How young do I start my new kitten?

[nihki]

I've been raising an orphan kitten from 1 week (he's about 5 weeks now). I was wondering how early do you start feeding raw to kittens? So far my kitten won't even eat a complete kitten moist food from a can, he's still taking Kitten Milk Replacer for all his meals. He laps it up from a bowl now instead of bottle, but he only tries to cover any moist food I give him! I wonder if it's best to wean him off KMR and on to solid food, before I transition him to raw? His baby teeth are so tiny, I'm not sure he can really gnaw down big pieces of muscle meat yet.

For reference, I use a raw diet without bones because I live in Sweden and bone-in muscle meat just isn't readily available. I use Felini-Complete supplement which requires that you don't use bone or liver, so my homemade mixture (according to the specifications of the supplement I use) contains 80% chicken thighs, half of which I chunk up, 15% hearts and 5% stomach (I would use a combination of stomach and kidney but so far I haven't found kidneys!). The supplement includes all the vitamins and minerals needed to make the raw diet complete!

I've been feeding my 6 year old cat this food for about 2 weeks now, but I started researching into proper feline nutrition a couple months ago. Before I started feeding only raw diet to my cat I stopped feeding dry food and only fed a complete quality food, and gave him a few meals a week of chunked up thighs. I got his teeth completely cleaned of tartar about a week before I started the raw feeding. He seems to be doing well on it, he's already lost a whole pound just from stopping the dry food over a month ago! He now has more energy and discovered he can jump higher! 

 

[zhakar]

 
I've been raising an orphan kitten from 1 week (he's about 5 weeks now). I was wondering how early do you start feeding raw to kittens? So far my kitten won't even eat a complete kitten moist food from a can, he's still taking Kitten Milk Replacer for all his meals. He laps it up from a bowl now instead of bottle, but he only tries to cover any moist food I give him! I wonder if it's best to wean him off KMR and on to solid food, before I transition him to raw? His baby teeth are so tiny, I'm not sure he can really gnaw down big pieces of muscle meat yet.

For reference, I use a raw diet without bones because I live in Sweden and bone-in muscle meat just isn't readily available. I use Felini-Complete supplement which requires that you don't use bone or liver, so my homemade mixture (according to the specifications of the supplement I use) contains 80% chicken thighs, half of which I chunk up, 15% hearts and 5% stomach (I would use a combination of stomach and kidney but so far I haven't found kidneys!). The supplement includes all the vitamins and minerals needed to make the raw diet complete!

I've been feeding my 6 year old cat this food for about 2 weeks now, but I started researching into proper feline nutrition a couple months ago. Before I started feeding only raw diet to my cat I stopped feeding dry food and only fed a complete quality food, and gave him a few meals a week of chunked up thighs. I got his teeth completely cleaned of tartar about a week before I started the raw feeding. He seems to be doing well on it, he's already lost a whole pound just from stopping the dry food over a month ago! He now has more energy and discovered he can jump higher! 

i figured they put something into KMR and kittens will tend to lack interest eating  solild until 8-9wks compare to other milk replacer i used which they tend to eat soild at 5-6 wks. can u find gerber in ur area? u can try to give him that instead of KMR for transition. also the raw meat u giving ur cat, is it fresh? they like fresh meat the most , my kittens are crazy bout raw organic chicken when i give them within the hr the chicken got killed, sometimes i left over a bit and put it into the fridge the next day i give them the same chicken they show much less interest into the meat. for kittens don't give them organs  as treatbefore 10 wks old it's hard for them to digest.

 

[LTS3]

 
I've been raising an orphan kitten from 1 week (he's about 5 weeks now). I was wondering how early do you start feeding raw to kittens? So far my kitten won't even eat a complete kitten moist food from a can, he's still taking Kitten Milk Replacer for all his meals. He laps it up from a bowl now instead of bottle, but he only tries to cover any moist food I give him! I wonder if it's best to wean him off KMR and on to solid food, before I transition him to raw? His baby teeth are so tiny, I'm not sure he can really gnaw down big pieces of muscle meat yet.

5 weeks is still too young for solid food. I would offer some solid food around 7 weeks or so and let the kitten wean himself at his own pace instead of rushing the process.

Have you tried adding KMR to the kitten canned food to make it soupy and easier to eat?

My Aby was weaned right onto raw food around 8 weeks old by the breeder. The breeder used commerical raw pet food. I think with homemade raw or frankenprey, you would have to grind or chop the meat very finely at least at first so the kitten can easily eat. Kittens have tiny teeth and not very strong jaw bones.

 

[nihki]

I was told by a friend to start weaning at 4 weeks, but I think because my kitten is a single orphan he learns a little slower! I am feeding him KMR now in a dish, he won't bottle feed anymore, he just flails around and scratches my hands while grabbing the bottle if I try to offer a bottle now, but he won't latch on, just bites the bottle. I've tried mixing the KMR into a good complete-nutrition kitten food and he ate it once, and then every time after that when I offered he just tried to cover it! But for right now I'm getting him used to eating out of a dish then I think I will start adding in a little moist food again, to see if he will eat it with the KMR.

The friend who told me to wean him has a lot of experience hand raising motherless kittens, but I think she usually gets multiples, or perhaps she's just always been lucky that they wean easily! I have read sometimes it takes longer depending on the individual kitten, some sites say it can take a couple weeks to completely wean! I'll keep working on him and then maybe he won't be so hard to transition to raw!

 

[purrcutie]

I used to give my 8 weeks old kitten tiny pieces of medium-cooked chicken breast then gradually as he was growing up I start giving him bigger raw pieces.