4 week old kittens so many questions

I moved into a new apartment with my pregnant cat September. Abby is part siemese and she was a runt. She looked like she was less then one month pregnant when she had them. She was just over 2 months. She had her babies September 19th. They are adorable. They have the pointy teeth in and they are playing with eachother.

One problem is that Abby is so small that only 3 kittens can drink from her nipples at once leaving two crying. Not only this but her nipples are really big and saggy now. If I stand near her she will look at me and cry whiny meows as they feed. Almost like she is asking for help. I looked on the internet about introducing kittens to kitten food. Some said to crush up dry kitten food for them to nibble on on their own time. I was watching them eat it. Some were ok. Some had no interest. One had interest but choked on a piece and tries to cry for help to breath. I rubbed his throat until it went down. He did it again the next day. I then added cat milk formula to the food to make it sagy and warmed it. BUT they were in such a hurry to drink it down that they put their noses in and breathed in the milk.

They drink it normally if I hold them back a bit and only let one at a time so they dont harm themselves. Is there an easier way?

I want to help Abby out as much as possible.

CL

p.s. This forum wont let me post any pictures of them. I click on the post image and it goes to a "no such artical" pop up.

First of all with the pictures...upload your pictures to photobucket and then you can copy and paste the the picture on to your post (let me know if you want more help with this, I just discovered how to do it).

Second...I have a 4 week old orphan and we just started wet kitten food. and yes, he sucks it down so fast he gets it up his noes and sneezes. Actually its really cute, but its part of the process to learn how to eat food. You could put a few different dishes out (or whatever you use to put the food on) so they are not all fighting for the same food dish. Good Luck and keep us updated.

Welcome to TCS catlover89.

Aren't they just adorable at 4 weeks? I took in a pregnant stray kitten the middle of the summer. Goldy had her babies August 23, but there are only three so she hasn't had so much difficulty feeding them all at once.

They started eating mom's dry kitten food at about 4-5 weeks. I didn't bother to crush it. Goldy tends to leave little crumbles behind when she eats. I left the bits in the bowl for the babies but they had trouble licking them up. They finally started eating the whole pieces of kibble. I think it's because they can get hold of them with their teeth instead of trying to lick them up.

I noticed them starting to lap water from the bowls about the same time they started eating dry food. They never went near the wet food until about a week ago, and one kitten still refuses to eat the wet.

Sucking on a nipple is natural for kittens, but lapping with their tongues is a learned procedure. Try leaving out a shallow dish of uncrushed kibble to see how they handle it.

I would make the canned kitten food soupy but not too soupy with the KMR milk added to help suppliment the kittens. Are you saying that mom cat got pregnant at 2 months old and had the kittens at 4 months old - that would make her ONLY 5 months old!

If that's the case, she's lucky to even survive the pregnancy let along deliver and nurse. This is an excellant reason why to neuter and spay cats at ages 3-4 months old. Poor little thing!