8 week old Kitten and Wet Food

Hello, I am fostering kittens for the local animal control. I got them when they were about 4 weeks old. They had been eating canned cat food and pedilite for atleast a week. They had horrible diarhea and after trying several things, finally getting them on dry food cleared it all up. One kitten (Pudge) however, won't eat the dry food. He tries, he will eat a few mouthfuls, but not enough to sustain him. So he is back on wet food and has soft stool. He is more active but still not putting on weight. His brothers are putting on tons of weight on dry food and run non-stop. So what should I do? Mix dry and wet? Add water to dry? Is there something I am missing here?

Have the kittens been wormed yet? My guess is parasites are the most likely problem, sometimes the first worming doesn't do the trick.

You can add a probiotic to his daily diet to help firm up stools, but this kitten, well all of them, should have a vet check up. Do not use OTC dewormers.

Hurray for you for your foster work!

What wet food were you trying to use? There's some, like Nutro, that cause diarrhea in a lot of kittens - one of my past cats included, when told the vet even said it was common with that food.

Originally Posted by strange_wings

What wet food were you trying to use? There's some, like Nutro, that cause diarrhea in a lot of kittens - one of my past cats included, when told the vet even said it was common with that food.

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Worming would be my first thought..

then the above... many premium foods are too rich for little tummys .. try looking for ones with one or two meats and one starch or grain

I always start my kittens off on canned kitten food in chicken or lamb only - no fish flavors and beef is added after a few weeks. I've never had a problem with stools.

I would say they need to be wormed first.

If I remember correctly, they are getting wormed next week. I guess I just found it wierd that Pudge would try to eat dry but not a whole lot of it. Is that normal?

at their age no it is just the beginning of weaning normally