7 Week Old Fosters Not Eating Much

Hello!

I'm taking care of four little healthy 7-week-old foster babies.  Usually at this age they're ravenous.  I'll try goat's milk this afternoon mixed with their Science Diet dry. 

Any tried and true suggestions are welcomed!

Try canned food. Fancy Feast has a canned kitten formula that is easy to find in stores and affordable. Dry food can sometimes be too hard for a small kitten to eat. Never add water or any other liquid to soften the dry food unless you remove the bowl right after the kittens eat. Wet dry food will quickly grow harmful bacteria. It's also possible that the kittens just don't like Science Diet. You can try a different brand of dry kitten food.

Thank you so much for the quick reply. Yes, the president of our rescue group gave me a huge box of cans of Fancy Feast "gravy" type wet food.  They all four ate a few bites/licks and then that was it.  I just took it out of their pen as it's been about an hour.  I think I'm going to boil some chicken and mix it with rice as their stools are a bit loose also.  That could just be stress as they just came to my house yesterday.

ALSO, one of them is not of the same litter the other three are.  She was left at the spay/neuter clinic in a box.    Anyway, she plays with toys/feathers but is very nervous around humans, even though she'll let you cuddle her.  I've started Pet Calm on her, a full syringe that the bottle comes with.  Question:  How often can I give her the Pet Calm?  I'll google it in the meantime.  But is boiled chicken meat with rice a good idea for them?  I can't imagine them NOT wanting that?  And it's easy on their young digestive tracts.

Thanks for any help!!!!!

Try Royal Canin babycat, (dry food) it is $19.00 a bag at Petco or Petsmart.  Moisten it with warm KMR (milk replacement) at first and then use warm water.  The pieces are very small. for them to bite and they will eat it all up.    I have had tons of baby cats and they all love this stuff.  Its small enough and nutritionally complete

Yes, I've seen that before and fed it to my Siamese mix rescue, Sophie, when she was a tiny baby.  Thank you!  Is it easy on their stomachs?  Would transitioning to this quickly upset their systems?

Originally Posted by Snowcat7  

But is boiled chicken meat with rice a good idea for them?  I can't imagine them NOT wanting that?  And it's easy on their young digestive tracts.

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As a temporary diet, boiled chicken is ok. I wouldn't give rice as well since cats have no use for grains in the diet. Boiled chicken with or without the rice doesn't have the necessary vitamins and minerals a cat needs. If you want to do something homecooked that is a complete balanced diet, see this thread: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/264153/home-cooked-cat-food-resources

You may want to also post in the Pregnant Cats and Kitten Care forum for more help on getting the kittens to eat.

Of course they LOVED the boiled chicken breast meat. But I totally understand they need a balanced diet of feline food.  I'm just trying to get their stools a bit firmer.  One is fine but one has very loose stool.  I may mix a bit of canned pumpkin with their food late tonight.

Gerber brand Chicken & Gravy baby food. Cats LOVE this stuff. They also sell Ham & Gravy (my adult hospice cat LOVED that), but it's sometimes harder to find. Make sure it is just the meat and gravy variety - the meals like chicken casserole and such have ingredients in them that are posionous to cats, such as onion and garlic. You can try that and then try mixing it with some other moist food brand, or possibly even their dry food. The KMR kitten milk is a good idea as well!

I tried getting a grain free, holistic kitten food for a group of fosters once. It was very dry! They hated it and snubbed it! Gave them their Science Diet, which was nice and oily, and they ate just fine. It's probably something with the food if all of them are snubbing the food, especially if one is not native to the litter.

Jahzara said:

 
Gerber brand Chicken & Gravy baby food. Cats LOVE this stuff. They also sell Ham & Gravy (my adult hospice cat LOVED that), but it's sometimes harder to find. Make sure it is just the meat and gravy variety -

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A post with pictures of the safe baby foods a cat can temporarily eat: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/225595/anyone-else-have-an-only-gravy-licker/60#post_3749885

Thanks so much for the advice. Yeah, I've fed the "human" baby food - ham, chicken or turkey and gravy and other fosters have loved it, not excluding my own cats!  It's a real treat for them. However, the three litter mates now have loose stool.  The non-sibling's stool is normal.  I've been treating with Albon and the head of our rescue group is going to give me another med to add for the loose stool. I hope it's just stress as they were at PetSmart yesterday being shown for "pre-adoption" as they have not had any of their vetting done (spay/neuters, micro-chipping, etc.). Do you think the human food mixed with boiled chicken would be okay?  I know it doesn't have all the nutrients they need, but they have dry Science Diet out all the time in their room.  I've fostered for 2 years and it seems even the babies born inside have poo issues when transitioning from mother's milk to solid food. Rarely have I seen normal poo in a baby cat!!!!