I have a 4 week kitten...HELP!!

Hello, my brother found a kitten on Monday at the farm he works on. The mother was no where to be found and neither were the other kittens, so he brought the kitten home to me to take care of. Well I did a lot of research online to know what to do. I figured out by reading online that my kitten is about 4 weeks old as it has little teeth already. My big question is, how do I know if my kitten is eating enough?? I had been feeding it a "glop" recipe I found online, but then a vet told me it is pretty important to give it kitten milk replacer, so today I bought some KMR. The can says I should feed the kitten 2 tbsp per 4 ounce of body weight (last check my kitten was 13.9 oz) so I should be giving it almost 7 tbps. I have been feeding the kitten every 4 hours today with a 3 cc syringe and it has had 58.5 cc total today so far (it is 10:18 pm). And that is almost 4 tbps. So according the label on the can the kitten is being underfed?? I feed it until it will take no more and it keeps turning it head away. So I let it down on the floor and play with it and it seems happy, it skitters around and grabs my fingers and chews on them, and last night it purred for the first time when I was petting it. Can anybody help me with this? I am so scared my kitten is going to die or something!! It's almost like I am obsessing over it but I can't seem to stop...lol I know I'm weird...when people find out I am a 23 year old male and I love cats they act like I'm from another planet or something.

Bless your heart ... thank you for being you; the 23 year old young man who loves cats. We welcome you.

OK, at 4 weeks old, Baby should be about ready to try some solid foods. Can you get some good, high-quality canned kitten food (I like Nutro Natural Choice for my kittens, but feed the best quality food you can afford so long as it is in a kitten formula) and add a little warm water to it to make it sort of goopy ... put it in a clean jar lid (you don't need much when introducing - if Baby likes it you can always make up more) and offer it to Baby. He might walk through it, he might roll around in it but these are both good things because he will also then lick it off of himself and he might find he likes it enough to eat it on his own.

Continue supplementing with the milk replacer though ... and if you are feeding until Baby doesn't want anymore, then that is sufficient for your little one. The amounts on the label are guidelines and individual cats have individual needs. Yours may be more or less than what the label says.

Here's my trick- put the food in a jar lid, just a tiny bit though- bring the can and the spoon into the room with you, along with the bottle. Set up and feed the kitten with the bottle, about halfway through the bottle, withdraw the nipple and place your finger into the canned food- I use IAMS kitten and mix it with KMR- the kitten should nibble at the food, though if he is four weeks old, that is a bit early for solid food. Generally your clue to put them on solids is when they start to chew the nipple and stop sucking. They do better with just a dab of food in front of them instead of a whole lot, because they get it in their nose when they eat- plus they walk in it-



This is Massey at five weeks old, going from the jar lid to a larger area. He has 2 brothers and 2 sisters to share with

Thanks to those of you who replied. I started the kitten out on a syringe and 2 days later my brother brought home a little kitten bottle, but she couldn't get the hang of it and only wanted to chew on it anyway. So I went back to the syringe. I did try giving her a little formula in a lid today, she drank a tiny bit but wanted to chew on the edge of it (I guess she is used to chewing on the tip of the syringe). I will try some more tomorrow morning when she is pretty hungry. I did also buy 2 small cans of kitten food. It is Max Cat Gourmet Classics for Kittens. I saw that brand recommended somewhere. I will probably be trying that sometime tomorrow. I am not sure if I should be feeding this kitten through out the night, but I have not been and she is usually ravenous in the morning, and the one morning she drank 27 cc (almost 2 tbsp). I had been going 8 hours between each feeding and she seemed to eat more at a time when I did that. But then I read somewhere that if they aren't eating enough to try the feedings closer (but I guess kitty can't handle as much as they say and she is pretty consistent with what she can hold at a time). I have read so many conflicting things online that I am not quite sure what to believe!! Hissy I came across your post here via ask.com and was hoping you would reply...I thought you were giving pretty good advice! Anyway I was having a problem with kitty going to the bathroom, she was wetting fine, but she wasn't doing anything more signifant. Finally after 2 days she went. I had been stimulating her with a wet cotton ball for two days but she wouldn't do anything, then a vet told me it may take a while. And she went again today without me doing anything, so hopefully she has the hang of it. I did put a little litter box in her box with her and she has been using that faithfully! I was very surprised, I didn't know a kitten so little knew to do that, but I guess digging in dirt is instinct. I'm not trying to litter train her as where we live we are allowed to have no pets in the house. We have a big garage for kitty to live in and we live in the country so she should be safe outside I think.

Your kitten should be fed every five hours or five times a day. He may have worms, most stray kitties do, and that could be why he is ravenous, but you can't do any safe worming on him at this age. It doesn't sound like he is going to die, he sounds like a perfectly normal kitten that is hungry because he is growing-

www.kitten-rescue.com will help you out with some of your questions-

Could he be chewing on things because he is teething?
My 5 week old babies are chewing everything they can get their paws on. 3 of them are eating solid food, 1 of them started chewing on the jar lid at first then he got the hang of it.

Awww all these stories really bring tears to my eyes Thank you for taking in this little kitten. Please keep us all udpated.