New Kitten Questions

I am hoping for some advice....

I just got a new kitten a week ago and it was just over six weeks old when I got it. It absolutely refuses to eat cat/kitten food. The guy I got it from told me that they gave it a little wet food in the morning and that it ate purina kitten chow. Well, I bought wet food and some purina and the cat wouldn't eat. I thought this could be due to the new environment so I kept trying to feed it.

After a day and a half I was getting nervous so I bought some kitten formula and tried to feed him that because he was pretty tiny and i figured that maybe the guy lied to me but he wasn't interested in that either. I had to force him to drink the formula but then he started eating it on his own.

I continued to feed him formula and I tried mixing in dry or wet food with the formula but he would just eat around it. Then one day I had some chinese food and the little punk stole a piece of beef off my plate when I wasn't looking and he went to town on it. Come to find out, the cat loves canned chicken and will want to try anything I eat but he is absolutely not interested in cat food. I have even tried to fake him out like I am eating catfood but he doesn't care. I have tried different types and flavors of cat food but nothing works. I have mixed dry and wet food in with the chicken or soaked in chicken broth, he just eats around it.

My questions are: How bad for a kitten is canned chicken or scraps from a steak or pork? And I am also looking for suggestions on what to do about this. I figure I can just starve him and he'll eventually eat but he's so tiny I get worried, maybe in a couple weeks.

Also, I would like some litter training advice because the cat sometimes uses the litterbox and sometimes doesn't.

Thanks

 

Hi and welcome to Auspet. The first thing you have to do when you get any new fur animal, is take it to the vet to make sure they are in good health. This is so important. Bring in a stool sample to the vet (the fresher the better, but it can be up to 12 hours old). After you go and have the kitten checked and talk to the vet about everything you posted here, then if there are still problems (i.e. being a fussy eater and no medical reason for going outside of the litter box), then a lot of us here have some good advice for you, but for now kitty must see the vet.

p.s. Don't let the vet try and talk you into getting Science Diet food, as there are much better foods out there for your kitty.

 

hi shawn marion...welcome to auspet. :m10: i agree with chessmind about the vet visit. and fecal. make sure you kitten proof your house too....remove all strings..things the kitten can get into that will cause blockages if eaten.

maybe trying several different kinds of kitten food to see what he likes. try the premium like wellness kitten, chicken soup for the cat lovers soul, innova...brands that have protein as their first ingredient. max didnt want to eat a couple different kinds of kitten food when i got him home...brands the breeder gave to me...(samples). he wouldnt have anything to do with it. :m3:

but i took max to the vet two days after i bought him for a check up...to make sure he was okay...then a week later he was back to the vet for a blood test to make sure he didnt have FIV OR feline leukemia. then...a week later for his second shots...

so...just make sure you have the vet visit, shots...etc. then tackle the food issue. i would NOT give him canned chicken or meat or pork. he is a kitten and needs the nutrients that kitten food has. canned chicken is loaded with salt. salt is bad for cats. i would try to wet his dry food, then either mix a little wet food that he likes, or his formula in it.

read through the past posts on kittens...there is alot of good info on kittens and eating :m23: :m19:

 

Welcome to the forum and congrats on your new kitten.

I agree with what the others have said. The vet should be able to give you some advice on getting him to eat kitten food. If he will only eat canned meat you can probably get him to eat the kitten food by mixing (really well so he can't pick around it) it with some canned meat and slowly decreasing the amount until he is eating the kitten food only.
On the litterbox training it would probably be a good idea to keep him confined for a few days until he begins using his litterbox consistantly. Make sure the litterbox is low enough on the sides for him to easily get in and out of...otherwise he might avoid using it sometimes just because it is difficult to get in and out of.

 

so the cat went to the vet and he has an upper respiratory infection and parasites for which he received a shot and a prescription. However he still refuses to eat cat/kitten food and all the vet did was give me science diet food (my sister took the cat because i had to work so i couldn't turn it down, and it was free so who cares) but i switched to baby food chicken and he still picks around any form of catfood that is mixed in so i am still looking for suggestions and if anybody has any opinion on cat attract litter. the vet said something about it but i don't know if that is just because he has a deal with them or if it actually helps more than normal run of the mill litter

 

That's great that the kitten went to the vet, especially considering that he was not well. There is a chance that he may not be wanting to eat the kitten food, due to his URI. Perhaps because of this, his sense of smell is not good and his kitten food isn't 'stinky' enough. Or he could just be a fussy eater. What soft kitten foods are you feeding him right now? Perhaps you could go to your local pet supply shop and purchase different brands of small cans of soft food and hard food. Try out the different brands/flavors and see if your kitten happens to like any of them. Although, it's important that your kitten eats, you don't want to get in the habit of giving him 'people food.' For one he may end up only liking this and never wanting cat food and two he may become a 'table scrap beggar.'

As for the litter, there are so many brands out there. A few that some kittens/cats don't seem to like too much are: the pine litter and those crystal litters. Cats/kittens in general like sandy litter. Look for litter that says it's 99% dust free (as the dust is not good for them). I just got a new brand of litter called Ever Clean (unscented). It's actually really good stuff. One of my kittens (Romeo) actually liked it a bit too much! He was digging to China just for fun. :roll: I also like the plain simple Jonny Cat.

I wish your kitty all the best and hope things will resolve soon. :y_the_best:

 

:m23: How about dabing a bit of tuna on it's nose to trigger him to eat? Then just mix very little tuna into the rest of the food. This method has helped other kittens in the past. I'm so glad your kitty went to the vet!

 

the URI might be keeping the kitten from eating since if a cat can't smell their food they won't eat - I'd go get the stinkiest (usually cheap) canned food you can find and offer that. Won't matter if it's cheap food cause you have to get something into this kitten.

Something else you might want to try to stimulate the appetite is a dab of corn syrup (Karo) on the kitten's tongue - then try feeding. NutraCal would be good right now too cause it's loaded with vitamins and nutrients.

Science Diet isn't that good of a food and it has little to no smell to it - so I'd got out and get Friskies or 9 Lives (those are usually pretty smelly foods) and try those after a little big of corn syrup.

Please let us know what happens

 

I've read before that you could put huim in the bathroom and turn the hot shower on. Let it steam up and this might clear his sinouses. He might not be able to smell the cat food and that explains not eating it. Also to encourage my kitty to eat kitten food I had to mix in a little tuna. At first he only ate the tuna (mixed in a lot) BUt eventually I mixed it out completly and he was fine. Now my 3 kittens go to town on Friskies kitten canned food. Also when looking for kitten food dont get the fish flavors-they're bad for the kittys. I use fresh step non clumping CLAY kitty litter. Make sure you use a non clumping litter b/c the kitty can eat the litter and get a blockage if its clumping. When I showed my kitty the food he wouldn't eat it until I phisically opened his mouth and put it in. This was also the deal with the tuna. I dont think he recognized the smells. Try the shower and putting it in his mouth and tuna and tell us what happens.

 

:wink: good advice bellack. you sure learned alot through that whole process didnt you? bellack...when are you going to post a picture of all the kitties?? :0011:

:m34:

 

I def learned a lot from raising Bobo. I did put up pics on my forum. I also just set up catster for all 3 kittys. Go check it out on my forum

 

Lynn, you can click the www on Bellack's previous post too.