3 week old kitten wont poop and belly is bloated help please

Hi, Rach, little kittens don’t have to poop every day (I know the websites say they do but most of the ones we hear about on this site don’t). As long as his little tummy is soft and round, not hard and round, don’t worry too much and give him a bit of time. Remember, they’re only on formula and they have very tiny tummies.

You can try a couple of drops of vegetable oil (eg canola, olive, sunflower, soya bean oil) in his formula. If nothing happens, try clicking the pink tags I’ve added (top right hand corner) and you will find plenty of previous advice on this subject. Welcome to TDK and don’t hesitate to come back to us if you’re still worried.

Not a huge amount of poop while they’re on formula and they have such tiny tummies and powdered KMR does seem to constipate some kitties a little. They don’t have to poop every day but if you wanted to add two drops of vegetable oil to their formula maybe once a day, I’m sure that wouldn’t hurt them. Use KMR, that’s what most hand-reared kittens are raised on. If you click on the tag ‘orphans’ you’ll see loads of previous threads on hand-raising kittens and also check out these sites, they are VERY good, there shouldn’t be many questions they don’t answer:

http://www.messybeast.com/handrear.htm

http://www.kittenrescue.org/pages.php?pageid=15

http://www.fanciers.com/cat-faqs/orphans.shtml

http://www.feralcat.com/raising.html

Also, feel free to come here with any questions, we are not vets but there are some very knowledgeable kitty foster mums and cat people on here and we will always try to help 🙂 Bless you for taking on these babies!

Most weaning takes place between four to eight weeks, you will find when they are biting the teat on the bottle more than sucking it at about four weeks, then you can try them on some soft kitten food in a shallow dish drizzled with KMR. They may take to it, or they want their bottle for longer, it just depends on the kits. (We have a tag for that too, weaning.)