4 week old kitten not interested in "real" food -- help!

We've been nursing a kitten we got as a rescue when he was 12 days
old. He's now 4 weeks 4 days and thriving, thankfully. However, he
doesn't want to eat anything except his formula. I've offered various
flavors of canned food, thinned with water or formula, but he is not
the least bit interested.

I've tried sticking a bit on his tongue, but that hasn't helped (and
if a kitty could make an "eeeewww" face, he made it :-) It doesn't
feel right to force feed him wet food....

I'm going to hit the grocery today and see if some Gerber baby food
might do the trick, but I'm wondering if he just needs a little more
time to grow before he becomes naturally hungry for more than forumla.

If anyone has any thoughts or hints, I'd be glad to hear them.

dragon

I found this on the internet:
Weaning (at 5-6 weeks)

a.. Mix the kitten formula with baby food into a gruel and get the kitten
to eat if off a dish or spoon. KMR 2nd Step works well too.
a.. Mix canned kitten food with formula
a.. Gradually reduce the amount of formula each day until the kitten is
eating just kitten food.
"Dragon" wrote in message
om...
We've been nursing a kitten we got as a rescue when he was 12 days
old. He's now 4 weeks 4 days and thriving, thankfully. However, he
doesn't want to eat anything except his formula. I've offered various
flavors of canned food, thinned with water or formula, but he is not
the least bit interested.

I've tried sticking a bit on his tongue, but that hasn't helped (and
if a kitty could make an "eeeewww" face, he made it :-) It doesn't
feel right to force feed him wet food....

I'm going to hit the grocery today and see if some Gerber baby food
might do the trick, but I'm wondering if he just needs a little more
time to grow before he becomes naturally hungry for more than forumla.

If anyone has any thoughts or hints, I'd be glad to hear them.

dragon

I found this on the internet:
Weaning (at 5-6 weeks)

a.. Mix the kitten formula with baby food into a gruel and get the kitten
to eat if off a dish or spoon. KMR 2nd Step works well too.
a.. Mix canned kitten food with formula
a.. Gradually reduce the amount of formula each day until the kitten is
eating just kitten food.
"Dragon" wrote in message
om...
We've been nursing a kitten we got as a rescue when he was 12 days
old. He's now 4 weeks 4 days and thriving, thankfully. However, he
doesn't want to eat anything except his formula. I've offered various
flavors of canned food, thinned with water or formula, but he is not
the least bit interested.

I've tried sticking a bit on his tongue, but that hasn't helped (and
if a kitty could make an "eeeewww" face, he made it :-) It doesn't
feel right to force feed him wet food....

I'm going to hit the grocery today and see if some Gerber baby food
might do the trick, but I'm wondering if he just needs a little more
time to grow before he becomes naturally hungry for more than forumla.

If anyone has any thoughts or hints, I'd be glad to hear them.

dragon

In article ,
(Dragon) wrote:

We've been nursing a kitten we got as a rescue when he was 12 days
old. He's now 4 weeks 4 days and thriving, thankfully. However, he
doesn't want to eat anything except his formula. I've offered various
flavors of canned food, thinned with water or formula, but he is not
the least bit interested.

I've tried sticking a bit on his tongue, but that hasn't helped (and
if a kitty could make an "eeeewww" face, he made it :-) It doesn't
feel right to force feed him wet food....

I'm going to hit the grocery today and see if some Gerber baby food
might do the trick, but I'm wondering if he just needs a little more
time to grow before he becomes naturally hungry for more than forumla.

If anyone has any thoughts or hints, I'd be glad to hear them.

dragon

Be sure you get turkey or chicken without
garlic.

LT

In article ,
(Dragon) wrote:

We've been nursing a kitten we got as a rescue when he was 12 days
old. He's now 4 weeks 4 days and thriving, thankfully. However, he
doesn't want to eat anything except his formula. I've offered various
flavors of canned food, thinned with water or formula, but he is not
the least bit interested.

I've tried sticking a bit on his tongue, but that hasn't helped (and
if a kitty could make an "eeeewww" face, he made it :-) It doesn't
feel right to force feed him wet food....

I'm going to hit the grocery today and see if some Gerber baby food
might do the trick, but I'm wondering if he just needs a little more
time to grow before he becomes naturally hungry for more than forumla.

If anyone has any thoughts or hints, I'd be glad to hear them.

dragon

Be sure you get turkey or chicken without
garlic.

LT

I raised a kitten from just a couple days old last year, and here's what I
did to wean him:

* MEAT ONLY flavored baby food (Gerber makes some, ham, chicken, turkey,
beef & lamb, I think) just by itself as a trial to see if he would lick it
off a spoon (he liked the chicken best). He did so we went on to...

* mixed powdered KMR with the baby food into a paste just a bit thinner than
peanut butter. After a few days of this AND bottle feeding I...

* mixed in canned kitten food with the KMR/baby food mixture. He started
chowing down on this and wanting the bottle less & less. After about a week
of this, I...

* started using less & less of the baby food in the mix, while increasing
the amount of canned kitten food, until eventually there was no baby food in
it at all. Since KMR has vitamins & stuff in it that kitten food doesn't, I
continued with this path for a few weeks, then I...

* slowly reduced the amount of powdered KMR in the mix until he was eating
plain canned kitten food. About this time I noticed him getting into our
adult cat's kibble, so I bought kitten kibble, and he started eating that.


He likes the crunch better than the goosh, so he's on dry now - adult (he's
about 14 months old now) dental because he prefers the BIG crunchies to the
little bits of normal food.

He also told me when he was ready for a litterbox. I had been stimulating
him to poop and/or pee at every feeding, and I noticed that one day he
wasn't peeing but a few drops (where it was usually a flood), and when I
changed the towels in his nest-box, one corner was literally soaked!!!!! So
I made a litterbox out of the cardboard tray that canned food comes in
(lined with the cut down shrink-wrap that is used to hold said cans in the
tray) and filled with regular clay (non-clumping) litter and placed that in
his nest-box, in the same corner where the towels had been wet. I set him
in it. He went to town, digging in it. Then he peed in it. Yay!
Unfortunately, his digging scattered a lot of it about, fortunately he has
no qualms about using a hooded box now, so it's contained..

--
The ONE and ONLY
lefthanded-pathetic-paranoid-psychotic-sarcastic-wiseass-ditzy former-blonde
in Bloomington! (And proud of it, too)©
email me at nalee1964 (at) insightbb (dot) com
http://community.webshots.com/user/mgcmdjeep


"Dragon" wrote in message
om...
We've been nursing a kitten we got as a rescue when he was 12 days
old. He's now 4 weeks 4 days and thriving, thankfully. However, he
doesn't want to eat anything except his formula. I've offered various
flavors of canned food, thinned with water or formula, but he is not
the least bit interested.

I've tried sticking a bit on his tongue, but that hasn't helped (and
if a kitty could make an "eeeewww" face, he made it :-) It doesn't
feel right to force feed him wet food....

I'm going to hit the grocery today and see if some Gerber baby food
might do the trick, but I'm wondering if he just needs a little more
time to grow before he becomes naturally hungry for more than forumla.

If anyone has any thoughts or hints, I'd be glad to hear them.

dragon

I raised a kitten from just a couple days old last year, and here's what I
did to wean him:

* MEAT ONLY flavored baby food (Gerber makes some, ham, chicken, turkey,
beef & lamb, I think) just by itself as a trial to see if he would lick it
off a spoon (he liked the chicken best). He did so we went on to...

* mixed powdered KMR with the baby food into a paste just a bit thinner than
peanut butter. After a few days of this AND bottle feeding I...

* mixed in canned kitten food with the KMR/baby food mixture. He started
chowing down on this and wanting the bottle less & less. After about a week
of this, I...

* started using less & less of the baby food in the mix, while increasing
the amount of canned kitten food, until eventually there was no baby food in
it at all. Since KMR has vitamins & stuff in it that kitten food doesn't, I
continued with this path for a few weeks, then I...

* slowly reduced the amount of powdered KMR in the mix until he was eating
plain canned kitten food. About this time I noticed him getting into our
adult cat's kibble, so I bought kitten kibble, and he started eating that.


He likes the crunch better than the goosh, so he's on dry now - adult (he's
about 14 months old now) dental because he prefers the BIG crunchies to the
little bits of normal food.

He also told me when he was ready for a litterbox. I had been stimulating
him to poop and/or pee at every feeding, and I noticed that one day he
wasn't peeing but a few drops (where it was usually a flood), and when I
changed the towels in his nest-box, one corner was literally soaked!!!!! So
I made a litterbox out of the cardboard tray that canned food comes in
(lined with the cut down shrink-wrap that is used to hold said cans in the
tray) and filled with regular clay (non-clumping) litter and placed that in
his nest-box, in the same corner where the towels had been wet. I set him
in it. He went to town, digging in it. Then he peed in it. Yay!
Unfortunately, his digging scattered a lot of it about, fortunately he has
no qualms about using a hooded box now, so it's contained..

--
The ONE and ONLY
lefthanded-pathetic-paranoid-psychotic-sarcastic-wiseass-ditzy former-blonde
in Bloomington! (And proud of it, too)©
email me at nalee1964 (at) insightbb (dot) com
http://community.webshots.com/user/mgcmdjeep


"Dragon" wrote in message
om...
We've been nursing a kitten we got as a rescue when he was 12 days
old. He's now 4 weeks 4 days and thriving, thankfully. However, he
doesn't want to eat anything except his formula. I've offered various
flavors of canned food, thinned with water or formula, but he is not
the least bit interested.

I've tried sticking a bit on his tongue, but that hasn't helped (and
if a kitty could make an "eeeewww" face, he made it :-) It doesn't
feel right to force feed him wet food....

I'm going to hit the grocery today and see if some Gerber baby food
might do the trick, but I'm wondering if he just needs a little more
time to grow before he becomes naturally hungry for more than forumla.

If anyone has any thoughts or hints, I'd be glad to hear them.

dragon

I had one kitten that took till she was six weeks before she figured out
what food was.. good luck!
"Dragon" wrote in message
om...
We've been nursing a kitten we got as a rescue when he was 12 days
old. He's now 4 weeks 4 days and thriving, thankfully. However, he
doesn't want to eat anything except his formula. I've offered various
flavors of canned food, thinned with water or formula, but he is not
the least bit interested.

I've tried sticking a bit on his tongue, but that hasn't helped (and
if a kitty could make an "eeeewww" face, he made it :-) It doesn't
feel right to force feed him wet food....

I'm going to hit the grocery today and see if some Gerber baby food
might do the trick, but I'm wondering if he just needs a little more
time to grow before he becomes naturally hungry for more than forumla.

If anyone has any thoughts or hints, I'd be glad to hear them.

dragon

I had one kitten that took till she was six weeks before she figured out
what food was.. good luck!
"Dragon" wrote in message
om...
We've been nursing a kitten we got as a rescue when he was 12 days
old. He's now 4 weeks 4 days and thriving, thankfully. However, he
doesn't want to eat anything except his formula. I've offered various
flavors of canned food, thinned with water or formula, but he is not
the least bit interested.

I've tried sticking a bit on his tongue, but that hasn't helped (and
if a kitty could make an "eeeewww" face, he made it :-) It doesn't
feel right to force feed him wet food....

I'm going to hit the grocery today and see if some Gerber baby food
might do the trick, but I'm wondering if he just needs a little more
time to grow before he becomes naturally hungry for more than forumla.

If anyone has any thoughts or hints, I'd be glad to hear them.

dragon

"Dragon" wrote in message
om...
We've been nursing a kitten we got as a rescue when he was 12 days
old. He's now 4 weeks 4 days and thriving, thankfully. However, he
doesn't want to eat anything except his formula. I've offered various
flavors of canned food, thinned with water or formula, but he is not
the least bit interested.

I've tried sticking a bit on his tongue, but that hasn't helped (and
if a kitty could make an "eeeewww" face, he made it :-) It doesn't
feel right to force feed him wet food....

I'm going to hit the grocery today and see if some Gerber baby food
might do the trick, but I'm wondering if he just needs a little more
time to grow before he becomes naturally hungry for more than forumla.

If anyone has any thoughts or hints, I'd be glad to hear them.

dragon

See if you can get him to drink the formula out of a bowl. Dip finger in
formula, touch finger to his mouth, if he licks your finger then lower it
towards the bowl until he finally laps some out of the bowl. Once he gets
the concept try mixing the formula a little thicker to get him used to a
different consistency. Then start mixing the food into the formula gradually
until you switch him over to the kitten food. During this still offer the
bottle. He'll take less and less bottle as he eats more food.

Good luck.

W