I'm bottle feeding abandoned kittens, food help please!!!

Question

I found some abandoned and near-death kittens by home, they were approximately a week and half old. I bought supplemental kitty milk and they are eating that fine (they are about 3 weeks old now). Bottle feeding didn't work so well, the like to just dive into the tray of milk instead. I was wondering if it was okay for me to feed them soft food. Will it hurt them? Are they ready for it yet? I'm just trying to find a way to fatten up the runt especially, she is very frail. Please help!

Answer 1

No, don't feed her soft food yet.  Wait until they're at least 6 weeks old before you introduce solids.  Also, you need to make them pee between feedings or they won't go and they will die.  A mother cat would stimulate them to "go" by l*****g the kitten's genitals.  Take a warm washcloth and rub their parts after they feed so they'll urinate.  

The runt you may want to continue to bottle feed instead of feeding her from the milk tray.  Maybe she's having trouble getting the hang of feeding that way.

Answer 2

You can try putting some baby cereal in the milk, to thicken it up a little and give them some extra calories.  That's what I did with my kitten, long, long ago.

Answer 3

I had a kitten that was almost dying but she was a bit older- about 6 weeks. The vet told me to mix baby food lamb with bottled water ( about 2 parts lamb to 1 part water) and squeeze it into her mouth using a syringe with no needle attached. He gave me the syringe to use.  That helped her gain weight and get her strength back. Soon she was eating her kitten food.

Answer 4

you might get more responses if you post in the baby animal section instead of baby human section.  

Answer 5

If a kitten isn't ready for soft food, it won't eat it. So go ahead and try with the soft food. They sound like they're pretty independent allready. Perhaps mix some milk with the soft food.

Good luck and thank you for saving some kittys!

Answer 6

No food yet.  Just milk.  They don't know how to chew and will choke.