You know those little Hartz brand bottles for very young kittens?

jen

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Roughly, how many of those should a 3-4 week old kitten be going through in a day? I am having a heck of a time getting them to eat out of a dish since they are trying to suck it up. I never weaned kittens on my own before. I figured I would offer them the wet kitten glop on a shallow dish, actually it's a lid. But I am still offering them the bottle too. One takes the bottle no problem and will just snack a bit on the glop in the dish. The other two seem to have no idea how to eat from a dish or from a bottle, or I should say the are inconsistant, sometimes they will drink half a bottle and then suck up a little from the dish and sometimes, when I think it is about feeding time, they don't seem interested in eating at all.

I had one vet tell me they don't need KMR anymore and one tell me they do. I am just about out of KMR anyways so I was switching them to a mixture of a/d and Whiskas cat milk, water. I have the ingredients for that Kitten food recipe, the one with pedialyte and vitamins and stuff. I don't think they still need that do they?

Any advice would be appreciated but the main point of my post is to find out how much they should be eating in a day, roughly how many of those bottles?

Oh and should I assume that when they start to become uninterested in the bottle or dish of food, that they are done? Do kittens this young know to eat until they are full or will they stop and I should be pushing them to eat a little more?
 

baldkitty

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The following website will give you basic guidelines. http://www.kittenrescue.org/handbook.htm
Do you know exactly how old they are? Have they been with their mother at all? What is the history behind them needing to be bottle fed? Between 3-4 weeks is iffy for eating from a dish. They still need KMR, our rescue gives KMR until 8 weeks, 12 weeks if the kitten is particularly small or had a rough start.
 
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jen

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I am guessing on their age. 4 weeks seems about right. They all have teeth and I think they get teeth by 4 weeks don't they?

They were probably with their mother for a little while. They are actually from two seperate litters but they are exactly the same size and look alike. One litter was found at my uncle's barn. They are from about 20 years worth of inbred feral cats. Most of his kittens don't make it so he called me to come and get them since they fell off the loft of his barn. The mother never comes to get them when they fall and the dog and wild animals have an easier time getting them on the ground.

Anyways the other litter I have no idea where they came from other then someone posted on craigslist that they found them in the bush outside the house they were staying at. They called the Humane Society to take them but they said no and they were leaving to go back home to Seattle in the next few days. So I took them.

I was feeding them KMR but they are not struggling really, they have round bellies and eat decently.
 
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jen

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Here is a little picture
 
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