Kitten won't eat on his own?

Question

I have a five month old kitten who was very sick. During his illness I was syringe feeding him soft food. Now he is all better, but still will not eat on his own. I continue to syringe feed him which he opens his mouth for and get very excited about. How do I get him to eat on his own again? I keep offering both soft and dry food but he won't eat on his own!

Answer 1

Have you tried putting the soft food on your finger, then getting the plate in front of his nose? I have to do that on occasion to get my cat to pay attention to the fact that he has food. Yep, he is STUBBORN. I take a touch of food on to my finger (pate on the finger, if its shredded whatever I use the gravy/juice instead) and hold it near his nose. Then when he starts l*****g I let him "eat" the food off my finger while using my other hand to grab the plate, which I then substitute for the finger in front of his nose. He normally sniffs and starts eating the rest of the plate. You may need to do this several times until he gets the idea. If you know that he likes the food, but is just being stupid about it, I smear it on his face, which forces him to taste it when he tries to l**k it off, which then makes him think that maybe that was good stuff after all.

Give it a try, its better than nothing, right?  

Answer 2

If the vet has said everything is fine now, you might have to practice some tough love, cats are very good at training their owners :)

Leave the food down and eventually he will get hungry enough and eat.

Answer 3

I have two cats and sometimes they can be weird eaters.  That's the way cats are.  Just leave some dry food down and eventually, when your cat gets hungry enough, he will eat.  If you leave out wet food, it will just dry out and then he probably won't touch it.  

If he comes to you when he is hungry, just lead him to the bowl of food.  You could also try taking the syringe and using that to lead him to the dry food - maybe even squirt a little on the food so he starts l*****g it up.  Even mother cats nursing their young eventually cut them off...

Good luck!