Too Early?

Hi All,

Bit of an update & a question...

The new kittens are doing well, they're all 4 weeks 1 day & 4 weeks 3 days today & bumping all over the place. Their health is good, the tiny one is getting bigger although at a reduced rate compared to the others & so far so good no sign of flu!!! thank god.

My question though, is today, the ginger & off-white have decided they quite like the wetted down kitten food I've been giving the mothers & have started eating off their own accord or whenever I set them beside a plate. Eating with gutso.

From yesterday, even before they started food, the ginger, the off-white, the grey girl, the tabby girl, the tiny boy & even the biggest boy have decided of their own accord and without any prompting from me to start drinking the water I've put down.

Now, I'm THRILLED that they're wanting to drink & eat on their own, and it shows they're advancing, but at the same time - I'm scared to death it might be too early? They're still quite young, and I thought they diddn't start till 6 weeks? they've decided this themselves, I haven't forced them yet, but will it harm them at all to start early?

Not only that, I thought it took longer than 6 weeks for them to start taking interest in drinking water on their own, I thought eating food came first, but it seems they've decided that lapping the water is pleasurable and they do it whenever they want, I've caught the grey girl trying it at least three times today of her own accord, so it's not just fluke.

thanks in advance for any advice

My babies were a few days shy of 4 weeks when they started eating some dry out of mommas bowl. So I started offering two meals of wet a day to them. I did that for one week then started mixing some dry into it--just because its too expensive for me to offer 2 meals of kitten wet to 5 kittens. They ate wet for 2 weeks and now just eat momma's dry and they started drinking from the water bowl at about 5 weeks. They will be 7 weeks tomorrow.

They learn from their momma so dont' worry about it being too early. It may be a little upsetting that they are growing up--it was for me but its not detrimental to their health to be eating solids this early.

My 5 barely nurse at all at 7 weeks.

Leslie

My kittens are four weeks and 2 days old they are all drinking water and the two biggest boys are eating moms wet canned food doing the day.

I introduced canned food the day the turn four weeks old but I have to have them weined by 7 weeks so I started one weel earlier then I usally do.

Mom and baby are foster through a local shelter and they all go up for adoption at 9 weeks old. Or 3 pounds witch ever some first.

Sonja's babies started eating her dry food when they were only 3 1/2 weeks old! They were all big eaters. So I think your kittens are pretty normal.

It varies a lot. Most kittens are not very interested in canned or dry food till around 5-6 weeks old. But my Ocicat breeder says her kittens are ready to start eating canned around 4 weeks old.

thank you, I was just worried that eating too early could be harmful, thank you all for the advice, I'm glad they've started eating on their own, so as to gain weight & strength.

funnily enough, they're all hitting milestones early, and are quite big now for their age, I think it's because they've in essence got two mothers as my two cats decided from the get-go that they'd raise them together, so thus all the kittens view them both as mom & get double the nutrients & care from them.