Weaning

[Prettystray321]

Hey, the babies turned 5 weeks on Sunday. The biggest who we call nip stealer is weighing in at 743g and the smallest who the kids have called runty 636g. Do these weights sound too big when I googled it the weights for their age seemed like they should be a lot less?

I started weaning them just under a week ago the past 3 days they literally wolf it down. I’ve been giving them 3 100g trays of Lily’s kitchen kitten pate a day mixed with about 50ml of kmr. Should I up their meals to 4 trays a day or keep them at 3 until the weekend and then move to 4? There are 5 of them in total all eating off the same tray atm. Am I meant to have a water bowl out for them? They have one but don’t touch i

Litter training is interesting to say the least ! 3 have done amazing but the other 2 love to go wherever they fancy or try eat the litter when I put them in the tray.

thank you

 

[vince]

Water is essential, even though their all-wet diet probably provides what they need in the way of liquid. You might try free-feeding them some dry food if one of them won't scarf it all down by themself. That way, it takes some work off you.

Contrary to popular opinion, some kittens don't know what to do with the litter, so it ends up as a bed or a snack, which is what we don't want. Please make sure it's not clumping litter (don't want it to clump up in their guts), and make sure the training box isn't too high for them to get in (some here have used a low-sided disposable baking pan--I used a flip-top flat plastic storage box). Since some of them are already using the box, it probably has the proper odor. You most likely won't have to "prime" it with some cat scat. You might have to show them how to dig, however. Take their paw and gently show them how to scoop a little depression in the litter then put the kitten in the approximate position.

 

[Sarthur2]

Kittens this age need to eat 4-6 times a day, so yes, up their trays of food to at least 4, and leave dry kitten chow and water out to snack on in between. Kittens grow quickly and are ravenous the first few months of life! They need all the nutrition they can get.

Their weights are excellent for their age!

 

[Prettystray321]

As in kitten biscuits? I wasn’t sure if they were old enough to have them yet? Will they be ok eating it? Mama cat is still feeding them like she did before they started eating food will she gradually cut down the feeds herself?

 

[Sarthur2]

She will not cut down for a good while yet. You can soak the biscuits in KMR to soften them up.

 

[Prettystray321]

So they had 4 in total today and from how little runty is sleeping right now she is very satisfied