11 week old kitten won't eat dry food

by Lauren ibarra
(San Antonio, TX )

We took in a pregnant stray and when she had her kittens we wound up taking care of them. The mother cat is now gone and we are taking care of her 3 12-week old kittens. All but one of them is eating both dry and wet food. The third one, however, will not eat dry food. We have tried mushing it up for him, adding gravy from the canned food, as well as mixing dry and wet food. He will refuse it everytime. We have also noticed that he has been trying to "nurse" off of his littermates. The other kittens let him and are fine with it.

We are desperate. What else can we do? We want him to be able to eat dry food soon!

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!

Answer by Kate
Hi
Some kittens take longer than others to be fully weaned and this sounds like what is happening here with this one kitten. Solid food such as try food is a big jump from only drinking milk.

if I were you i would continue to give him wet food with a few dry kibble bits in it, even if he doesn't eat it now he will get used to it and may become more and more curious about it. he will also learn from watching his siblings eat it.

just be persistent for a while longer, I'm sure he will cotton eventually. By the way make sure all the food is suitable for kittens as they are more suited to smaller mouths etc. I'm sure you are anyway.

make sure he doesn't cause sores on your other kittens when he tries to nurse, this can happen sometimes.

best wishes Kate

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