that doesn't stress them out.
So this morning I'm going to show you guys how to do a safe and easy butt bath on a kitten.
I want to make sure these guys are gonna be warm when they get out of their bath.
So the first thing I do is heat up a heat pad and stick it right under a soft baby blanket.
That way the baby blanket can get nice and cozy and warm,
so that when they get out of their bath they have a warm spot to return to.
Come on, Zuma. Let's go!
Kittens can get cold really easily, so it's important that you get the temperature right.
While that's warming up, I'm gonna grab some washcloths.
All right, my water is nice and warm.
So I plugged the sink and I get ready for Zuma's bath!
I'm just soaking Zuma's little butt in the water.
You never want to dunk more of the kitten than needs to be cleaned because this is a really stressful thing for them.
So I just dunk their bottom half in there.
Since Zuma's pretty crusty, I'm gonna let her soak for about 30 seconds.
There's a couple different products you can use for this you can use dish soap, which helps break down oils.
Or you can use an unscented baby shampoo.
I like to use baby shampoo for these little guys. It's pretty gentle. . .
Um, I prefer one that's fragrance free. I prefer one that's cruelty free and organic if possible.
The one that I'm using with them is just a fragrance free baby bath that is not tested on animals.
Okay.
I'm not washing her entire body, I'm just washing the parts that have poop on them.
I try to do this as quickly as possible, but also as thorough as possible
because I don't want her to have any poop left behind.
Now I am going to rinse her butt with fresh water.
Of course, I don't want to rinse her butt with the dirty poop water.
I just run some water over her tail always protecting her face, always protecting her eyes, and ears, and mouth.
Just rinsing the butt.
(Soothing) Just a little butt bath.
And that's it!
Then you can dry them off.
Kittens don't like being wet
so you want to try to get them dry as fast as possible.
The first method for getting her dry is just vigorously rubbing her with a washcloth.
Another method you can do is to backcomb the kitten using a toothbrush.
This just helps aerate the fur and get it dry faster.
Okay, you little fluff butt, you're all done!
Next in line: Topanga!
Plugging the sink, making sure that it's nice fresh water for her
And then dunk!
Dunk her in the bath.
(Soothing) Yeah, I know, butt baths are not a kitten's favorite.
Now that her butt has soaked, I just use a little bit of baby shampoo to suds it up.
(Soothing) I know.
Am I making you get a butt bath on YouTube?
Yeah, I'm sorry.
So what I'm doing is just rubbing the butt.
You may find that sometimes when you're rubbing their butt it actually stimulates them to go poop in the bath,
and while that's a little gross, no better place to poop than when you're already getting a butt bath, right?
It's okay Topanga. We all poop in the bath, right guys?
Now it's time to rinse the booty!
You can see only her back end has been washed.
So I just take a washcloth and I vigorously rub that area to get it dry.
What did you do this weekend, Topanga?
(in Topanga's voice) "I just had a little spa day with the girls. . .
"You know, got my butt washed...
"The usual."
Once the butt is as dry as it's gonna get, you can use a toothbrush to backcomb.
Great job!
My next customer at the booty spa is Catalina!
Baby shampoo. . .
So one precaution:
You never want to bathe a kitten who's really sick.
Stress can have a major impact on illness and if the kitten is already not doing well
you don't want to stress them out too bad.
So if you have a kitten who's really sick already, I don't recommend dunking them in water.
I recommend instead just using your baby wipes or using a gentle, wet washcloth to give them a sponge bath.
Rinse the booty. . .
(Soothing) Nice and clean!
I definitely don't recommend doing this every day.
I would try to limit it to once or twice a week since it can be pretty stressful for them.
Hopefully they're not going to be having too many poopsplosions on themselves.
But if they are, then giving them a little oopsie-poopsie bath is a very helpful thing to do.
Now sometimes people will ask, "Can you use a hairdryer on these little guys?"
And the answer is: yes you can, but sparingly, only as needed, and from very far away on a low setting.
If you do plan to use a hairdryer do it from very far away. Something like this.
We gave your booty a blowout, girlfriend!
Okay, Will's getting his booty soaked. . .
You're purring-- you kind of like that, huh?
You are the most crustable of all of them all.
He eats a ton, and he poops a ton.
Yeah, you're the tiniest but you're the biggest pooper.
You seem to have a lot of complaints.
I hope you don't give me a one-star rating on my butt spa.
You did a great job buddy.
(Soothing) You did a good job!
Okay, dude, check it out. You don't poop on yourself anymore, and I won't give you any more butt baths.
Is that a deal?
Now that your kittens are nice and dry they can go back to their nice, cozy, warm blanket
and get back to a good, comfortable temperature.
Good job, baby!
Good job!