Weaning Woes

[ibage]

Long story short, my girlfriend found an orphaned kitten around 5 weeks old. She took to the bottle easily enough but now we are trying to wean her. I started by mixing wet food and formula in the bottle and we had no issues here. The problem is the next step. She has absolutely no interest in wet food or water in a bowl. Shes more interested in kibble, but she likes to nurse on it, rarely chewing it, but she knows where it is and has much more interest in that. Now, she knows that there's water in the bowl next to her, buts she doesnt know how to lap. She knows its food, but she wont engage with it. This goes for the slurry, formula, and water, period.

I don't want to endanger her health by not offering a bottle, but I feel like if I keep giving it to her when she's hungry, she will become reliant on it. How do I get her more interested in food and wate/slurry out of a bowl? she does have all of her teeth and shes been to the vet

Note: She has tried biting the bowl several times.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi! Welcome!
Take a look at this, hopefully it will help;

Weaning: How To Get Your Kittens To Eat On Their Own

 

[talkingpeanut]

How old is the kitten now? If she's not ready, she's not ready. Keep giving her the bottle for now.

 

[jcat]

Some kittens start eating solid food at 4 weeks; others may not be ready for it till they're 7 or even 8 weeks old. Usually they do best if you offer watered-down wet food on a small flat dish (saucer or dessert plate) and offer kibble designed for very young kittens, e.g., Baby Cat, also on a small plate.

 

[ibage]

She is 5-6 weeka at the moment. She absolutely loves the kibble and she is eating that on her own. Not a lot,but she is turning down the bottle more and more. My concern lies with her hydration. She "nurses" the wet food slurry and only eats it if there is formula involved. Wet food on its own doesnt interest her at all. And despite efforts, she doesnt understand water either. She doesnt know how to lap it up yet. But shes going for the slurry on her own now, she just does it little by little. She eats some, takes 5, and repeats. Is this normal? She has been fussy a lot less over the past few days

 

[Furballsmom]

Hmmm, it might be normal for her?
Can you try some goat milk or Pedialyte?
I remember I've tried dipping their little muzzles into the wet just enough to get their chins wet, they start licking that and often times that jump-starts them lapping away. If it's a stubborn one, you don't want to get their noses into the liquid though...

 

[ibage]

I tried that .For some reason, shes snorting it. Ive been very meticulous cleaning her face when she does eat from the saucer. Should I try leaving it there for a little bit so she tries to lick it off and try this method with water?

 

[Rbecker]

I found out, just tonight, that when one of my kittens started chewing on the side of the plate, I shoved a little wet food on the edges. He got a taste of it and dug right in!
So out of 5 babies, 2 are eating kibble but not wet food and 1 eats wet food but not kibble. The other 2 want nothing to do with it yet. They do drink a little water that falls in the tray after Mom digs in the water bowl.
Try mixing the wet food in the bottle like the slurry. That might help.

 

[1 bruce 1]

For babies going off the bottle, we mix a really sloppy, smelly, stinky (don't be concerned with "quality" brands right now) wet food with KMR or a milk replacement until it's the grossest looking mess ever.
Some kittens need you to pretty much put their front feet/ends into the mess of food and gently put their face into the plate of food for a second (their noses will be covered) until they get food on their face. If they're old enough and ready, they lick it off instinctively. Then you watch the feeding frenzy begin. (Feed on a very low, very shallow plate that's easy to access for them. We use a dinner plate that has little to no edge.)
Another thought....the bottle thing for orphans can be like thumb sucking in a child, or an addiction to a pacifier in a toddler...it provides comfort, and not knowing where this kitten came from, the suckling is probably a residual self comforting thing that he craves. He might be ready for food, but the bottle thing provides a comfort he missed out on. Unless he's just not ready, this could be all a mental hurdle for him.
We've done some supplemental bottle feeding once the kitten(s) start eating, for that comfort thing (and, it doesn't hurt to start them bonding to humans. Bottle raised cats can be some really, really awesome pets when they grow.)
When he goes onto "real" food, don't be surprised if he starts suckling "things", like bedding, toys, your nose, ears, etc. We had one do this until he was almost a year old, and, like that child that was addicted to thumb sucking or pacifiers, it disappeared overnight.
Do you have any other cats that will teach him how to "be a cat" or is he the only child? (Both ways can work.)