Weaning Kittens

I have become a kitten foster for the local shelter. Boy is it a full time job. Being my first time an all and these cats adopt-ability relying on me I do feel some pressure-It's only 5am here on a Sunday and here I am asking for help lol.

First, my kits are 4-5 weeks old-one is 80 grams smaller than the other though & I am trying to wean them to lap formula/slurry out of a shallow dish with no luck. The larger will lap from a spoon then the dish for about 10 licks then want the bottle, & the smaller wants no part of the dish & seems frightened. I have tried the finger w formula thing but that does little. Using a teaspoon works ok but the kit stops and still requires more ood via the bottle. My FB group is all over me for starting so late too but these guys just do not seem ready.

I must have read 50 websites too & I let them get pretty hungry in order to motivate. But considering my runt needs her food I don't want to deny her too much. Complicating matters is we are having a heat wave which brings Ants into our home and I do not have the option of leaving food out too long w/o an infestation-they are Argentinian ants and very hard to control.

Q-Any tips on transitioning them to the dish?
TY in advance

They are not ready! Most kittens will wean easily at closer to 6 weeks old.

Do not let the kittens get "hungry" so they will eat. They need to be fed as much as they will eat as often as possible in order to grow and gain weight, especially if they are underweight.

Kittens at 4 weeks old should weigh one pound, and should gain a minimum of 4 ounces a week each week. They should weigh 2 pounds at 8 weeks.

How many kittens are you fostering? What do they weigh? How much and how often are you feeding them?

P.S. The FB group sounds counter-productive.

It sounds like they're not quite ready. Can you wait a week and try again?

My question was about transitioning tip- not their weight or how often to feed. In addition, I was essentially mocked into weaning at 4 weeks by an online group who all specialize in fostering kittens on fb-They tend to prefer 3.5 weeks to start to wean.

I have read at least 30 websites many differ on times to wean from 3.5-5 weeks. But ya I guess the smaller kit is just not ready. The large one is 100% weaned to wet kitten food now at 5 weeks. TY for your time we will just google more.

As far as transitioning. You can always try to put slurry into a spoon and when they lick it off, slowly lower it to the saucer.
They may or may not go for the saucer right away so just keep trying.