Expert: Jessica - 6/9/2011

Question
I recently rescued a little barn kitty whose mother either dies or left it.  I think it about 4 weeks old.  He has his teeth, his ears stand up and his eyes are wide open. I have been feeding him with a bottle and formula for the past week.  He takes about an ounce of formula 4xdaily.  I am trying to get him to start eating from a bowl, but he shows no interest. I got some baby food meat and mixed it with formula. He will eat it off my finger but does not try to eat from the bowl at all.  He growls the whole time I am feeding him and usually eats greedily.  He is using the litter box fine and purrs when I pet him. I would think mom would be weaning him because of the teeth. Can you give me some hints about how to get him eating from a bowl. I am using a bowl that is very shallow.  Thanks,

Answer
Hi Anne,

Getting kittens to use bowls is tough because they typically learn by example. Although it sounds silly, you could put a little plain milk in a saucer and show him by example how to lick this (milk is "bad" for adult cats because they can't digest the lactose, but kittens can digest the lactose until about three months). Beyond this, it will just take a lot of exploration. Show him the food on your finger, and then put it down on the plate. Squash food down on a plate rather than piling it into a bowl, and let the kitten sniff at it, walk in it and and you may need to dip his nose it in until he finally realizes it's food. Try not to baby him too much by hand feeding for too long aside from bottle feeding. This will close his minding to trying new ways to eat and will cause him to be a finicky eater in the future. Most kittens will get the idea about solid foods after a few days.

Good luck!

Jessica