What first foods can 4-week-old kittens eat when weaning, like chicken?

Yes, cooked chicken is fine but Bella needs to be eating a commercial cat food. Cats have specific nutritional needs and a homemade diet is always LACKING in proper nutrition. I recommend to feed Bella Royal Canin Kitten food or Purina ProPlan Kitten food. These are balanced diets that contains all the amino acids, vitamins, minerals, fat, fiber and DHA that she needs to develop normally. I hope this helps.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Don't worry your English is very good. Usually the weaning process when they transitioned to eating food other than the mother's milk happens at about 4-6 weeks of age. Good luck!

At 4-5 weeks, kittens should be transitioning to solid foods, so it would be best to mix in the KMR with the wet food into a sort of slurry to help with the transition and make it easier to digest. You can also weigh Cleo with a food scale or other small scale to get her weight in ounces which can help you determine how big she is. Most kittens at this age will still needed to be fed several times a day. This article also has a great guide and charts about feeding and life stages from birth to about 8 weeks of age which may be helpful! https://www.petcoach.co/article/how-to-raise-orphan-kittens/

If the kitten is 4-6 weeks it should be fed solid food, not milk. You should try kitten wet food, warm it up before offering to the kitten. If kitten allows, you can hand-feed or even syringe feed. Please, remember that kittens at that age should be fed very small amounts every 2-3 hrs.

At 6 weeks they are old enough to be weaned. You can started with dry kitten food mixed with a little water and canned food to entice them. If they eat well, then you can decrease the amount of canned food and water until they are eating dry food. The mom will also help by letting them nurse less and less. Once they are eating a good meal 3-4 times a day, they do no need any milk from mom and go to a new home.

Picky eaters can always be frustrating! By 7 weeks of age, Ryoko does not need to nurse from her mom, so any nursing may be delaying her need for kitten food. If possible, try to separate the mother cat from all kittens for several days. During that time, offer canned kitten food mixed with finely shredded chicken to try to tempt Ryoko to eat, then gradually decrease the amount of chicken mixed with the kitten food. If she does not care for canned food, you can try offering dry kitten food. She won't starve herself! I hope this helps and that all goes well!

Kittens can be offered semi solid food (kitten mousse or softened kitten kibble) from 14days of age and will wean gradually then once food is available, most kittens will control their own food intake depending on how much milk is available from mother, feeding guidelines are appropriate once fully weaned and should be on the bag (they vary by brand, age and weight of kitten). Be sure to deworm her also as worms are passed through the mothers milk to kittens.