My 8 Week Old Kitten Won't Eat Dry Food

[rgwanner]

I am fostering an 8 week old kitten through the shelter where I volunteer. When I got her at about 4 or 5 weeks she was skin and bones and ciould barely move. I syringe fed her Recovery and CliniCare milk. After 4 days she started eating on her own. It took 2 weeks to transition her to regular wet food. She will now eat Fancy Feast Kitten Turkey.

In order for her to be adopted she needs to be able to eat dry food. I started by soaking the wet food in water and wet food and giving her that with the wet food. Now I have been trying to mix in dry chunks but she eats around them. I have been doing that for a week.

I have tried tuna juice and clam juice on the dry food but she just sniffs and walks away.

The dry food is Babycat which the kittens usually love.

Has anyone else had this problem and how did you solve it? An adult cat can eat wet food only and eat 2 meals a day and be fine, but a kitten needs to eat more frequently. Most adopters can not feed a kitten every 3 hours.

 

[Sarthur2]

Are you using kitten chow?

Not all kittens are ready to eat “crunchies” at 8 weeks, and all kittens need wet food several times a day to grow.

When must she return to the shelter to be adopted?

She probably needs more time, but please let the shelter know that she prefers wet food. Most shelters offer wet food meals in addition to dry food.

 

[rgwanner]

Thank you very much. She will stay with me until she is ready to be adopted. (Unless it is after July 30 Ihave to go out of town to visit family. In that case she will go to another foster) She came from Animal Control and the records were not that great. So she may be only 6 to 7 weeks. We are guessing at the age. I am maybe just being impatient. Luckily I can bring her to work and feed her several times a day. The problem with all wet food is that it gives her diarrhea so I am giving her pysillium husk for that per the shelter. She is gaining weight. She gets Kitten wet food. I will just keep working with her.