12 week old kitten still not eating solid food

[disneydruidprincess]

So I just adopted two kittens from the same litter and one of them is the runt of the litter. She is 12 weeks old and is still not interested in solid food at all. I’ve been using second step formula and she loves it. The people I adopted her from said they tried mixing some soft food in the formula and she won’t touch it. I’ve tried hand feeding her too, but she’s not interested. She’ll only eat the formula. She’s not horribly under weight, but I’m still worried. Is this a common problem, particularly with the runts? Her sister will literally eat anything!

 

[maggie101]

So maybe tiki velvet moose or weruva? Different proteins. Any thing with gravy

 

[LTS3]

Water down the canned food a bit and mush it up to make it more like kitten milk replacer and easy to lap up. Some kittens are slow learners and haven't figured out what solid food is. Here's a TCS article: Weaning: How To Get Your Kittens To Eat On Their Own – TheCatSite Articles

Sarthur2 might have additional suggestions for you.

 

[Sarthur2]

Try Gerber turkey or chicken meat baby food. Most kittens love it! See if she will lick it from your finger first or put some on her gums to lick off.

Do you also have a dish of dry kitten chow available 24/7?

She’ll eventually begin to eat when she’s ready.

 

[Babypaws]

So I just adopted two kittens from the same litter and one of them is the runt of the litter. She is 12 weeks old and is still not interested in solid food at all. I’ve been using second step formula and she loves it. The people I adopted her from said they tried mixing some soft food in the formula and she won’t touch it. I’ve tried hand feeding her too, but she’s not interested. She’ll only eat the formula. She’s not horribly under weight, but I’m still worried. Is this a common problem, particularly with the runts? Her sister will literally eat anything!

Have you taken her to the vet? I had taken in a litter of 3 kittens that were born in our yard back in 2020, one was the runt. He was full of life until he was about 11 months old and then suddenly got sick and wouldn’t eat, wasn’t interested in playing and wouldn’t even eat treats. I took him to the vet and she said he had crystals in his bladder, she put him on RX food and some meds but he wouldn’t eat it and got sicker. Took him to an emergency vet and they said he wasn’t fully developed and he was bleeding into his liver/kidney (can’t remember exactly where) but recommended I bring him to a specialist in Boston. Took him there but he started having seizures and they said he needed an operation to stop the bleeding but he wasn’t strong enough and wouldn’t pull thru. He was suffering so I gave them permission to put him to sleep….very, very sad to see him like that. I miss him every day, he was a very special kitten to me. so I would recommend to bring him to a good vet….prayers you can get her to eat and that she will develop normally.

 

[disneydruidprincess]

Water down the canned food a bit and mush it up to make it more like kitten milk replacer and easy to lap up. Some kittens are slow learners and haven't figured out what solid food is. Here's a TCS article: Weaning: How To Get Your Kittens To Eat On Their Own – TheCatSite Articles

Sarthur2 might have additional suggestions for you.

I’ve been mixing wet food in her formula the past two days and finally today she ate the wet food mixed in instead of licking the formula around it. So progress is being made!

 

[disneydruidprincess]

Have you taken her to the vet? I had taken in a litter of 3 kittens that were born in our yard back in 2020, one was the runt. He was full of life until he was about 11 months old and then suddenly got sick and wouldn’t eat, wasn’t interested in playing and wouldn’t even eat treats. I took him to the vet and she said he had crystals in his bladder, she put him on RX food and some meds but he wouldn’t eat it and got sicker. Took him to an emergency vet and they said he wasn’t fully developed and he was bleeding into his liver/kidney (can’t remember exactly where) but recommended I bring him to a specialist in Boston. Took him there but he started having seizures and they said he needed an operation to stop the bleeding but he wasn’t strong enough and wouldn’t pull thru. He was suffering so I gave them permission to put him to sleep….very, very sad to see him like that. I miss him every day, he was a very special kitten to me. so I would recommend to bring him to a good vet….prayers you can get her to eat and that she will develop normally.

Oh wow that’s rough! They recently went to the vet before I got them, but I’m going to take them in next week. She actually is starting to respond well to formula with wet food mixed in so I’m going to continue that while decreasing the amount of formula and increasing the wet food