Summary
The weaning process may be different for each kitten, even those in the same litter. Therefore, it’s important to learn about different weaning approaches in terms of timing and techniques. This article covers four different weaning techniques and essential care during this process.
The Kitten Weaning Process
There are many methods for weaning kittens, and it’s good to be familiar with more than one. Each kitten is different and will wean at different times, at a different pace, and prefer different methods:
Some kittens may want to continue nursing exclusively from a bottle or from their mother cat until three or four months old. Others will start eating solid food and also continue nursing for some time, which is the most common situation. Still others will one day stop nursing completely and go directly to solid food. Similarly, some kittens may skip wet food and go directly to kibble food. Regardless of when you start to wean kittens and what foods you offer, it is important never to rush or force a kitten to wean before they are ready and to let the kitten set the weaning pace.
By the time kittens are physically and mentally ready to wean, the time between their bottle feedings should have increased. They have larger stomachs and can consume more food at once, allowing them to remain comfortable for longer periods between feedings.
When kittens are about three weeks old, begin introducing them to wet food. It is helpful if kittens are a little hungrier than normal when you start the introduction, as they may be more quickly interested in new food options.
Common techniques used in weaning kittens
Mix a small amount of paté consistency wet kitten food into the kitten milk replacement formula and feed from the bottle. Be sure to use a small amount of the wet food so it mixes well with the formula, and the mixture does not become too thick; it should still be able to come out as liquid through the nipple. This technique allows the kittens to experience the flavor of the wet food while still tasting their familiar formula and drinking from the bottle in their normal position.
Gradually add slightly more wet food to the formula over the next week or two. If the kittens refuse the bottle with the wet food mixed in, return to more formula and less wet food in the mixture. You can also offer the wet food in a dish before giving them the formula mixture. If they continue to take the bottle as you mix more and more wet food in, eventually the mixture will become too thick to go through the bottle nipple. At this point, you can put the formula and wet food mixture into a low-sided dish and see if the kittens will start to lap it from the dish.
Feed kitten milk replacement formula and wet food separately. Continue bottle feeding formula without adding any wet food to the mixture, and put the wet food in a low-sided dish and add some liquid formula.
You may need to interest the kittens by putting a dab of food on a soft, plastic baby spoon or a popsicle or craft stick and introducing it to their mouth. Avoid putting food or gruel mixture on your finger as kittens’ teeth are very sharp, and they could accidentally bite you in their enthusiasm to eat. Once kittens taste the food from the spoon or stick, slowly move the spoon towards the dish so they learn where the food is.
Sometimes making stiff peaks of the wet food is helpful for the kittens. They will tend to find the higher parts of the food first. Don’t be alarmed if they try to suckle the wet food. This is the only way they’ve known how to eat; they learn within a few days that their jaws have hinges, and they can take mouthfuls of food rather than trying to suckle or sip it up.
Continue supplementing with bottle feeding until the kittens completely transition to solid food.
Feed an intermediate kitten milk replacement formula. Some brands of formulas have an intermediate formula to help kittens transition. It’s important to follow the label instructions.
Provide a very small-sized, kitten dry food in a separate low-sided bowl. Some kittens are not interested in weaning from milk to wet food, and they may go directly to dry food. Watch to ensure kittens are able to swallow the dry food. In multiple kitten situations, you won’t know how much dry food each kitten eats, but you may see each of them eating dry food occasionally. Healthy kittens are unlikely to overeat, so there should always be dry food available to them.
Note: During the weaning period, kittens will also start using a litter box. Initially, kittens may urinate or defecate in their dry food and try to eat the litter. This behavior usually lasts only a few days. Be sure to have only NON-clumping litter to prevent potential clumping of litter inside the kittens’ GI tract if kittens eat the litter. To entice kittens to a litter box, you may add a cat litter attractant to the box.
As kittens wean, it is important to expose them to different forms and flavors of food when they are young; otherwise, they may be reluctant to eat a variety of food when they are adults. This could create problems if they need a therapeutic diet that only comes in a form or flavor they are not accustomed to eating.
Start providing water. During the weaning period, kittens should always have a shallow bowl of fresh, clean water available. As they start eating more wet or dry food and less formula, they will need to drink water to replace what they have been getting when drinking from the bottle.
Kitten Weaning Behaviors
As kittens learn what wet and dry food is—and like it—they may put their whole bodies in the food bowl. While this will make quite a mess of their area and their fur, this usually only lasts a few days while they figure out how to eat without getting the food all over themselves or their living area. A benefit of this behavior is that it also helps kittens learn grooming behaviors as they lick the food off their fur. Expect to do more laundry during this time, and have extra washcloths available to clean the kittens’ faces and other body areas after eating.
Another behavior you may see in weaning kittens is slight shaking of their heads or bodies. If they have a lot of wet food on them, they can be chilled and will need to be dried off and provided with a heat source, which should still be available to them at this age anyway. This shaking may, however, be simply an excitatory response to eating new food in a new way.
