Kitten weaning help needed

[Paks]

Had a small litter of Khao Manee kittens. One arrived 4 days after the others and still born. That’s not the problem of the two remaining kittens one became anemic hemocrit 14 instead of 22 at 6 weeks of age. ER vet gave wormer and prescribed doxy. Now both kitten were lat weaning but the other one had started eating solid food at 6 weeks. The anemic kitten has not eaten solid food at all and had failed to gain weight for 4 day before we realised she was anemic.

We have been syringe feeding the anemic kitten KMR2 which she slurps out out of the syringe. 3 day after the ER visit her hemocrit had rebounded to 18. Now a week after the ER visit she has gained 7 ounces. Out weighs her sister again but still will not eat solid food or even KMR2 from a dish. She will drink water but just watches her sister and mother eat like it has nothing to do with her. I have tried putting tasty food on my finger and she take one lick and loses interest. When I feed I tell her I’m not going to be doing this when she is 3 years old (really I am trying everything I can think of including reason). and she just stares and me and slurps away. With the recent anemia I’m hesitent to block her from mom and all food sources except what is on a plate, but it’s getting to that point. Any idea’s or tricks out there?

[khall]

Put some baby food meat in with the KMR2, make it into a gruel.

[CanadianTrotter]

Put dabs of it on her nose and she will most likely start licking it off because cats hate dirty noses. Do this while she is in front of the food dish she will be eating from. Once she discovers the taste and the fact that it will fill her tummy she should start eating on her own with some gentle prodding.

[mvp]

@khall

Put some baby food meat in with the KMR2, make it into a gruel.

This has worked for me. Syringe feed the meaty gruel. Also, cuddle her while you do that. When she looks healthy enough, you do need to actually wean her.

I find that there are three ingredients to the recipe for getting a kitten to eat adult food:

1. Food needs to arrive in a form that they understand. Some of my fosters didn’t realize that their jaws could be used for chewing and not sucking.
2. Cuddling while eating. I realized once time that for a kitten to continue to be interested in food in a bowl, he needed not just food, but sweet luvin’. After all that’s part of what he got when he was nursing on momma.
3. A fire under the ass. Kittens survive because they have curiosity and motivation. It helps them learn to become quite autonomous, quite fast. So the most likely cause of your kitten’s reluctance so far is lack of hunger. Let kitteh get hungry enough to want to branch out.

It can be a hard “bottle neck” of a cat’s life to watch. You are sure they are going to wither and die. But the folks at my shelter point out that in the wild (or with strays), kittens are sometimes left alone for a long time-- a day!-- if momma has to go out and hunt. So the baby can spend more time getting hungry than you think she can.

I hope your baby grows up in short order and makes your life easier.

[D_BaldStockings]

We always smeared a bit of food (usually raw hamburger or milk/meat mix) on top of a front paw to get a kitten going on food.

I would wait to wean from mom until you are sure there is no further health issue.

[Paks]

Thanks for all the ideas, She’s rebounding quite well. One of the things the vet thought was with the anemia, decomposed rbc’s in her system may have made all food taste bad.

She does use her jaws to chew, on my fingers, toes, card board, feathers…seem like she’ll chew on anything but food. I’ll try the smear on the nose tonight. . I’ll save the getting tough for the weekend. Should be fun.

[Simkie]

Ahem. No kitten thread is complete without pictures! :lol:

[Paks]

Okay okay i’ll post pictures tonight. Anyway good news. Husband just called and said she only took 3 ml of KMR2 then jumped down and ate the Royal Canin dry baby cat food (wihich is smaller and solfter than their kitten food) and then drank some water… So while still no interest in canned she likes the crundy stuff.

[mvp]

@Paks

She does use her jaws to chew, on my fingers, toes, card board, feathers…seem like she’ll chew on anything but food.

Somewhere deep in your contract with this cat, there’s some fine print about using jaws for playing vs. eating. I know, I know… it seems like the same crunching motion is involved. But you have to read that clause of the contract more carefully to see the Cat Logic behind it. Don’t get mad: It’s no better or worse than human health insurance.

[mvp]

@Paks

Okay okay i’ll post pictures tonight. Anyway good news. Husband just called and said she only took 3 ml of KMR2 then jumped down and ate the Royal Canin dry baby cat food (wihich is smaller and solfter than their kitten food) and then drank some water… So while still no interest in canned she likes the crundy stuff.

Good enough. If she eats the kibble, she’s on her way. Some day she will discover that wet food is so.much.better. Enjoy feeling superior to her until she does. After that, you won’t have very many times that you can consider yourself smarter than this cat.

If kitteh is willing to do her own work in keeping herself fed, I don’t think you need to worry more than she does about eating wet food.

[CindyCRNA]

Did the kittens have a fever?

[Simkie]

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

Does the white kitten have two different colored eyes?

They are ADORABLE.

[Paks]

@CindyCRNA

Did the kittens have a fever?

No her temp was normal

[mvp]

@Paks

How do you have kittens in March? Are you in the Southern Hemisphere? We are Out Of Kittens here in Oregon…I’m about an hour from the 45th parallel. The only good thing about Global Warming is that it will bring 365 Kitten Season everywhere.

[vxf111]

@mvp

How do you have kittens in March? Are you in the Southern Hemisphere? We are Out Of Kittens here in Oregon…I’m about an hour from the 45th parallel. The only good thing about Global Warming is that it will bring 365 Kitten Season everywhere.

These are purebred cats?! I assumed a planned breeding?

They’re really cute.

Good luck OP!

[Simkie]

@mvp

How do you have kittens in March? Are you in the Southern Hemisphere? We are Out Of Kittens here in Oregon…I’m about an hour from the 45th parallel. The only good thing about Global Warming is that it will bring 365 Kitten Season everywhere.

MAGIC :lol:

(Guessing indoor kitties that cycle whenever and have litters when convenient?)

[Paks]

Yes these are purebred indoor cats. Khao Manee.is the breed. I both breed and show them.

[vxf111]

Forgive my ignorance, I don’t know much about this breed. I thought they were always white?

[Paks]

No they aren’t always white but only the white color is allowed to be shown. The white gene is dominant to all other colors, It’s not that unusual to have two white Khao Manee’s produce other colors. Also in many countries it’s illegal to breed two white cats so the non whites are needed for breeding in those countries. Some breeders and countries feel that breeding white to white significantly increases the chance of deafness. At one point all the native Thai colors were going to be in one breed the “Maew Boran” which is still an experimental breed in TICA. It didn’t take off and people who liked white cats were attracted to the relatively lower deafness rates in the white “Maew Boran” and decided to call them a breed. So now one of the Meaw Boran colors is called a Khao Manee and has achieved championship status. as a breed. The next one to come up will be the Suphalak a chocolate brown. Suphalaks and Khao Manee’s will form a breed group. The Maew Boran like the toritie kitten can be registered but not shown. The tortie has the Khao Manee, body type, temperament, etc. Just a non standard color. She can be registered as a Khao Manee and if bred to a Khao Manee the kittens can be registered Khao Manee. Probably more than you wanted to know. .

[vxf111]

No I’m a cat fancier so I appreciate that explanation. I think it’s a little nuts that you can’t show the colors!?