[SallyG]

Hi all,

Just wondered if anyone had experience with weaning kittens. My friend fostered kittens for the Cat Protection League and currently has 4 kittens which she got at 2 days old and are now 6 weeks. The kittens are refusing to eat food, and are on syringes of milk (well milk mixed with a paste type food, has to be syringed though, they won't lap yet).

I'm looking after them for a few days and thought I'd have a search around for help with weaning.

Some info said that the mother would naturally cut down the milk she gave them to encourage them on to solids, or for hand reared kittens to start weaning younger, perhaps at 3 weeks.

I'm wondering if my friend has somehow 'missed the boat' and the kittens have got past the point of wanting to wean. Are we worrying too much and are they just too young yet?

Any advice greatly appreciated

Sal
x

 

[Ang2]

Boil some chicken, then put in the blender so its mush. Keep smearing it around their mouths. They will soon get the hang of it.

 

[carly87]

Ok, kittens learn to eat through hunger. As they grow, mum cannot produce enough milk to satisfy them any more. Hunger drives them to look for another food source, and this is when they discover the bowl. If you are syringeing them until they are full, you are taking away their primary instinct to eat. Start leaving them a little longer between feeds, then putting a shallow bowl of mushy cat food down for them, smearing a little on or in their mouths, then feeding from your fingers, all this before you give in and do the next feed. Try warming the food as it increases the smell and the palatability. Try mixing it with a little kitten milk so that it has a familiar smell for them.

Hope this helps.

 

[spid]

Was just about to say what Carly said - let them get hungry!

 

[catcoonz]

excellent advise from carly.

 

[havoc]

Ok, kittens learn to eat through hunger.

So true. The kittens have no need to wean properly if a human is mixing up food and syringeing it into them.

 

[SallyG]

Thanks guys,

I did that today. I felt like a terrible (foster) mum but left them longer than usual and then put v mushy kitten food down and then laid with them on the floor and encouraged them to eat it. They got it in the end. Woop woop!

Thanks so much Sal
x

 

[carly87]

It's horrid, isn't it? I feel like the worst person if I have to force a weaning, but it really does need to be done. So pleased they took to it!