What age is best to wean my kittens and how do I do it?

[Angiew]

zooplis , kg for kg bozita doesn't work out too much more expensive than fekix/whiskas.
bozita do a kitten which is more expensive, but i think the adult is good enough for kittens.

[Mymblesdaughter]

I'd try to get them to eat wet food. My boy cat kept trying to eat his Mum's cat biscuits so we got him kitten biscuits as well as wet food. He really loved them but I'm having a difficultly now getting him to eat wet cat food. So I'd be careful not to give much dry food as it's not good for cats. I'd personally get them a high quality cat food rather than something like whiskas  but it obviously depends on your budget etc. I get all my cat food from zooplus as they have a better choice than the supermarkets.     

[Carlyp]

Thank you.

Is Whiskers kitten food OK? I've read that you have to mush it up with milk supplement? Is this right?

[Bren22]

I just wait til they're taking an interest in Mum's food and give a little more, usually on a flat plate or small tray.  That way they can all get at the food and copy Mum.  Biggest mistake I made was on my first litter when I weaned them on to chicken - when they went to their new home the adopters either had an expensive time coming or a battle to get one of them to eat cat food!

[lornab]

You can start giving the kitten milk (not cows milk) in a bowl now so they know that not all food needs to come from Mum - they will soon catch on.

They will naturally start to show an interest in Mums food when they are ready, make sure her food is kept where the kittens can reach it, I would advice a good quality dry Kitten food such as Hills Science Plan - that's what cats protection supplied us with when we were fostering, it is expensive, but wet food will go off if left out and food needs to be freely available for them 'ad-lib'.

If you monitor the kittens weight a couple of times a week you will spot any problems quickly - we had one that wouldn't take solids and didn't gain weight as well as the others and it turned out he had an umbilical hernia, (these are quite common and are fixed at the time of neutering) we encouraged him to eat by soaking cooked coley in kitten milk.

When they start eating solids they will need a litter tray with non clumping litter too as mum won't be able to carry on keeping them clean indefinately.

Hope that helps.

Lorna x

[Sam (Fussy_Furball)]

this link might be of help:  http://www.fabcats.org/owners/kittens/handrearing.html

[Carlyp]

As the title says, I'm looking for information and advice on where to start. They are 4 weeks today. I've read a few people start at 5 weeks?

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