Help me

So. Lillith (Lola, Lee-Lee, Lilly) is not as old as we thought. As it turns out she came from a Bombay breeder to the shelter, who's house was foreclosed on. She's five weeks old. So the shelter LIED about her age (RAWR ANGRY) The shelter JUST gave us her medical file and background today when we stopped by. Our family vet is closed and I am very worried. She's active and plays, but she's having a super tough time with the kibble, and when you pet her, all I feel is her little ribs. We adopted Keiran when he was 14 weeks, so he was well on his way to being a happy, healthy fat-cat-in-charge.

Do I need to be feeding her formula or wet food? I've never had a kitten so young and I want to take the best care of her possible. She's having very painful diarrhea. She eats the kibble and is a good kitty, but I'm afraid it's going right through her, and she's not gaining an benefits from it.

She by all rights is very playful and active, but she has a very stinky, swollen little booty and I'm not sure what the best way is to get some good food in her tummy and what the best option would be for her right now.

Can someone more experienced with very young kittens please help?

I've care for very yound kittens and at 5 weeks I think you should give her kitten formula and maybe introduce her to canned food. I'd try chicken or turkey canned food, i had a bad experience with tuna based canned food, I gave it to a 4 week old kitten and he had seizures and almost died, so i decided not to feed any kitten with tuna again.

We're having a similar problem with our little foster ZZ. He wasn't eating much at the shelter, and got down to skin and bones. That weakened him to the URI almost all the cats get at the shelter.

We've been feeding him KMR (Kitten Milk Replacer), mixing it with more and more prescription AD food and regular wet food. He's eating it better and better, but we had to force feed him for a couple of days.

At five weeks she should not be on kibbles.... She should be on KMR, and slowly weaned out of it into kitten food by adding a little more every day until you have all kitten food. A/D is great due to all the nutrients, but you have to be careful as it is very rich....
I would give her some Bene-Bac or another probiotic - her little tummy must not be doing well....

Originally Posted by Momto4kitties

I've care for very yound kittens and at 5 weeks I think you should give her kitten formula and maybe introduce her to canned food. I'd try chicken or turkey canned food, i had a bad experience with tuna based canned food, I gave it to a 4 week old kitten and he had seizures and almost died, so i decided not to feed any kitten with tuna again.

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I would get her some stage 2 KMR (kitten milk replacer) and add that to some good canned kitten food such as Royal Canin kitten stage 2 or a good all-stage cat food like Innova EVO or the like. You can also add some stage 2 meat baby food (no garlic or onions) to the mixture. She can have dry kibbles, but she still needs to be getting the majority of her nutrition from canned/wet food. Make sure she eats at least 4 canned/wet food meals a day and supplement with dry.

Thank you all so much! Boyfriend is in love with her, and decided that tomorrow, we are going to our pet store and stocking up on KMR and the best of the best wet foods.

He is LIVID with the shelter, because they told us they were feeding her entire litter kibble because they were 8 weeks. I was skeptical because they all looked so little, but thought it must be genetics....

I'm glad we got her medical records in time...

Thank you again everyone!!!

Suggestions for the best wet food?

For a kitten her age, Royal Canin is my favorite, then Wellness, then Innova EVO cat & kitten. That's what we fed Tumbles when we got him and he was about 9-10 wks old. The Wellness kitten will make stinky poops, so be warned! LOL

I just want to second what Stephanie said, stage 2 KMR and mix in some canned EVO, or Wellness Core or Wellness Kitten. You can now also get Innova and Wellness at Petco or Petsmart. Also, as Carolina said, the Bene-bac would be helpful for this little one too. Hope the little tike feels better soon. They are precious.