How to Wean Difficult Kitten

[Catherine Bayliss]

I have a litter of four Sphynx kittens @10 to 11 weeks old. For over a month, three of the four were fighting an upper respiratory infection., with varying degrees of severity. I actually had five but the smallest and weakest could not survive the infection. His buddy survived but is much smaller than the other three who are looking great and drowing quickly. Pip will only eat from a large plastic syringe. He eyes are recovering but he is not utting on healthy body tone . . . we have had him checked and rechecked but he is fine - no health complications. He screams for food and we make him a wet slurry made from the high protein dry food that the other three eat. Last night, Mom came over to wash him on my lpa and he insisted on latching to her nipples that are dry. She licks him and he cuddles her but lock on to her nipple. We started eating solid food along with the rest just prior to the upper respiratory infection (Mom got sick and infected the kittens due to her stress of feeding a five kitten litter). Now, little pip just wants to eat from the sryinge. He is most difficult. We tried placing food on our finger . . wetting the kibble and placing in his mouth . . . Does anyone have advice or a trick to use on Pip? Help

 

[Catherine Bayliss]

Apologize for the typos. . . .

 

[HeyKat]

Wet kibble doesn't sound appetising at all. Try other, high value foods eg plain boiled chicken, or Royal Canin Kitten Mousse. If he won't eat it off your finger or a plate, you can start by mixing it in his syringe slurry.

How much does he weigh? If he's much smaller than the rest, then it may be natural that he weans later.

ETA when you say "a wet slurry made from the high protein dry food that the other three eat" do you mean the dry food plus water, or kitten formula?

 

[Sarthur2]

Try Gerber chicken or turkey meat baby food. High protein and most cats and kittens love it. I agree that if he is significantly smaller he may wean later. Try to be patient and not rush him. He’s clearly lagging behind a bit, but will catch up in his own time.

 

[Catherine Bayliss]

Thank you, both. We will continue to have patience. Yes, he is the smallest kitten . . . and having the respiratory infection didn't help. But he is a very active little guy and loves to play with his bigger siblings.

 

[Kittybang]

I would just take a syringe and feed him wet food for a while but every day I would take some with my finger and put it in his mouth . I have a runt lol and had to wean her myself so much fun lol now she eats most every and anything that doesn’t eat her lol also slowly pull away from the syringe feeding each day . And see what happens , I got lucky mine didn’t want the syringe after 3 days lol but every cat is different. Also did the momma wean the other ones or did u also help with that ? Just curious