Ramsie update and some questions.

As most of yoiu know Im have adopted a 5 week old kitten. She is lovey and adorable and from what Ive read she is spot on development wise. She has learned how to do a sneak attack and does the wiggle bottom Im gonna get you stuff. She plays with toys, especially jingle balls, shes not to keen on the crinkle balls. She and Bacon/Jules have bonded and are very close they sleep together on a fleece blanket I put on the cat room floor as a nest for them. They play on the condo together and are very sweet together.

There are a couple of things that I havent been able to find good information on, mostly its conflicting so Id rather get your opinions and advice.

1) When should I get her started on the dry food. I have her eating wet food now and she is gobbling it up but I would like to get her eating dry as soon as shes able to. She does eat it but not as a full meal. I know she can crunch it and chew it but Im worried that because Ive got her on the wet she will snub her nose at having to eat just dry. I did the wet because I was unsure of her ability to eat dry and I wanted to make sure she got plenty of water in her because I knew she was gonna have runny poops for a little while.

2) Is she old enough to not need the KMR anymore? I do give her KMR for breakfast lunch and dinner but for her in between snacks and before bed I give her half and half (water and Pedialyte)

3) Obviously shes too small to be out and about in the house by herself right now but one thing Im worried about is because Im raising her from 5 weeks on up is she at risk for adopting those sometimes bad habits or behaviors that hand raised kittens can end up with? I want her to learn to be like Herc and GiGi who while they love out attention are also independant and capable of doing their own thing. Ramsie now refuses to go into her carrier at all so she is out and about in the catroom all day long with supervised living room play time and I also go into the catroom to play with her and Bacon/Jules. Bacon/Jules has also learned in the meantime to jump the gate so I no longer have to lift it anymore...which is good because Franklin figured out how to army crawl underneath it...bad doggy!!!


Oh and before I forget...2 big woo hoos for Ramsie...She uses the big kitty litter box, not the high sided one but the regular old square blue one. AND....she had regular poopie today!! Yeah Ramsie baby girl.

Any other advice you kitten raisers have for me please toss it my way. Oh and her eyes are slowly changing they are a blueish grey now. I have my fingers crossed for her to have green eyes since all the others have that golden color....

I would keep her on the wet for life. It's so much better for them than dry. Is there a particular reason why you want to switch her to dry?

Because 2 can't have wet and those 2 are gluttons for butt punishment. If they eat anything but totw they get instant and revolting runny stinky poop. While I would love a purely wet diet its not feasible for our house. On the weekends there are somedays where we aren't home during what would be meal times so we free feed with poop scooping done in the morning and at night. Thankfully though kitties all are big water drinkers whether out of their dishes, the dogs, sinks and cleaning off the shower walls after someone takes a shower they love their water.

Also price wise even to buy totw wet in bulk to feed all 4 kitties would double my monthly expense on cat food plus litter. Right now I get a 15lb bag of food that lasts a month. I also then get a 40lb box of litter every other week.

I like to keep them on wet food mixed with KMR until they're big and strong, usually 10-12 weeks. I feel like this could help them make up for the early disadvantages. Don't rush into it, if you stop feeding the canned too soon she might lose weight or get sick. I don't give plain KMR after they're off the bottle, I just mix it with the canned food.

She should grow up just fine with all the other kitties in the household. Of course, every cat has her own personality, so she might be more clingy than the other cats, but since she has older cats to teach her how to be a proper cat she should turn out just fine . Just make sure to put aside money for spaying starting now, if she or Jules end up going into heat, that can really raise havoc in a multi-cat family.

We already have plans to take them to the snap clinic in january. Their winter schedule gets cut down drastically due to weather. Bacon/Jules will be going for sure in january Ramsie will probably be going around mid to late march.