transition from mum's milk to food

hi there,

we've been trying to get our kittens (now 6 weeks old) on to food, but without much luck. we've tried adding water to both dry and soft food, getting them to lick it off our fingers or watching mum eat the goop. any tips?

thanks.

The Kittens are usually weaned around this time. Start with condensed milk mixed with the same amount of water. The kittens should be fed in a shallow pan, five times daily. In 5 - 6 days, rice pablum can be added, and a week later, good quality moist and soft cat food. Are these kittens fully weaned from mom yet? They should be before you start doing this. You will also want to have a damp washcloth at the ready, because the kittens will crawl into the pan and get stuff everywhere! LOL Aren't kittens fun? Also you want to feed small amounts 4-5 times a day.

Hopefully you are just working on this at 6 weeks old, the ideal age to let them be away from mom isn't until they are 12 weeks.
I will add onto what Hissy said and give you a few more things you can use. You can also make the kitten glop recipe at the top of this forum, it's very healthy and palitable. The other thing you can do is soak dry kitten food in warm KMR or Tigers Milk until it is mush.
You have to either put a bit on thier wiskers, paws or face for them to be able to taste it. Don't force them too fast, they usually pick it up when they are ready.

o.k.

excuse my complete ignorance, but can someone define the intricacies of the term 'weaned'. my understanding of it doesn't make sense in the context of your answers (for which i thank you!).

Weaned simply means off the momcat's milk totally, before soft food is presented to the kittens. That's all.