Need Help Weaning a 5 Week Old Kitten

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  • 4 September, 2017 at 4:02 pm #862388
    Taylor
    Participant

    Hi everyone!

    I’ve been on this site a lot the last month or so after I found an orphaned 2 week old kitten! It’s been really helpful along with information the vet has given me.

    I’m having a horrible time weaning my kitten and I don’t know what to do! He refuses to give up the bottle/syringe. I’ve tried getting him to lick it off my finger, to lick it off himself and introduce it on a plate. Right now he is on mostly the wet Royal Canin Babycat food with a little bit of formula blended in. I have to blend it otherwise it doesn’t come through the bottle/syringe. He will
    Clean himself but he will not try to lick anything up! I started trying with just formula and that didn’t work. He has shallow dishes of dry kitten food, water, and the wet food mixture accessible at all times but he is not interested. My problem now is how aggressive he is with the syringe or bottle. He attacks and grips it so tight he pulls it out of his mouth and starts biting it. Feeding him is very hard and painful because i can’t get him to keep the bottle in his mouth but then he won’t eat off the plate! What do I do in this situation? Please help!

    4 September, 2017 at 4:59 pm #862390
    Kittyzee
    Participant

    Mix the wet food with the formula and put it in the bottle. Cut the tip of the nipple off so he can get the gruel into his tummy. A few sucks and he will settle down a bit–once his tummy tells his brain that it’s getting more than milk. He is not ready to be weaned yet–most kittens aren’t totally weaned until 8 to 10 weeks. But at his age, it’s time to begin the process. Just keep introducing him to wet food/gruel in a bowl or on a plate and eventually he will learn to like it. Some kittens don’t want to be weaned at 10 weeks either, they love the closeness of being fed with the bottle, the warmth and secure feeling they get when being fed. Don’t worry about leaving food out until he has learned how to eat solid food from a plate.

    4 September, 2017 at 9:25 pm #862391
    Taylor
    Participant

    He is on the gruel now and drinks it from the bottle, the tip is cut so that the mix can flow through the nipple. The attacking the bottle happens about halfway through the meal. He will be doing fine and suddenly go crazy scratching at it and me and pulling it towards him so it slips out of his mouth. Then he screams because he wants it.
    But if he’s still too young to be fully weaned then i won’t worry about it!

    Thanks!

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