vet says to start introducing solid food to kittens (15 days old)

ive not been on in a little while, sashas kittens are now 15 days old and sasha has bad diahorea. i took her to the vet today who said she had a little bit of a temp and her tummy is tender. he said it could be caused by the high fat in the wet kitten food and the fact she is a small cat producing a huge amount of milk for the kittens as they are quite big kittens(all 5 of them). he has given her antibiotics to take 2 times a day and to give her dry food only and it should clear up in next few days. which is good news BUT he says ive to start trying the kittens on solid food?! has anyone ever heard of this? isnt 2 weeks too young to start solids? does this mean sasha is really ill and he suspects if she keeps feeding she will get even worse?

if i have to start feeding kittens this young what is best thing to try them on? i am in uk

It IS young. CAN be tried in desperate cases, when you dont have anything else. But being in UK you can surely get good kmr milks (I presume you do have Royal Canin kitten milk?).  You can probably even get goat milk, an OK alternative...

But I wonder, he perhaps meant not exactly solid food, but supplementing food?  kmr or something else...

THIS is surely a good idea, taking part of the burden from mom.

Especially, as being sick, she perhaps cant produce enough with first class milk.

It will also make it easier for her to recover.

Good luck!   *vibes*

he said to try them on some wet cat food mixed with kitten milk like a wet paste, he said they will prob just walk through it for first few days. but they dont leave the box so im very confussed

I think he really meant you shall take the burden off the mom. Perhaps even prepare IF she will get worse.  Thus the advice was good though, although clumsy said.

And his recipe should work.  Although, having unlimited access to good kmr milk, and if necessary, goat milk (  *smile* ),  you can wait at least one week more befory trying with this veterinary recipe. In 10 days more it will be really excellent.   

Good luck!

i have "toplife formula kitten milk" in my house should i start trying kittens on it a little? and should i try them out shallow dish or try a dropper. should i be worried bout sasha? she is looking a bit thin, but i thought she was ok as kittens still been gaining, not top end but today they have gained between 5 and 15 grams and that was when i weighed them at 9 instead of 11.30

Toplife kitten formula seems to be based on goat milk.  So it is useful, and surely better then some other commercial products you can buy in Walmart, petshops...  Im not mentioning the brands, their lawyers may be better than mine lawyer, but they were discussed here lately...

With a dropper you are sure they will get it. And you dont lose as much unused milk. But if they will take from a shallow plate, there are pros for that.

One is, no risk of getting the milk in wrong neck. Next is, it is easier to get from a dropper than nurse mom. If they get from the dropper, they tend to stop nursing mom.

Think it over and decide. 

5-15 g gaining on healthy kittens isnt that much, so probably the normal steep up has levelled some these days, when mom is a little sick. Thus, good you are planning on some extra food.

Good luck!

im going to try dipping noses in milk tonight and tomorrow and see how they gaining (hoping sashas diahorea clears up and they start gaining as normal 9- 24g)do i heat up the milk or just do it at room temp? if it dont seem to make a difference will start with dropper tomorrow as would prefer if they could just do it alone if it is possible. not saying im not prepared for the work its just i know its better for them to do it alone with mummy. 

My own feeling is that since they are still gaining some weight, I would give it a couple of days to see if the treatment sorts out mum cat.  Bottle feeding young kittens has it's dangers, and they will naturally start eating solid food once they start leaving the nest. Aa bottle-fed kitten can also get lazy and not want to go back to the nipple.

My experience has always been that so long as they can paddle in it they start eating it.  And yes, it's messy!

well dish feeding milk was...fun. they all got covered in it walking through it and climbing all over each other. they didnt really manage to drink much but 2 of them had a good few licks of the milk, they realised that if they kept licking in the dish they got more rather than trying to lick it off brothers and sisters. mummy ended up sneaking rest of left overs when i was weighing kittens! sasha has only had one bowel movement and it was quite firm so im hoping thats the worst of the diahorea over. she keeps begging for wet food although she is still eating lots of dry. the kittens have gained between 10 and 15g today.

one thing i realised is the kittens know who i am   they came to the sound of my voice. they also kept cuddling into me and raising their head when i spoke to them. cutest thing ever!!!! im really going to struggle when its time for them to go.

I never named my fosters and it helped me to let them go - naming them would have made them too much mine rather than borrowed.

thanks, i am friends with all the people that are getting them and some of them have named them already and i can feel myself keeping my distance more from them lol. we are keeping one i just havent decided if its the black and white girl or the tabby boy like mummy yet.