If you work with animals, especially cats, there will come a time when you have to learn how to wean a bottle-fed kitten. When you begin to bottle feed you become a mother of mercy to the
kitten, but like all good mothers there comes the time when they have to be weaned. There are many reasons why you would have to start bottle feeding a kitten, such as the mother may have died or may be too sick to feed the kittens herself. This is an easy process to start but one that will take patience and love to stop.
Knowing how to wean a
bottle fed kitten can make all the difference. You'll find you can do just as good a job as the mother could with a little tender loving care. You can start the process of weaning at the age of four weeks. To do this you should first introduce the formula on your finger to see if the kitten will lick it off. If not then gently smear it on the kitten's mouth. Work very slowly and try to get the kitten to lap from your finger. The next step is to add some warm baby food to your formula, making sort of gruel. You will get the best results with chicken or turkey flavors. Lamb is also good and is recommended because it works so well on kittens. The most important thing is that you know how to wean a bottle fed kitten before you start.
When you're learning how to wean a bottle fed kitten, you will also have to have a lot of patience because some kittens don't take an interest in food until they are about 7 weeks old. This is the extreme case, but it can happen. Try to feed the kitten this gruel up to four times a day, but don't stop the bottle-feeding as the kitten may get dehydrated and get
sick. Right now you're using the food as a side dish and not the main course. As the kitten gets better at eating solid foods, then you can start cutting back on the bottles. You need to always weigh one against the other, as the kitten needs so much nutrition every day. Now you gradually increase the amount of solid food and decrease the bottle formula. There are wonderful cat foods available on the market for kittens and also instructions on how to start the kitten on food.
When you have a newborn kitten without its mother, it becomes very important that you know how to wean a bottle fed kitten. Their systems can be very sensitive and if it has not had any of the mother's milk, they could be candidates for all types of disease. You have to try to substitute the mother's milk in the formula you feed it. You have to be very careful that the kitten is getting the right amount of fluids on a daily basis for they can dehydrate very fast. That is why you have to pay attention to how to wean a bottle fed kitten so you can do it properly.
