Expert: Jessica - 9/5/2009

Question
Okay I read a simial question.  But could you please tell me just how to get them off the bottle?  I tired putting milk in a dish.  gently pressing their moth to the milk.  No luck.  They just turned 6 weeks.

Thank You!
Terry

Answer
Hi Terry.  This can be difficult when they have no mama cat to show them how to eat like grown ups!  Orphan babies can be 7 or 8 weeks old before they get the idea of eating any food from a dish.

Generally, I will dip my finger in the food or formula and dab it on the kitten's nose in order to demonstrate to the kitten what it is as opposed to pressing their noses to it.  This seems to get a better reaction.  They don't usually get it the first or second time, but I bring them back to the dish and repeat it several times.  After a number of meals, it finally catches on.

Even though you may want to feed some meals in a dish, I would still recommend to feed a couple of meals by bottle each day, since they are of an age where it is very healthy emotionally for them to still be suckling for another few weeks.  Perhaps at this time you may wish to reserve formula for the bottle and begin introducing them to canned food in a dish.  You should use a saucer and mix a little bit of warm water into the kitten food.  Then, spread the food into a thin layer on the dish.  Some people have an even better result by beginning out using stage one chicken baby food rather than canned kitten food.  This baby food will have chicken only, no pasta bits, gravy or veggies.

Remember that the phrase "copy cat" was coined for good reason - they learn so easily by example and are sometimes very difficult to teach otherwise.  Since we, as humans, cannot teach them to eat their food by example, your job of weaning orphans from a bottle can be frustratingly lengthy, but it will happen with time.