How do I wean my kittens from formula milk?

Question

Help please! I have never taken care of cats before. I rescued two kittens from the rubbish bin that were approx 4 days old. I feed them kitten formula in small amounts every three hours or so. Amazingly they are still alive and growing fast. The vet says they are healthy but very small. Any suggestions on how and when I should switch to babycat nibbles? Someone recommended Royal Canin?? Do I mix them with the milk, or go straight to water? If you can, please tell me how to make this change. They are now three weeks old. When's a good time to start? Thanks - Trying to be a good mother cat!

Answer 1

Well, you are obviously doing a superb job with the milk.

I would suggest not using dried food yet, wait until they are about 11 weeks or so before you introduce that.

What I would do is poach a little white fish, such as coley, in water, cool it and mash it up so that it is soft. Cats love fresh fish. If you put a teeny amount of this down - 2 spoonfuls or so - I think they would automatically lick it when they were ready to start on solids. Of course, they will still need the milk for quite some time yet. Good luck.

Answer 2

Congratulations and keep up the good work. I passed from the same stage that you are at a month ago . I had the same question. Nature solved it itself. After they reached 4 weeks old, I put some canned food, mixed with a bit of milk, on a dish and let them smell it. The first time they showed no interest, I tried again 3 days later. The biggest kitten licked some,but he wanted his milk too. After 2 more days, the biggest kitten really ate the food, and another one licked a bit. The next day they all licked some canned food. After that, I replaced 1 feeding per day with canned food, and by week 6 they were only eating the canned food. Then I introduced kibble, mixed with a little water. Always keep water available to them, they will use it if they need it. I know you are anxious, but they will take the time they need to be weaned, but there is no worry, no cat ever remained un-weaned!

Answer 3

we bottle fed some strays from about a day old and found that they started wanting cat food at different ages.....one was as young as 4 weeks while another was about 8 weeks. They will start biting on the bottle when they are not getting enough from the milk....start by mixing a little cat meat with the milk and slowly wean them onto solids.....I still gave ours milk in the morning and at night until they no longer wanted it.
You can get tiny cat nibbles that you can soak in milk or water made by royal canin (very good brand as we also use the kitten milk powder) You may find that as they are abandoned they may want to stay on the bottle a little longer as they may need more comfort.
Good luck your doing a great job : )