What To Give Newborn Kittens To Eat

A newborn kitten can only digest milk and more specifically the milk from a female cat.

What to give newborn kittens to eat. The following is a general eating schedule for newborns and young cats. As you can see newborn kittens can quickly grow in a span of two months. If any kittens do not receive the first milk contact your vet. Since kittens will eat solid food periodically during the day you need to serve food multiple times.

Feeding the wrong sort of milk such as cow s milk can have short term and long term effects including diarrhea dehydration nutritional deficiencies and long term health problems due to poor growth. If you plan to give the kittens both wet canned foods and dry foods then it is okay to give the kittens some canned foods twice per day. This is very time consuming for someone who is bottle feeding a newborn kitten so if at all possible you will want to try to keep the kitten with its mother or a surrogate lactating cat who can nurse it. Kittens suckling well from their queen will sleep between feeds and do not need additional nutrition until three to four weeks of age.

Kittens that are bottle fed should consume about a tablespoon or 15 ml of special kitten formula at each feeding. Newborn kittens may nurse about every 1 2 hours. What kind of cat food do newborn kittens eat. For example set out a tablespoon of food per kitten at 8 am 11 am 3 pm 6 pm and 9 pm.

By the sixth week kittens can become self sufficient. Kittens from six to 12 weeks. Newborn kittens need to feed every two to three hours. In the meantime make sure you get the kittens vaccinated and spayed or neutered so they re healthy when you give them away.

Kittens have small teeth and thus they cannot chew on dry foods well this is why you need to give them wet foods as well. Many kittens prefer softer food as it is easier to eat and can ease the transition from milk to solid food. If the mother cat doesn t produce. The first three weeks are the most critical because of the delicate nature of the young felines.

For the first month of life newborn kittens eat only the milk their mother produces. At about three to four weeks old they can be offered milk replacer from a bowl and then small amounts of moistened kitten food four to six times. To give newborn kittens away wait until they re at least 8 weeks old since they ll be better off staying with their mother for as long as possible. There are many types and varieties of solid kitten food on the market including many varieties of crunchy dry cat food and soft moist canned food.

Plan to give the kittens wet food 4 or 5 times each day.