Newly adopted kitten not eating

Hi there, I adopted a kitten (I believe she's between 6 - 8 weeks old) on Saturday, but she's not eating much, and as far as I can tell hasn't been drinking at all.

1st day here she didn't eat anything, the 2nd day she ate maybe half of one of those Whiskas kitten pouches (100g per pouch), and today she hasn't even eaten a quarter of 1 pouch.

My parents adopted one of her brothers, and she looks positively feeble and tiny compared to him, and he has been eating like a horse apparently.

I've tried dried food as well, both mixing it, serving separately etc to no avail. I've even bought mineral water to see if she'd drink that as the tap water admittedly doesn't taste very good here, but nothing. I'm starting to get quite worried. Mood wise she seems to be coming around, however she absolutely refuses to be left alone for more than 10 seconds, and sits on my knee all day, and then crawls under the bed sheets and burrows into me when I'm in bed.

Should I be worried and take her to the vet, or leave it a few more days?

I wouldn't leave it a few days. If you haven't already, call and make a vet appt. for tomorrow and keep trying to get her to eat. Try feeding her baby food (I've read that Gerber stage 2 meat baby foods are cat friendly). I don't want to alarm you but I had a kitten years ago that wasn't eating and by the time I noticed he had already gone very far downhill and couldn't even walk. You can also try going to your local pharmacist for a 10ml syringe so you can try syringe feeding and getting some water into her. 

Thanks for the reply! I'll phone the vet in the morning and hopefully get her up there so they can have a look. I'm hoping it's just home sickness from being away from her mother and siblings and will pass, but seeing how much larger and stronger on his feet her brother is has me worried.

My vet said my kitten(8weeks) needs to eat a meal the size of the top of her head every 4-6 hours. He said if she misses one meal it's not good, but two she needs to come right in.

You could also get her some KMR (kitten milk replacer) and mix that with food. If she was only 6 weeks when you got her, that's a little young. But definitely take her to the vet either way!

Sophie

Well I took her to the vet this evening and explained the situation. The girl said judging by her size she's most likely the runt of the litter, and that she had a temperature so she gave her an injection for that.

As for the eating the vet said she's probably eating as much as she can and not to worry too much as long as she's eating something, but if it persists to come back after the weekend. The vet gave me a 2ml syringe and said try and get a mouthful of water into her every 1 - 2 hours at least, and to leave little bowls/caps with water in them around different parts of the house to try and persuade her to drink on her own.

When we got back she ate a little bit, and afterwards I gave her a few small squirts of mineral water via the syringe. She seemed to enjoy it even though she's been refusing to drink from her bowl which is quite odd! There was absolutely no struggling and she willingly opened her mouth after the first go.

Does anyone here know roughly how much water a kitten should get in a day, so that I can work out how much and how often to give her via the syringe? The vet wasn't very clear on the actual amount on ML, and I completely forgot to ask.

For humans, we are supposed to be drinking half our weight in ounces of water every day. So for me, I weigh 200 pounds, so I should be drinking 100 oz of water a day. It's something to start with. Divide kitty's weight by two and try to get that much in her as a goal.

Sophie