introducing food to kittens

[Wanda]

Ok kittens are 3 weeks old, should I start trying to get them to eat? They are fat and healthy looking and playing. I bought purina kitten chow, couldn't find Iams in this little town. And what about water? In my mind I'm thinking if start eating dry food they will need some water. Wanda

[christa]

They'll DEFINITELY need water if you start them on dry food.

My kitten was about 5 weeks when we weened her. We didn't know she hadn't been weened when we took her from the sheltar, so we had a hard time with her. Fed her kitten milk for a day or so . . . eventually she just started eating the dry food. I guess she got hungry enough.

I'd at least start making it available to them . . . but if they're nursing, they probably won't want to eat . . . I know how much josie just wanted milk when we first got her.

I'm sure someone here has more advice . . . but I thought I'd put in my two cents

[Wanda]

Thanks Christa, appreciate your 2 cents! Sounds like pretty good advice to me. The reason I am concerned is we are planning to try to get them weaned at 4 weeks, and have Dolly spayed, so I was going to try to help it along a bit. Dolly is trying ever idea possible to get outside in our pretty sunshine. So far we have managed to out smart her but gonna have her spayed in two weeks and our vet wants kittens weaned. Wanda

[christa]

I understand your rush to get them weened then. If it's absolutely necessary that they be weened before you can get them off of your momma cat, you can pour kitten formula into a bowl and they'll drink it up. That's what we fed Josie as we got her adjusted to eating dry food. Just remember that the more that they eat dry food, the more water they'll need. They won't drink much if they're just taking milk or kitten formula, but once they're on that dry food, they'll want the water.

Good luck!

[Traci]

Wanda, Christa has the right idea.....use KMR kitten formula, you can do this more ways than one:

Wean onto dry food with the mixed formula added to the dry to soften it, or use canned Iams kitten food and pour a little KMR over it to entice them to solid food. Be prepared for a mess, kittens love to play in their food as they are learning to wean.

Once they are taking interest in the kitten food, wean them off the KMR over a two-week period. If feeding canned, try starting them on dry at around 8 weeks of age. If you continue canned for too long, the kittens may experience some form of soft stools or diarrhea, some kittens cannot tolerate the oils in canned food.

Don't allow them dry food only until around 8 weeks of age, they need their decidious teeth (primary) in at that time,....their permanent teeth should be in by age 4-5 months.

As for water consumption, kittens usually are not interested in water until around 5-7 weeks of age, mostly due to depth perception problems (not fully developed), but do offer them water at all times regardless.

[Wanda]

Thanks Traci & Christa,
I haven't tried yet but I may today if I have time. Dolly is showing signs of wanting to wean them, she isn't staying in the box as much, she lies outside the box and when they try to climb out she smacks them,lol. She isn't nursing them as often but is still nursing. We get them out occassionally and let them have room to play, Emmy is the aggressive one, but they are all playing well. I will do as you both said. You know I never had any idea cats had baby teeth, then grown up teeth, I always thought they were born with all their teeth and never got any more. Its a wonder I didn't kill poor Dolly trying to raise her, but I remember her refusing to eat certain things, so I guess Good Lord was watching out for us cause he knew I had good intentions. Glad I have this board now though. Thanks again, Wanda