How to get my kitten to drink water

[Kindle]

I have a 5.5 week old kitten, I got her 2 weeks ago. She was abandoned by her mom with her 2 brothers. Anyway, she's doing really well, but now she has started eating canned kitten food and I think she should be drinking water, but all she does to her water bowl is stick her nose and mouth in it. She's never really tried to drink it. I'm concerned that she isn't getting enough fluids so I give her a small bowl of her kitten formula every time I feed her. I guess my question is how can i get her to drink?

[Traci]

It's not uncommon for young kittens not to show interest in water until around 6-8 weeks of age. If you're feeding her canned kitten food, there's enough moisture in it to compensate, and there's no harm in giving her supplemental kitten formula at this stage.

Keep providing a dish of fresh water for her daily, put it in an area near her eating area, or even add some of it to her canned food (don't mix it, just drizzle a bit of water into her food, she will learn how to drink from that). Maybe also make her water dish more shallow than a normal dish so she doesn't have a depth-perception problem (most kittens do at this age).

Give it time, she will become more interested and curious with her water....until then, make sure she's eating well, playful, energetic and no signs of illness, weight loss, etc.