2 Kittens, One Is The Runt

[SaraBeth88]

I recently adopted two kittens, they were about 5 weeks old when we got them from the shelter, one of them is the runt and smaller than the other. I'm just wondering if he is going to catch up in his development and at what age? I worry sometimes because I feel like the big girl is beating up on him more than he can handle. But then again, he chases her around afterwards too so I'm not really sure if they are in over their heads or not. He cries a lot, he is very vocal, he cries for me to hold him on the couch so that he can fall asleep, he cries until I set him in front of his dish, Etc. It breaks my heart to ignore his cries, but I don't want him to continue doing this for the rest of his life, I'm not sure what to do.

 

[Pjg8r]

Five weeks is very young for shelters to have kittens up for adoption. These babies need all the love and care you can provide. They also need all the food they can eat. If you make sure she isn’t pushing him away from the food he should catch up. Were they seen by a vet at the shelter?

 

[ArchyCat]

Do you put out two separate food bowls? Big girl can't guard both at the same time
if you put them far apart..

 

[SaraBeth88]

He has actually been pushing her out of the food bowls, because we feed them a couple spoonfuls of what food per day and then keep the dry food out which she eats more of, she doesn't seem to have a problem with it but he really does not like the dry food. They are 7 weeks now and starting their vaccinations.

 

[SaraBeth88]

I'm pretty sure they are both getting enough to eat, we feed them several times a day, and everything that we purchased for them is the kitten formulas of the wellness brand which I heard was a very good brand. Their Play Time is what worries me the most, she gets very into it and sometimes I feel like she is beating him up, but then when I separate them he gets up to start to chase her too, so I don't know if it's something that I should just let happen or not.

 

[SaraBeth88]

At 7 weeks he is still less than a pound, and she is almost 2 pounds. Since they were so small, we got a large dog tent to keep in the living room where they have blankets, toys, a litter box in one corner, food and water in the other. They were okay in there, but I started to feel guilty so I left them in the bedroom after kitten proofing yesterday, and when I came back Dragon's Tail was broken. We took him to the vet and they said that it would be fine, and that he wasn't in any pain and still had all of his feeling, but I feel now that I should not have left the two of them in such a big space yet. I do not think that she hurt him, but I think that's in their play he fell off something possibly.