Nutrition Ideas for Runt?

I'm fostering 8 kittens that I got two weeks ago. They are about 9 weeks old, all healthy, but they are small for their age because they were bottle raised in another home. My question is about Peewee the runt- he never eats as much as the others.

All of them charge at the wet food and gobble it except for him. Sometimes he runs with them but then he just sniffs it and then turns around and comes to me.

He isn't lethargic or anything and he does eat crunchies. But his weight is way less than the others and he sleeps more.

I have given him kitten milk and baby food and he does eat a little of it. This seems to stimulate his appetite for wet food, but I have to be careful because he gets the runs easily.

Does anyone have suggestions for nutritional supplements or food kittens love, that doesn't cause diarrhea? He is going to his new home tomorrow and I'd like the parents to have something that will help him.

He does eat his kitten crunchies but this is a bottle raised baby and he looks so thin. His new home is really wonderful and caring and I know they will be trying everything to get his weight up. I'd like to give them some good tips on what he should have.

Ask the vet about Nutri cal ...

Thanks I have that. The kits aren't crazy about the taste LOL.

I am bumping this to see if anyone knows of a miracle food that kittens love and doesn't give them the runs LOL.

By the way, I realize I didn't phrase my first post well, because I did indeed ask about supplements. My apologies!

I think I really wanted to know about the miracle food LOL. LOL

I purr-sonally like NutriCal.....what I do is feed the runt away from the others. I swipe a bit of NutriCal on the roof of the kitties mouth. That usually gets them started eating. Then I make sure no one else bothers the runt until s/he is done eating. I often feed the runt more times a day than the others....more frequent meals.

My little Smudge was a 3 week old runt when we first got her and lost weight in her first week. We made up a mush of:

High calorie cat/kitten supplement paste
Chicken/beef Gerber baby food
Royal Canin babycat dry food
Chicken Soup for the Kitten Lovers Soul wet food
Pedialyte (the children's fluid replacement stuff)
KMR (stage 1 to start with, then stage 2)

We would make up a batch, put it in the fridge, then give her small amounts of that on a regular basis throughout the day. We'd put in some extra water to soften it up and put it in the microwave to warm it up a little, stir it all up again and serve it.

She was a little piggy which helped, but she LOVED her mush! Once we got her on that, she finally started gaining weight, then we starting cutting down on the extra bits slowly as she got better hydrated, her diarrhea got under control, and was gaining weight steadily.

Eventually we could just give her dry food to munch on and wet food a few times a day and she kept gaining weight, and never got the diarrhea back. She was always under weight for her age and still looks like a kitten at 1 year old (has that runty look still), but she's a very happy, healthy kitty!

Sorry Barb, no additional ideas here. My first orphaned litter had huge variations in their size. Scarlett was half the size of her sister Maggie at 8 weeks old and she did sleep more than the others. We kept Scarlett partly out of fear that she was sickly and wouldn't live long. Both she and her sister equalled out in size as adults at whopping 7 pounds. Their brother, who was in between them in size grew to be 18 pounds. Go figure.

I guess I'm trying to say that as long as he is getting very nutricious food and you've had them thoroughly vet checked, he might just be a slow grower. Warn the family to get him to the vet if he's lethargic or loses interest in food. Normally if you get orphaned bottle feds beyond that 8 week mark, you should be OK with them.

Originally Posted by white cat lover

I purr-sonally like NutriCal.....what I do is feed the runt away from the others. I swipe a bit of NutriCal on the roof of the kitties mouth. That usually gets them started eating. Then I make sure no one else bothers the runt until s/he is done eating. I often feed the runt more times a day than the others....more frequent meals.

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I also agree with feeding the runt separately in a quiet environment where they can't be disturbed and nobody else can steal their food!