How do you get them to eat??

My kitten is 6 weeks old today (as near as I can figure) and she isn't showing interest in eating anything besides formula. I offer her canned food and she will lick at it a little and that is it. It is making me start to despair that she will ever eat anything but formula. Somebody told me that it is ok she should still be drinking formula and that when the urge to chew becomes stronger she will make the switch on her own to solids. I've tried mixing food with her milk and she doesn't act too impressed.

Originally Posted by Jmiah22

My kitten is 6 weeks old today (as near as I can figure) and she isn't showing interest in eating anything besides formula. I offer her canned food and she will lick at it a little and that is it. It is making me start to despair that she will ever eat anything but formula. Somebody told me that it is ok she should still be drinking formula and that when the urge to chew becomes stronger she will make the switch on her own to solids. I've tried mixing food with her milk and she doesn't act too impressed.

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The time to get concerned is once your kitten reaches 9-10 weeks as by then she should be able to fend for herself with the eating department. If you are really worried why not have a chat with your vet, they might suggest something that could help.
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She will move off when she is ready. They start chewing the sides of the nipple when the milk no longer satisfies her. What type of canned food are you giving her? You can also make a gruel using kitten food (felidae or IAMS is good) and KMR, mix it well so there are no chunks and see if she will eat that. I thought Scuba would never go off the bottle, but shortly after she turned 6 weeks old, she did. Don't hurry the kittens, they will come off when their body tells them to. After all, when was the last time you saw a picture of a full-grown cat with a bottle in it's mouth?

Originally Posted by hissy

She will move off when she is ready. They start chewing the sides of the nipple when the milk no longer satisfies her. What type of canned food are you giving her? You can also make a gruel using kitten food (felidae or IAMS is good) and KMR, mix it well so there are no chunks and see if she will eat that. I thought Scuba would never go off the bottle, but shortly after she turned 6 weeks old, she did. Don't hurry the kittens, they will come off when their body tells them to. After all, when was the last time you saw a picture of a full-grown cat with a bottle in it's mouth?

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My kitty is drinking on her own. I usually let her out of her box and she readily looks for her formula and will drink a little and wander off to play and she will keep going back and drinking a little and going off to play again. I suppose I shouldn't be worried if she is eating all she wants, right? She does not appear at all sickly and is using the litter box regularly (I have noticed if she goes a day or so without going pooh she doesn't want to eat much, then after she goes she eats like a pig). I know she doesn't care for lumpy stuff, if she gets a lump in her mouth she acts like it is something really yucky tasting and spits it out. Guess I will wait. She went from not burying her mess in the litter box to digging and digging and digging until one corner of the box is bare...LOL

I have tired different kinds of canned food. The kind I have now is Whiskas. She appears to like it and will lick all the gravy up but won't eat the little chunks. Then I bought some Purina Tender Vittles (REALLY moist dry cat food, it is so soft you can just squeeze it and it falls apart) and she did eat a few of those but doesn't seem interested now.