Horrible Eater

footersownsme

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I don't know if anybody has an suggestions but i just recently adopted Ace from work. He was a stray kitten that a good samaritan brought in, we approximated his age to be 5 weeks,he was wormed and given food and a nice cozy home(cage) til it was time to go home with me. I started him on Pro-Plan wet mixed with KMR cause he is underweight. I then decided to moisten his dry food to the point of where i can mash it and mix it with KMR (i want him to like the dry Nutro food). I have noticed that with the mashed up food and KMR he kind of sucks the KMR out of the food instead of eating it. (i was thinking of bottle feeding but he has a full set of teeth) Well no matter what type of food i put in front of him hes a horrible eater. He takes a few licks, walks away and then screams. I have to pick him up put him in front of his bowl and he does it all over again. I dont know what to do anymore, i wish he would eat good because he is so tiny. Does anybody have any suggestions on how to get this little guy to eat til hes full instead of walking away??
 

goldenkitty45

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That's tough - I haven't any luck with kittens eating solid foods at 5 weeks - most don't want it till 6 weeks, so I don't push it. However since he has no milk source he HAS to learn to eat.

Try making it fairly soupy with the KMR and only give him about a teaspoon at a time. I had to kinda offer it on my fingers and literally open the kittens mouths and put some on the tongue - they would swallow part and spit part out. Within a few days most were eating it on their own.

Until he starts eating better, try about a teaspoon full every few hrs (maybe 3-4 hrs between) and see what happens.
 

bnwalker2

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My bottle babies are about the same age. Two of them are eating canned food very well, but every meal I have to set the one little boy in front of the plate, open his mouth and put a little on his tongue. He does the same thing, eats a few bites then runs around and screams for food. After repeating the process of opening his mouth and putting food in two or three times, he eats the rest of the food with no problem.
 
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footersownsme

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well i gave in and got a bottle yesterday. he just chewed on it, sucked for a lil bit but went back to chewing. The 30cc's that he did get seemed to jumpstart his little system because ever since then hes been nothing but a ball fire. I've also been drenching his food in KMR and he seems to be eating a little bit better. He still eats, runs away, eats, runs away. i'm constantly putting him in front of his bowl but he put on 20 grams yesterday alone. I also think the worming medication has worked but it didnt help with his poor eating habits. i guess as long as hes putting weight on i can deal with having to put him in front of his bowl every few minutes.....thank you everybody for the suggestions if he gets worse i'll try some of them out. THANKS!
 
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