It's always best if momacat feeds the kittens. She may be walking away because their teeth are now aggravating her. But encourage her to feed them by making a big fuss over her and praising her when she is nursing. Give her some treats, like pieces of cheese. Most kittens start getting interested in food around 5 weeks, so try and keep her at nursing for a while longer. If she is absolutely refusing to nurse at all then, you will have to supplement them (KMR=kitten milk replacement) and feed them every 3 hrs. If you're both working and can't take them with you to work, then find someone who can do this for you for a while until they're eating on their own, likely at 5-6 wks old. If you have a postal scale, weigh each kitten. They should be gaining weight every day.
4 week old kittens feeding?
Forgive me, if this has been posted a few times before.
our 4 week old almost 5 week old kittens, we've noticed momma cat has started to walk away from them when they try to nurse off her. We thought that momma is starting to ween them, so I went and bought some Babycat instinctive 10 kitten food, as well as catmilk to mix in. We tried to feed them yesterday and they were very unintrested,, they didnt even attempt to play with it. Today we noticed her all morning walking away from her kittens every time they got close to her belly. I had to work, but my bf told me they were nursing abit and all cuddling with her. When we got home from an easter dinner we noticed the same thing, walking away and ignoring them when they tried to nurse, so we tried the babycat again with cat milk. Momma started eating that after she ate her food,and my other cat lily's food.I let her eat a little bit, i thought maybe the babies would catch on the eating. A few of them stepped in it, and licked it off there paws,.. but then grew unintrested and walked away.
I put a little on my finge and tried to see if they would try to eat it that way. Only one was remotly interested, she ate it off my finger so tried to put her by the food bowl. but she walked away and tried to nurse off momma.
Is there any techniques that you've found that made it easier to introduce them to feed?
or am I trying to ween them too early.. is that the problem.. most info i've gotten from the web say they should ween 3-4 weeks.
i'm just worried they are not getting enough food
our 4 week old almost 5 week old kittens, we've noticed momma cat has started to walk away from them when they try to nurse off her. We thought that momma is starting to ween them, so I went and bought some Babycat instinctive 10 kitten food, as well as catmilk to mix in. We tried to feed them yesterday and they were very unintrested,, they didnt even attempt to play with it. Today we noticed her all morning walking away from her kittens every time they got close to her belly. I had to work, but my bf told me they were nursing abit and all cuddling with her. When we got home from an easter dinner we noticed the same thing, walking away and ignoring them when they tried to nurse, so we tried the babycat again with cat milk. Momma started eating that after she ate her food,and my other cat lily's food.I let her eat a little bit, i thought maybe the babies would catch on the eating. A few of them stepped in it, and licked it off there paws,.. but then grew unintrested and walked away.
I put a little on my finge and tried to see if they would try to eat it that way. Only one was remotly interested, she ate it off my finger so tried to put her by the food bowl. but she walked away and tried to nurse off momma.
Is there any techniques that you've found that made it easier to introduce them to feed?
or am I trying to ween them too early.. is that the problem.. most info i've gotten from the web say they should ween 3-4 weeks.
i'm just worried they are not getting enough food
1 - 3 of 3 Posts
She is probably just trying to ease into the weaning process. Keep offering them kitten food but it's not that important right now that they eat it. As they start to get less milk they will get hungry and begin to eat the food. It is a gradual process.
1 - 3 of 3 Posts
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