Hello all.
I was hoping to get some advice about weaning my kitten, Echo. She is around 5 weeks old, and is shooting up in weight pretty quickly. I weighed her today after she went to the litterbox, and she was around 20oz (assuming my scale is accurate).
Anyway, I have started the weaning process about a week ago. I first started blending small amounts of wet kitten food into her formula to adjust her to the taste. Later, after getting her familiar with eating from a bowl, I stated mixing a half can of wet food with a bit of formula to make a gruel and I put half of it in the dish between feedings. I normally feed her bottled formula three times a day (at 8am, 4pm, and 12am), and then halfway between these feedings (12 pm and 8 pm), I will give her half of the gruel. By the end of the day, she normally goes through all of the gruel made (which consists of a half of a can of Royal Canin babycat food and some formula). I also leave dry Royal Canin babycat kibble and water in her dish, which she is now eating and drinking as well.
My question is, how do I know when to stop feeding her from the bottle? For her age, the recommended feeding amount per day for wet food, according to the Royal Canin feeding guide, is a half a can, which she normally eats. Plus, she is also eating dry food. Now, often when I try to bottle feed her, she does not eat too much (maybe a tablespoon or two at the most). How do I know when to start cutting the bottle out of her feeding regimen?