Kittens raised from strong, healthy parents, even though they may be of the highest pedigree, are very little trouble to raise, and should they contract any illness, they usually recover.

On the other hand, if you try to raise kittens from delicate, underfed and neglected cats, then you may expect trouble from the beginning. Even from the time they are born, one or more of the litter will be small and delicate, probably only surviving a few hours or days. Previously I had many such experiences, and often raised but two or three kittens in the season out of perhaps a dozen or more. This was due, I have since discovered, to over-breeding the parents and not feeding correctly; by making experiments through taking other people's advice, which was more often wrong than right

I well remember feeding my cats and kittens one year on a mixed diet of fish, meat, cereals and milk; the result was disastrous. The kittens had sore eyes dysentery, chronic colds, worms, and finally distemper, and I lost practically all my youngsters. This was my first and last experience of a mixed and milk diet.

I confess it took some time to condition my breeding stock and eradicate the worms, which I found was impossible without first ridding them of fleas.

After several years, I am now able to keep all my cats free from fleas and worms; they all look bright-eyed and healthy, and, above all, I am able to raise nearly every kitten which is born; even though they have become more highly bred, yet they improve each year in strength.

I mention some of my experiences in this chapter, as I wish it understood that I base my information and advice on kitten raising purely from bitter experience with each and every treatment and diet.

If you have delicate stock, it will, of course, take several seasons to secure complete success, but under the following treatment a steady improvement will be noticed in the young kittens.

First, it must be remembered that cats are carnivorous animals, and in their wild state young kittens would go straight from the mother and eat raw flesh, either birds or pieces of meat from any small animal the mother might kill.

These being the natural conditions, why should we not follow them out, instead of thinking we can alter nature by trying to raise carnivorous animals on cooked meat, milk and cereals ?

Taking the size of a calf in comparisan with a tiny five weeks' kitten, one could imagine that the calf needs far stronger milk than the kitten; therefore, pure cow's milk is sure to be too strong, and is certain to disagree with it. You will notice milk-fed kittens have large, distended stomachs; they suffer from chronic diarrhoea, caused by indigestion, and consequently appear in a semi-starved condition.

They are slightly better raised on a mixed diet with sweetened condensed milk, but to grow highly-bred kittens to perfection, nothing can replace a raw meat diet. If the mother cat has a good-sized family to raise, the kittens must be fed at four weeks old; if not, it will be noticed after that age they begin to get thin. When meat is given, they will quickly devour it, but at this early age the meat must be scraped. Shin of beef is the easiest, as the lean meat is easily scraped from the gristle. Moisten this meat with a little lime-water, and place a tiny piece in each kitten's mouth; they will usually grab your fingers to get more, but do not feed much at first - a piece about the size of the top of your little finger. Feed once a day for the first few days, then increase to two meals, finally to three.

It must be remembered that as you feed the kittens, so must you reduce the quantity of the mother's food, or you will find she will get more milk than the kittens will take, and at the age of six weeks only leave her with the kittens at night. At seven or eight weeks, take her away altogether.

Nothing ruins your queen more than allowing her to nurse four or five large kittens, and, as it reduces her strength, the milk becomes unfit for the kittens, and their digestions become deranged. When the kittens require to be fed three times a day, it will be found tedious work scraping the meat: therefore, select the leanest parts of the beef (shin is best, using the parts without gristle); have this put two or three times through a meat-chopper, using the finest knives; then add enough lime-water to make it moist, mixing it with a spoon or fork.

When the kittens are eating readily, the best method of feeding each separately is to take a short cake tin, turn it upside down, and place upon it four or five patches of meat, according to the number of kittens, never allowing any one kitten to eat more than its share. It will be found necessary to feed only two or three kittens together as they get older, or they will fight over the meat.

Perhaps the most difficult task is to explain just how much meat should be given to each kitten, and how to increase the quantity as the kitten gets older. This must be left to the judgment of the person who is feeding, and therein lies much of the art of successful kitten raisins'.

Feed only as much as will be eaten quickly; the kittens should always appear very hungry for each meal. Yet when you feel they are fat and solid, you are certain in your own mind that they are having all that is good for them; if they seem extra hungry, increase the meal slightly, but should this increase in any way upset them, or make them show lack of interest in the next meal, you will know that the original quantity was sufficient.

When the kittens get older, the. very best parts of the meat can be reserved for a younger litter, and the rest can be minced twice through the chopper for the older ones. At the age of three months a little gristle and a very little fat can be left in the meat, also raw bones should be given, leaving nice little pieces of raw meat, but removing any loose pieces of fat or gristle which may be large enough to cause indigestion. When you see how these bones are relished, you will easily recognize in kittens the true carnivorous instinct; they tear and gnaw at them just like so many wild animals. In winter, bones can be left with them until the next morning, but in summer they should always be quite fresh, and only left until the next meal and then removed.