Babies not eating enough...

As some of you may know, I trapped two feral kittens, one Dec. 16, which I named Maggie Mae, and her sister Dec. 17, named her Rosie. I let them acclimate a little and brought them both to vet on  the 22nd.  Before then, I had brought in fecal samples, as I knew they had worms, so I could get them started on worms meds, their little tummies, especially Rosie's, were distended. (I named them Maggie Mae and Rosie).  Gave them worm meds immediately on positive result from fecal.  Turns out they were only about 9 weeks old.  They were pretty starved, and ate fairly well when I first got them.  The vet visit went well, they are negative for FIV and leu.  They had a few fleas, but that's been taken care of, and they are now flea free.  They do not eat very well...they eat much less than my resident cat did at same age.  Is it the worms?  I know they still have them, I started their second round of worm med today, and they get it for three days.  We go back to the vet on the 23rd. I'm hoping worms will be gone by then, but we will see, as they were pretty bad.  Does anyone have suggestion for getting them to eat more?  I feed them grain free kitten food, I was NOT feeding them any dry at all, but they do love little treats, so hoping to get more calories in them yesterday I went out and bought wellness dry to leave a little bowl in the kitten room, it looks pretty much untouched.  (im not fond of dry food and will get them off it, if they ever go on it, soon as I have them eating more canned)  I have tried flavors with fish, chicken, turkey..doesn't seem to matter, they eat but they eat very little.  Is this a worm thing?  I'm not sure what else to try.  I tried putting baby food in the cat food, but although they get interested, not much gets ingested.  They are active, play a lot, are alert, acting pretty much as expected.    They were only 1.8 lbs each when I got them, and I know they have put on weight but exactly how much I'm not sure.  They have been slowly getting socialized with Charli, my kitty, who is almost 11 months old.  There has been no hissing, no growling, no bad behavior on the part of my Charli, she's just a little nervous around them, as there are two of them and they kind of bounce around a lot which has her looking in many directions to keep track of them.  Both kittens immediately purr when Charli comes in the room.  Charli is very awkward with them, not sure how to play with them, has bopped them on head a couple of times, but not really in a mean way, and they play around her and she tries to play with them, but she is a big kitty and they are so tiny I think she's a little nervous about what these little furballs are up to.  But anyhow, any advice on how to get these two to eat more would be greatly appreciated...they drink, use their litter box and have made great strides socially since I brought them in.  They were all hissy and hiding for a couple days, now they purr when touched, Rosie, the smaller of the two, runs right to me when I enter the room...Maggie won't run away, but won't run too me, but will stay put and I can just walk up and pet her, which results in immediate purring and she'll even roll over for a belly rub.   I think Rosie does it for a little treat, as I bring them one when I go in.

Any advice on getting them to eat more would be appreciated. I know many of you are very experience with kittens.  Thank you!!

Having worms can cause them to not want to eat. I would call your vet and ask for some suggestions.  You might need a stronger dewormer.  Also maybe they should be seen sooner than the 23rd. 

I would try as many different types of wet food as possible. Get kitten food because they need the extra nutrition. You could also get a can of kitten replacement milk and add that to the wet food. Also, you can get a jar of Gerber's chicken baby food and treat them with a small dollop once in awhile. It isn't good for every day because it doesn't contain the nutrients cats need but for a treat and training tool, it is excellent.

I think Charlie is a good ambassador for them. He's probably not sure about these little ones, so I would just keep an eye on any interaction between them.

I would call the vet and ask what he/she thinks about them eating less. The wormer may have upset their tummies or as ShadowsRescue suggested, they may need a stronger wormer.

Thank you for rescuing them!

So I decided last night, if not eating still, vet visit was coming today.  So I had them chasing toys last night and playing up a storm hoping to encourage some eating, gave them food before bed and hoped for the best.  Got up this morning, food barely touched, decided soon as vet opens we're going.  So I dump last nights food, bring in fresh dishes, and Maggie, the bigger of the two, decides she's gonna eat...and eat she did, like normal kitten.  Rosie still a few licks, walks away.  So I go and get some fresh local goat's milk out of my freezer, defrost, and bring to Rosie, and she shows interest and drinks it.

Maggie is running around playing, back over to food dish, completely normal.  Rosie, not so much.

I call vet and bring Rosie in.  She seems fine in all respects, except her temp is 102, which could be considered low grade fever.  She has put on a little over 5 oz. since her last visit which was 16 days ago.

Doc says to continue worm meds that she's due to get today and tomorrow, wants to try amox. in case something is going on before moving on to more blood work.  Okay.  So she gets a shot, I bring her home,  calm her down and then give her the worm meds and leave her to relax for a bit. 

Hubby goes to store to get me crappiest smelliest food he can find, brings home several varieties of Friskies canned, and I go up with a little dish and guess who decides to eat...Rosie.  Maggie already had eaten quite a bit, so she looked enthusiastically at it, had a little, and that was it...but Rosie ate more than I've seen her eat in a couple of days....

Crossing fingers and hoping for the best.  Vet said he honestly thinks it's nothing to be really alarmed about, that he expects her to turn around within 48 hours, and if not to get her back in for more extensive blood work.

Such good news. Eat Rosie Eat!!  It's amazing how picky they can be at times.  One of my ferals outside is very picky.  He would rather starve than eat some of the wet food I have out for him.  Here's to hoping Rosie and Maggie are on their way to eating more and more.

This goat milk you do have, you can continue with this. Useful and nourishing, even if strictly speaking, they dont need milk as such at this age.

Raw egg yolk, for example in the milk, is also very nutritious.  IF they drink it of course.  

Good luck½

Thanks.  Yes, I'm going to continue with the goat milk until they are eating what I think they should be, I have plenty of it and from everything I've read it should be good for them.  Poor babies had a rough start in life, so I think it can be nothing but helpful for them.

Rosie  has been eating like a champ for two days now, like she's trying to make up for lost meals!  So great to see!  She's been enjoying raw goat's milk as well, and is feeling so much better.  Her temp has been normal for two days now.  Funny thing is, Maggie, her sister, has been eating more as well, both of them are suddenly chowing down like little kittens should!  Phew!  Rosie is so tiny, I was so worried about her, but she's been getting a lot of love and snuggles and lots and lots of good food.  They both ADORE the raw goat's milk, and I'm going to continue to give it to them until they both bulk up a bit.  I'm hoping the worms are gone now, but we'll see what happens with the next fecal test.  Also, I was successful in getting rid of all the fleas, no sign of fleas at all; I combed both of them head to tail today, and both are completely clean of fleas, thank goodness! 

Good news!  Thanks for sharing.  It does us all good to hear about successes.