Since May 2015, I have purchased nursing pet bottles from all over the world and spent over $1K in my search for the best of the best. I learned that kitten or puppy life may depend on the nursing equipment we use and therefore I spared no expense to find out the ultimate nursing tool from just born fur babies to 4 weeks old!
Take a look at this video from the nursing device from Italy. Look at the ease of kitten suckling on this nursing device and how spongy soft the device is, making it breeze for kitten to latch on and suckle.
NOTE: At four weeks of age kittens and puppies need to be weaned and start to eat mushy wet food! At that age formula is just not enough and they suck too hard and too fast often leading to aspiration!
The Best Nursing Bottles 2023
I evaluate nursing bottles from time to time. I search world wide and something that is available on Amazon or Ebay
DongDong Nursing bottles & nipples
These are pricy but the quality is superb!
DongDong bottle with 3 size nipples
1 Bottle + S/M/L Nipple +1 Syringe $25.00 on Amazon
- The bottle designed for pets allows for the most natural nursing posture
- Real feel nipple imitates the size and feel of mother’s nipples
- Bottle ventilation system can reduces colic
DongDong SM nipples
2 Small Nipples + 2 Syringes, $15.00 on Amazon
These fit on any standard human baby bottles as well as on 5ml & 10ml syringes.
The designer of DongDong nursing line is in China and has given me a rescue discount for 100 of these that comes to about $4.50 per nipple, including shipping. I donate these to fosters in my rescue.
You can get human baby bottles at any $.99 Cent stores or stores alike. I also saw that Walmart sells milk storage containers that look exactly like nursing bottles minus the nipple. The cost is about $5.40 for 4 of those.
They come in 3 different sizes for those who foster larger puppies, chose MED or LG
DongDong Mini nipples
S (2 pcs), Pink on Amazon $11.89
These are smaller nipples and can fit any standard small nursing bottle for pets. However, nipple is little wider than on the standard nipples shown above in pink color.
The designer of DongDong nursing line is in China and has given me a rescue discount for 500 of these that comes out to about $2.50 per nipple, including shipping. I donate these to fosters in my rescue.
I am using these nipples to create multi feed devices until I finalize my own design. I will post my multi feed prototypes later on this page.
DILL – LARGE (sold on Amazon as “Alfie”)
Larger bottle has smaller nipple
DILL – sm (sold on Amazon under name of “Alfie”)
Small bottle has larger nipple
HOW THE ABOVE TWO COMPARE TO EACH OTHER
Both of these bottles are available on Ebay as well as Amazon. On amazon they are sold under “Alfie” and cost about $5 each when sold as 4 pack.
ROYAL CANIN
ROYAL CANIN FOR LARGER BREED PUPPIES
ROYAL CANIN FOR SMALL BREED, NEWBORN PUPPIES & KITTENS FOR UP TO 4 WEEKS
Both kitten and puppy Royal Canin bottles come with 3 small packages (total of 12 oz) of Royal Canin formula. These bottles come from England or Germany as Royal Canin does not have them available on US market. These are the STATE OF THE ART BOTTLE and Royal Canin does not want to sell them in US market without formula and for some reason they are not allowed to sell formula on US market!
This bottle with formula is sold in US on Amazon or EBay.
The state of the art nipple has 3 different flows. In the past I purchased Kitten Roayl Cannin Kit with formula for as low as $17.00 and as high as $35.00 including shipping from England. This was several years ago. Curent Amazon price for kitten kit is about $45.00 US dollars. On Ebay, you can find Kitten Kit for about $37.00 US dollars. Puppy kit is about $37.00 US dollars on Amazon.
EACH BOTTLE KIT INCLUDES: bottle, 3 nipples, measuring scoop & 12 OZ formula
Petco
Petco’s nursing kit is by far the best what local market has to offer!
Someone recently reported that kitten chewed of the nipple tip on this bottle. I have not purchased these in a few years, so I am not sure if this was isolated incident or if the materials have changed. Use caution if you get these and report to me what kind of experience you had using Petco brand nursing bottle.
Vet Worthy
This is another good bottle available on Amazon. The quality and feel of the nipple is similar to Petco brand.
CATAC–ST1 NIPPLE, A TOTAL LIFE SAVER!
Catac is European based company, located in United Kingdom.
No foster should be without Catac ST1. Even the neonatal experts do not know about this one, so I am here to educate you on all nursing bottles & nipples!
THE ST1 NIPPLE IS MY #1 CHOICE FOR JUST BORN KITTENS & TINY PUPPIES !
These are perfect for premie fur babies as well. Just make sure you only allow kitten/puppy to suckle in only 1/4″ of the nipple as they tend to want to suckle in the whole nipple which is abuot 1″ long!
Take a look at the premie kitten and how ST1 nipple fits perfectly in its tiny mouth…
ST1 is about 3 mm wide & 1″ long. Nipples are shaped similar to real teats, the softness of ST1 is superb and “just born” kittens and premies can latch on instantly. ST1 fits tightly onto regular “slip” tip syringes.
They come in packages of 3 and each nipple is little different in size. They are all super small, but some are smaller, making it the best choice for premies.
There are several distributors of Catac brand bottles and nipples here in US. I use California Veterinary Supply. Cost is $4.49 and if you buy more than 2 packages price drops to $4.19.
I have figured how to use ST1 nipple on a standard nursing bottle…
Cut the long tip on a nipple that comes in standard nursing kits…
Thread ST1 nipple through the hole of the “long nipple base”
MIRACLE & MINI MIRACLE NIPPLE IS A BIG NO !
Miracle & mini miracle nipple is a total garbage with huge holes that aspirates kittens if not used on a syringe where the flow of formula is being controlled.
I have spoken to inventor of miracle nipple and was told that this was designed for squirrels but could be used for kittens and puppies. Inventor said that miracle & mini miracle are strictly to be used with syringe and it is sold together with syringe for that reason! However, on her web site, inventor shows miracle nipple on the standard kitten bottle, which is very misleading and dangerous! This led me to aspirate just born kitten! The hole on Miracle & mini miracle nipple is huge and flow will aspirate kitten even if you are a skilled neonatal expert!
If you do not take my advice and are completely set on Miracle nipple, then search for much better and much cheaper versions of miracle nipple sold on Amazon for about $1.50. However, DO NOT PUT THESE ON THE BOTTLE. There is another version of miracle nipple displayed later on the page and that is a safer choice as it cannot be put on the nursing bottle and can only be used on syringe!
If you must use Miracle nipple type as a feeding device, then use these better and safer alternatives.
CUSTOM DESIGN
Below I show what one of my fosters did with miracle nipple after I gave her clear squirrel nipple similar to Catac’s ST1 nipple. Kitten was able to freely suckle without any danger of aspiration as the holes on clear squirrel nipples have just the right flow. I thought this was a brilliant, but expensive idea as miracle nipples are pricey!
I then spliced mini miracle with ST1 nipple by cutting the tip of mini miracle & removing little more to be able to pull the nipple through the opening. This was challenging as miracle nipple material is hard
Clear Squirrel Nipples
The clear syringe tips are semi soft but not soft as ST1. They can be used for feeding as well as medicating kittens & puppies. They are also rigid enough and can be used on tip of syringe when giving enema.
GENERIC BRAND
One other foster who fosters lots of puppies prefers the following bottle with the nipple softest of all, but nipple is a little larger than the above listed bottles. This bottle is available on Amazon as part of different nursing kits or sold by itself on Ebay.
SLEEKY
This bottle is similar in quality to the smaller bottle above. The only difference is that “Sleeky” bottle is larger and curved at the top
