Question about my kitten...

My 5 week old kitten appears to have white diarrhea...what does this mean? One website I read it says it is GROSSLY abnormal and to take it to the vet and another site says it just means they have an intolerance to what they are being fed. I was feeding the kitten the formula for "glop" that was listed on this forum. So I quit feeding her that and am back to giving her kitten milk replacer. She doesn't seem sick, she still plays and bounces around and stuff, but I did notice she wasn't eating as much of that glop as she first was. She ate pretty good when I got home with the milk replacer.

Here is a picture of my kitten:

Originally Posted by LaceyDF

does it look like it could be worms? Or is it just completely white in color?

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It is just white in color. Once it soaks into a hunter green sheet the sheet just looks wet. It doesn't stink either. I thought at first she may have thrown up, but then I saw some in her little box too. I guess I am not going to be too concerned about it as she is eating the milk replacer again fine and she isn't lethargic or sickly looking at all. I would probably be pretty concerned if she was sluggish and didn't want to eat anything. I am guess she just has a sensitive tummy as the one brand of canned kitten food bothered her as well.

Some good news on another front...I have some friends that offered to pay for all Graycie's shots and to have her fixed! It was a total surprise when they told me that...they are doing it as a birthday present for me.

It simply means that the food is to rich for her tummy, or she isn't digesting it properly. You could also be overfeeding. I would switch to KMR and dilute the formula- instead of one scoop of powder to 2 parts water, try 2.5 parts water and see how she does.

Originally Posted by hissy

It simply means that the food is to rich for her tummy, or she isn't digesting it properly. You could also be overfeeding. I would switch to KMR and dilute the formula- instead of one scoop of powder to 2 parts water, try 2.5 parts water and see how she does.

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Thanks Hissy, I was trying not to be worried, but I still WAS a little worried. That is what I thought is that it was too rich for her or something.

Originally Posted by Jmiah22

I have some friends that offered to pay for all Graycie's shots and to have her fixed! It was a total surprise when they told me that...they are doing it as a birthday present for me.

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Wow ! That's great ,

My kitty is just a bit older than yours, and I have been having the same issues with runny poops...off and on as I try new foods.
What has finally worked... and worked VERY well, is my own invention.

I bought both the Chicken Soup kitten food, and the new Innova, Evo. Both for kittens and dry. I had issues soaking it ( we won't go into that, lol ) so what I've done is use my little food grinder !

Each meal, I grind up just enough for one serving, add warm water... stir with my finger, add more or less of each... you learn after a few days the right amounts...as it swells up quickly while your doing this.
Nameless kitten is chowing down ! She's growing faster than ever before, and there is such a difference...I know part of this really is much better absorption of nutrients on a consistent basis.

I'm all ears for corrections on the right kitten food...just telling what is working here now. I can't seem to get any canned food in her and maintain nice poops.

Any kitchen grinder type thing would work too... no need to buy something new. You could probably make a larger batch of pre-ground kitten food and store it in a sealed jar ? I'm doing it the slow way because I'm also trying to get her over her fear of the kitchen sink counter and the sound of running water. Have no idea what her previous owners did to create such fear in her...but she's starting to get better about it.

-PlaidKitty-

I was thinking about trying that tonight. Graycie will not eat solid food, she will nibble at the canned stuff and eat a little but she acts like she doesn't quite know how to put it in her mouth. She will nibble a bit then move to the edge of the lid and try sucking and of course that doesn't work then she will go back to licking it and then she finally gives up. I offered her a piece of dry food to see what she would do and she tried her BEST to eat it but didn't. I know she can't munch it herself yet. I will have to give that a try with soaking it then grinding it. I have a little tiny food processor that would work great. The Kitten food takes FOREVER to get soft when you put it in the milk. I bought some Purina Kitten Formula and I put it in milk and it must have taken 15 minutes just to START to get soft. I was told that any kind of kitten food is ok to feed them just so long as it says 100% nutrionally complete on the package. Does anybody know if that is true or not?

Oh my gosh... You know exactly what a pain in the hiney dry food and soaking can be... then add in temp kitty prefers. It has to be not too hot... and not too cold... just right

The lists of preferred cat foods do have the Chicken Soup included, just not the top one. But at $3.50 a pound for the Evo... and my bigger kitty thinking this is GREAT stuff...I'm afraid my kids are not going to be living on that.
The Chicken Soup for kittens has a trial bag being made right now. It's $2.99 for 1 1/2 pounds.
I figure I'll go back and pick up a few bags, then by the time she is ready for non-baby food... my costs should come down a bit.
Though ? I'm not sure when we change over to regular good cat food ?

Let me know how the new idea works for you. We could be onto something here ?

Yeah...I am getting to see what a pain soaking dry food can be. If I give my kitten formula she usually will drink a little and walk off and play a while then come back and drink a little more then go play. It can be a pain when you want to go to bed and don't feel like waiting around until kitty wants to eat! I don't know if I am feeding her too close together or what? I thought maybe I was getting it too warm, so I didn't make it as warm and she still does the same thing. When I was feeding her that glop she ate like a PIG maybe she was just eating TOO much. You certainly need patience if you are hand raising a kitten!! Her mother could probably teach her in a twitch of a whisker what it is taking me so long to teach her!!

Aw, she's cute.

Stick with IAMS kitten food (dry) put a little bit in a plastic bag and break it up with a hammer. That's what I do anyway- sometimes i moisten it with a little bit of warm water- but KMR spoils in about an hour when exposed to air, so I just either do dry or use straight water.

I think I may be going about this weaning business the wrong way. I usually feed kitty her formula then offer her some canned food. I probably should be mixing the two together? I guess I am a little hesitant to do that as last time I did it she got diarrhea, but I think it was just the kind of canned food it was.