10 kittens & introducing solid food

Hi Everyone,
Rocky's kittens are three weeks and two days old now, and they are all doing very well. Their eyes and ears are open, they are wrestling with each other, and their teeth have just come in. I have read conflicting articles as to when to introduce a gruel to their diets. Some say three weeks is okay, and some say no sooner that four weeks. Can it hurt them if I start adding a kitten mush now? I want to try and reduce the strain on Rocky as soon as I can.
Thanks,
Susan

Susan,

I would wait one more week. The kittens still need mom's milk and they will be on solid food soon enough. They will want to start sampling mom's food in the next week or so because the milk won't be enough. Once they do start eating the canned food, I would put some bitter apple on mom's nipples to stop the kittens from trying to nurse. Mom had quite a litter!

I feed snowwhite kitten can food and kitten dry food so when the kittens felt they were ready to eat they started eating. She only had three though so it wasn't a strain for her to nurse. My guys didn't start eating food until around 5-6 weeks.

I do not have a lot of experience with kittens, but I did just help a foster cat raise her litter. I offered food at 4 weeks but they were not even remotely interested for 7 to 10 days after that. But then, there was only 4. Your litter might find interest in food at 4 weeks because of the strain on mom. I would offer it, but not worry if they refuse it.

I found when I was raising kittens, that 4 weeks of age was the earliest I'd begin offering kittens wet food several times a day. It usually took until 5+ weeks to see them connecting the dots and really showing interest in eating.

I never encouraged early weaning...I let mom be the one to tell them it was time to quit nursing. So my litters both transitioned to eating real food, and kept on nursing on occasion, but the nursing was far, far less once they were eating.

For me, weaning cereals/mixes never worked...I just used a good quality, high protein canned food.

10 kittens is an amazing litter! Your poor momma cat deserves a few treats when this is all over!

Pat and Alix P. Curl

omg she had 10 kittens?? i had posted a while back about how many kittens can a cat have, someone told me they had a cat have 10, i didnt know they could, but someone on here said yes they ca. and now im convinced wow!! i had a stray come to my house and brought kittens and i put them on dry food at 4 weeks and they did fine. my grandmother back years ago had several kittens and i rem she always gave them dry food at about 4 weeks old, itsnt that funny i cant rem some things that happened yesterday but i rem,. that about those kittens, i guess i was reallly paying attention hey good luck with them all, they are so sweet, and i love that side ways move they make when they play.