First dish of solid food- gobble gobble

This is Larry - he and his sister Mo just started eating solid food at about 26 days old today.

You can read more about how I rescued them as orphans in this thread. They were stray feral kitties whose momma abandoned them at 1 - 3 days old so I posted the original help request over in the Ferals section. I think it's time to move the thread over here since I have learned so much about raising bottle babies. I hope my experiences will help more of you who might come across abandoned kitties

And this is Mo pigging out on wet food. They both weren't getting enough off a bottle of formula

Now I just have to be careful they don't over eat

Edit: I realized I said they were 19 days old when they first had solid food, it was actually 26.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Winchester 

Oh, they're just adorable! It brings back memories of our five RugKittens when they were first learning how to eat solid food. So serious! The first picture you have of the kitten with his or her paw on the dish is so sweet. You're doing a great job with them!

Those paws do get serious. As little as they are they still tear up your hands, or any other part of your body, when they are hungry. Getting them to eat on their own is my next major goal now.

They act like they are starving but they what they really want is momma's soft and furry tummy. Sadly I can't provide it.

And even if I had the equipment I'm not sure I'd offer it They can do some damage.

Well, to be honest I didn't have the money to feed them. Thanks to a nice person from TCS I now have plenty of food.

Only I have to send Larry to China on the next big Mandarin holiday...for some reason.

(i keed, i keed)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Momofmany 

That's pretty impressive that you've gotten them to eat solid food so quickly! My last set of orphans were a bit spoiled (OK, so they are still spoiled). Since they didn't have a cat mom anyway, my dear friend adopted 2 of them (Jake and Elwood) when they were 5 weeks old and took them to her home in Denver. She wanted them before they were weaned so she could develop the meowmy bond with them at a young age. Her 2 boys were eating canned food within a day for her.
Then there was my Muddy and Koko. At 8 weeks old they refused anything but the bottle. DH and I were heading out of town (probably a family wedding) so I decided to board them with our vet tech (she was willing to continue to bottle feed them for me). I apologized to her about not having them weaned and she just laughed at me. Turns out they started to eat solid food the day she took them into her home. She just got firm with them when I could not do it. It was actually a bit embarrassing.
Orphaned kittens don't always develop cat habits like normal cats. Muddy is a very good boy, but when he does act up, he has a very difficult time comprehending the word "NO". He gives me an almost confused look when I try to discipline him. Koko has a tough time relating to any other cat in my house other than Muddy, because she is full of play, but has no boundaries with it. She annoys the other cats when she tries to play with them, and is only tolerated (to some extent) by her brother. Jake and Elwood are allowed back yard privileges (they have a tall fence in the back yard), but panic if they are outside and need to go to the bathroom - they were so well trained in using the litter box that they don't know that they can actually pee anywhere else.
So advice for you at this formative stage in their lives: do what you can to set their boundaries on what you deem as acceptable behavior or they may never learn it. Hindsight tells me that I should have corrected Koko when she pulled her WWF moves on her brothers. How does a mom cat correct their young? With a hiss and gentle scruff, or simply by holding them down with a paw until they settle down. I learned about this after the fact.

I simply don't know anymore. There are as many schools of thought about how to take care of babies as there are people willing to give their opinion.

All I did was set them down in a platter of mushed KMR and wet food (oatmeal, basically) and stuck their face in it. They did the rest on their own. I don't know why this should be surprising. All they do besides sleeping is root around for tit; something to suck and knead on. It's perfectly natural for them to lap up any warm, yummy substance on the ground in front of them. But that is the same reason you have to keep the nest clean and supervise them constantly...they will ingest anything and even nurse on their sibling's genitals.

I can never be a perfect surrogate meowmy, nor am I trying to be. I'm lucky they are alive. But it's only because of the help of you guys here that I haven't killed them with some dumb mistake. I don't say that out of hyperbole or drama, it is just a fact.

My babies are four weeks old today! Happy Birthday Larry and Mo!

Grats on the the wet only food! LOL - I totally had to reevaluate my plans after being stuck with that mess to clean up a few times Turns out getting them to eat it isn't so hard, it's getting them to do it without the whole thing becoming a train wreck They needed full baths to really get all that KMR and wet food out of their fur, so I quickly decided something had to be done. Instead of a saucer I'm using a small container that's not so deep they can't reach the bottom, but not so huge they want to stand in it. They can get both front paws inside it and they still make a little mess, but it's not EVERYWHERE.

Then I got their new living space setup in the closet adjacent to my front room with some heat and a partition, lined about half of it with newspaper where the food and litter box is, and put their heating pad and bedding on the other side. The area is about six times larger than the box they've been in. I think it sort of frightened Mo because when I set her down she just kind of backed into the corner and gazed around for a while. Changing out newspaper will be easier then mopping and stuff. Plus, I have hardwood floors and in the closet it was already in bad shape. I won't have to worry about any damage.

They don't want the bottle at all anymore but will need as much KMR as they can get. I'm going to keep letting them have it in a little bowl in addition to the wet food. I have made no progress at all on little box training...we'll get there.

I take that back, I just stuck Larry in the litter box and he peed and covered it up!.

And now Mo is pooping in it 

It wouldn't be half as much fun without you guys to share the milestones with

Bottle babies

If you listen you can hear Mo burp at the end

Larry and Mo are five weeks old today and completely weaned! I do still sometimes use the bottle just because it's much easier for me, as I don't have a big mess to clean afterwards. They are getting better about not getting food all over them when eating out of a bowl, and I noticed last night they were licking their paws after eating. They are also much more active - scampering about, jumping and climbing and wrestling of course. They sleep a lot less lately as well, so I'm letting them spend the day up on the sofa when I know they've gone potty and I can keep an eye on them. They are afraid to jump off to the floor but I know it will only be a few more days before they get adventuresome and want to explore everything. Now that they don't require the 24 hour care I can move on to the next phase...getting the house kitty proofed. They will still be confined to their safe living space when I can't supervise them, but soon they will be able to jump over the partition.

It's amazing how fast they grow up

LOL yup