Bottle baby refusing bottle

I need help. I have Little Monster moved up to 5 hour feedings and now he's decided to refuse the bottle. He waves his paws all over and when I finally get the nipple into his mouth, he yanks it back out. He went from taking about 1/2 ounce a feeding down to around 1/4 ounce a feeding. He acts like he's starving to death but just won't latch onto the nipple.

Help!!!!

Chrissy

I'd use a syringe. Or else wrap him, paws & all, firmly in a towel. That way, you can get the nipple in his mouth without paw interferance.

The first thing that comes to mind is the size of the opening in the nipple - too big and the formula may be too much for him to handle - or if it is too small, he may have to work too hard to get it.

I would have thought nipple opening but he's been using the same bottle for the last 2 weeks or so. I've done the towel thing but he yanks his head back to pop it out or just about gags himself by shoving his face on it. I was told to try and wean him now by using baby rice and water or canned cat food. I've tried those and jar baby food and he even turns his nose up at all that. Argh! LOL

Chrissy

I had a litter of 3 who did something similar (though they never really did a good job of "latching on", no matter what I did). I had to resort to the syringe, and about the time it was time to start weaning, they could suck the bottom out of the syringe! lol

How old is he? I had to give my babies "tastes" of the weaning food to get them to try it- when they sniffed it, they didn't want it! When they had had a few tastes, they decided that maybe that stuff wasn't so bad .

Have you tried mixing a little baby food in a little (mostly) formula? Mixing their food with formula and their water with a formula can make the transition a little easier. Unless you have one who just wants to jump right into the crunchy stuff- lol!

I use baby food with his formula already. Was thinking of making it thicker a little at a time as we go along. I already had him "taste" the food and he still wouldn't go for it. He looked at me like I just tried to poison him . LOL He's probably around 4 weeks or so. He now has all his teeth but his fangs are still little.

If he's 4 weeks or so you may want to try giving him some wet food on a plate and syringe feed when neccessary - sounds like he wants to eat without meowmy's help