Hello - I'm new!

My kitten is just over 6 weeks old. I picked her up on Friday and she's settled in lovely.

I have been giving her wet food which she wolfs down but I want to introduce her to dry as when I go back to work next week she'll be home during the day and I figure that wet food will go stale being left out.

I tried to mix the dry in with the wet and she just ate round it.

I tried to mix the dry in with water - nothing.

I tried to mix the dry in with kitten milk - nothing.

I tried to give her a kibble from my hand but she refused it - she won't even try the milky kitten treats I bought her.

So how can I get round this? She won't even lap milk/water at all, even off my finger although she licks me normally.

What else can I try?

Thanks in advance.

Bellini

I have to say your kitten is very very young to be away from mom and litter mates.

I leave wet food down in the day with no ill affects to my girl if you can leave her on a good qulity wet food their should be no need for biscuits at all.

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Jemahan Tinkerbell's Magic

6 weeks is far too young for a kitten to leave it's mother I'm not surprised it doesn't know what to do with kibble.

Wet food can be left down but at this age she should be getting at least 4 (if not more) fresh small meals per day.

You can try Royal Canin baby cat probably only available at Pets at Home or some specialist pet stores. This is a very small biscuit and is suitable for cats at this age.

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Karen

www.kiskasiberians.co.uk - The home of Hypoallergenic Siberian Cats
www.back-2-nature.co.uk - Raw Food for Dogs, Cats and Ferrets

www.rawfed.com - Information on Raw Feeding

Feed her first thing in the morning, put food down before you leave, fed her when you come home and feed her when you go to bed. Unless it gets really hot the food won't go off between you putting it down before you go to work and her eating it.

Liz

I used to feed mine kitten food - whiskas sachets if i remember correctly - i had a brother and sister from 7 weeks old - the boy wouldn't eat the wet food, he would only eat dry food from 7 weeks old but i used to soak it slightly and he had no problems, the girl was opposite - she wouldn't eat anything at first and i used to worry myself stupid about it, i hand fed her for a day or two and eventually i think she got the hang of how to eat, from then on she had wet food, never touched dry.
The kitten is very young, but it'll be fine. My oldest cat is 17 year old and i had him from 5 weeks (he was abandoned) - i hand reared him, he still even suckles on my little finger to this day!
Is this your first cat?

when i had my 6 week old kittens they couldn't actually lap, so i got a hamster water bottle and filled it with kitten milk and they did very well with it, they wouldn't eat food. This went on for a bout a week, then i introduced kitten wet food but had to mash it up really fine so they would lick it off my finger. Eventually they started to lap from the bowl and then eat from the bowl. It was about 9-12 weeks when they chewed on some kitten kibble. One preferrred the kibble and the other wet food. Milk is filling as well. All kittens arn't the same with eating, some eat more than others, some drink more than others. If your kitten is eating the wet food, then leave that down otherwise it wont eat or it could choke on kibble at this time. I found one kitten had diarrhea the other didn't, so i cut out the kitten milk and gave them water which stopped it. So i kept them on water, this was only after i knew they could eat well.

thanks everyone for the responses.

Well I tried a smaller sized kibble and whilst she has more interest (she tried it), she's not really that fussed. So I think I'm going to get one of those automatic pet feeders for when I'm at work so the wet keeps fresher. I have a long commute and trains are notoriusly late so I'd worry about her not eating often enough.

Yes, this is my first ever kitten. I was told she was going to be 7/8 weeks when she was ready but after I left the seller I noticed the birth date and date she had her worming/fleas done and I realised she was just over 6 weeks (she's 7 weeks today).

TBH the seller was feeding the kittens Asda's value adult cat food as they were just stealing the mother's food anyway which I understand isn't the best (she had a bit of sloppy poop for the first evening) but since I've had her, poops are normal now.

Anyway, our local vet has checked her, she's eating the wet fine, poops are all good and she's physically very healthy and fully litter trained so I'm just being a bit over protective and worrying (as you do).

Has anyone else used automatic feeders?