Weaning a kitten to raw

[tinytom]

Hi everyone, I posted in the new cat section of the forum. I need some information if anyone can help me out. I have 3 week old orphan kitten that I've had since he was just 2 days old. Im syringe feeding him kitten replacement milk right now. my last cat was raw fed and my 3 dogs right now are prey model raw fed, so this little guy will be too. I've never weaned a kitten raw tho, At what age do I start to wean? And what would be the first thing I start to feed? Do I puree it at first? If you have a complete breakdown of weaning or links or any personal experience, anything, is GREATLY appreciated. Thanks so much! my last cat was already over 6 months when I switched to raw and I just really want to wean Tiny Tom right.

 

[furryfriends50]

Here is something I wrote up after I switched Rodent to raw (sorry if the links don't work):

Rodent was found and brought to me the beginning of October 2011, at that point I guessed that he was about four weeks old.  He was very small for his age as well as being skin & bones; he was likely without any food for a while before he was found.  He only weighed 11.5 ounces.

I brought him home with me and took some of my cats’ food to give him.  His first meal was a piece of raw chicken breast, probably a two ounce piece, which he nearly devoured, just leaving a small piece about the size of a dime behind.  Obviously, he was quite hungry!

The next morning I went and bought some raw goat milk as well as more meat as I didn’t have any pieces of bone-in meat appropriate for a kitten that small.  He had a tiny bit of the raw goat milk, but soon decided to wean himself, and eat “big boy food” instead.  He much preferred his raw food, even though he hardly had teeth yet, so I kept presenting him with chunks of  meat that weighed nearly 1/3 of what he did, which did not faze him one bit.

He gets fed five times a day, and gets all he wants at those meals, though I do not leave anything out the rest of the time.  His meals are at 6:45 am, 8:30 am, 12:30 pm, 4:30 pm, and 10:00 pm.  He eats the same food as the rest of my cats – the method I feed is called prey model raw, which is well explained <a href="http://rawfedcats.org/nature.htm">here.</a>  If you have a facebook account, there are a number of great raw feeding groups on there, such as <a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/Rawpet/">Raw Pet.</a>

<a href="http://feline-nutrition.org/answers/answers-raw-feed-all-of-those-kittens">Raw Feed All Those Kittens</a> is an article written by Margaret Gates, founder of the Feline Nutrition Education Society.  Another article on the FNES site, titled <a href="http://feline-nutrition.org/features/adoption-what-should-we-feed-our-new-kitten">Adoption: What Should We Feed Our New Kitten?</a> is written by Robin A.F. Olsen, author of <a href="http://coveredincathair.com/">The Covered in Cat Hair blogs.</a>

 

[tinytom]

Thank you for the links. He's currently eating every 2 hours and is not interested in anything raw yet and wont lap up his milk yet either. But i just want to be prepared for when he is ready to wean.

 

[ldg]

Awww..... thanks for rescuing the little guy!

This won't help with the raw part, but it does give tips on transitioning from bottle (syringe) feeding KMR to ... whatever food you'll be feeding, and kitten timelines: http://www.kitten-rescue.com

 

[klag]

Sorry, I have no input and nothing helpful to add other than following LDG around quoting her posts...

But I did wanna say thanks for taking care of this little fellow  

I was going to come post the below link, but as usual, Laurie beat me to it.

http://www.kitten-rescue.com

 

[ldg]

I just spend too much time on the site. :lol3: I also happen to be good friends with the woman who created the kitten-rescue.com website.