What should I feed a 4 wk old kitten?

[MCsAngel]

Hi all, I found a very young kitten under my car as I was leaving work tuesday night....the shelter I volunteer at says they don't have any foster parents available right now but if DH and I would keep him until he's big enough, the shelter will take him. (We live in an apt and are already at our 2 cat maximum).

I won't be able to take him to the shelter vet until monday and until then our best guess is that the kitten is 4-5, maybe 6 weeks old. I'm sure it was still nursing (feral or outdoor litter). I'm having a job training it to drink out of the water bowl, but I'm more concerned about food. I had to give it adult canned food the first night. Now I'm giving it Iams dry kitten, but plan to go and get some Iams wet kitten if I can find it. I'm wondering if I should get kitten formula too? He is eating what I give him, I just don't think he's eating enough (or often enough). Opinions?

[skarrlett]

At 4 weeks old do not feed a dry-only diet until the kitten has cut all of his adult teeth, usually around five months of age.

No milk! Milk will give a kitten severe diarrhea which leads to dehydration and can cause death in two to three days.

If the kitten has not been weaned (mother is lost, killed, etc.) the kitten must be bottle fed every two hours with a mother's milk replacement like KMR (available at pet stores in liquid or powder form).

Kittens with teeth can be weaned onto solid food with Gerber's Baby Food. Make sure the baby food is room temperature to "warm." You can finger-feed the kitten at first, placing the baby food on the roof of his mouth. Once he realizes it's yummy, gently put his face into the food (which can be served in the little lid of the baby food jar). KMR can be drizzled on top of the baby food, too.

Use a high-quality canned kitten food like Nutro Max Chicken and Liver for Kittens. Make sure the canned food you buy says "Kitten" on the label and does not contain any by-products or ethoxyquin (read that label closely!)

Mash canned kitten food with hot water to make sort of a gruel that the little one can easily lick up. Try topping the gruel with chicken baby food and/or KMR to help attract junior to this next step in weaning.

After kitty sprouts teeth, leave dry kitten kibble out around the clock. Soon the little one will want to give that a try, too, and can snack at will to maximize nutrition intake.


Good Luck!!!

[MCsAngel]

He has teeth-and seems to prefer the Iams kitten dry food to the friskies canned food I also gave him this morning. No problems eating either.

So at 4-6 weeks, does he need 'kitten' formula, or not? Should I be giving him canned kitten food more than the dry? I work all day, so I have to leave him something while I'm at work. Is it really necessary for me to bottle feed him at this stage?

[LadyFaile]

i would absolutely not give him dry. when i got my cat he was not properly weened but was the proper age to be seperated from the mother. i was low on funds and had dry food already so what i did was mash dry food up with warm water. dry food is very hard on their little tummies. you wouldn't give a human baby a cob of corn would you?
i second skarrlett's recommendation of a high quality canned kitten food, but if you absolutely can't get it or he won't eat it, you could try softening dry food with water like i did. but i don't suggest Iam's at all for the record.
and friskies is like mcdonald's for cats. it's junk and all fat and preservatives. if you can't afford something like Nutro go for Nutrience, it's more moderately priced but higher quality than a lot of other brands.

[MCsAngel]

Thanks for the advice. It's not that I won't buy what he needs, it was a matter of using what I had on hand when I got him home, and then (the Iams dry kitten) getting what my shelter recommended! Of course, they haven't seen him yet. I'll go to the pet store (yes, evil Petco/Petsmart) to get some nutro canned kitten food, if I can find it. If not, then I'll get the canned Iams. I would have gotten canned last night, but I went to my regular grocery store and the dry was all they had.

I knew I was right to be worried about what I was feeding him! The first 2 times he ate the friskies, he burped, and he went diahrrea the first time. I hope I haven't ruined his tummy in the last 2 days.

[rabid_child]

Hey! This is my job!
a 4 wk old kitten can start to be weaned onto real food. you never want to give a kitten real milk (or a cat for that matter). You should buy some KMR (kitten milk replacer) from the pet store. Offer it in a saucer at first to see if it will take it. This is much easier than a bottle and it will probably adjust faster to that than to a bottle. If he'll take it, you can start mixing in some wet kitten food with the KMR so its wetter than usual and tastes a little milky. If right now he's fine eating just kitten food with nothing else, then thats all the better for you! If he's happy eating dry kitten food, let him eat dry kitten food! There is absolutely nothing wrong with it, it won't hurt his teeth at all, baby or adult. In fact, kittens like to chew on hard things for teething. Dry formula cat foods are the same as wet formula cat foods, just... no water. You have to keep in mind, a cat ages much differently than a human! A cat at 6 months old has already gone through puberty and can reproduce! Kittens get diarrhea a lot just cause they're changing foods, not cause of the food itself. If the kitten is eating Iams DON'T SWITCH! and if you feel you must, do it very very slowly. Switching from one food to another is what is going to make him sick.
As far as Friskies being McDonalds for cats, it actually is better for them than a lot of the premium brands like Fancy Feast or Sheba which are MUCH higher in fat and just greasy and not good for them.
He should be going to the bathroom on his own now, but if he isn't, then you are going to need to wipe his bottom down with a warm damp cloth to make him go before and after every feeding.
If you have any other cats at home, keep the kitten seperate until you're certain that it is leukemia/aids negative and in good health. Small kittens often get colds/eye infections, so don't be surprised if it happens. Try and get him to a vet as soon as you can to get the once over and some deworming! (also one of the chief causes of kitten diarrhea) Vaccines can be started in a week or two. If you aren't going to keep the kitten, try to find it a home asap. The bigger they get the less desirable they are, unfortunately.

[shewolf]

Poor kitten. Kittens should be with their mothers until 8 weeks, so you've in essence become mummy. You are going to need to teach him to use a litter tray and everything (mum would usually do that). I would be feeding kitten formula up until at least 6 weeks... but I agree that he can be introduced to solids... the teething argument is excellent.

[MCsAngel]

If you aren't going to keep the kitten, try to find it a home asap. The bigger they get the less desirable they are, unfortunately.

Don't worry :-) As I said, the shelter I volunteer at (with the kitties! Jake picked a good car to get stuck under) said they would take him when he was 2 pounds. This is actually precisely the reason I don't mind giving him up. I've seen for myself how fast the kittens get adopted. AND it's a no-kill shelter. My husband has set us a 4 cat maximum when we get a house, and I'd rather our other 2 cats be adults that have significantly reduced chances of being adopted. I've told him to think of it as though we are just babysitting :-)