Why is my 3-week-old bottle-fed kitten so skinny and not gaining weight?

She is very young, most kittens are very thin at this age.your should start giving her dry food as well as wet food. as long as she will eat mainly wet food she will not drink much as wet food is 85% water.

This could be a case of fading kitten syndrome which unfortunately has a poor prognosis. You can try Nutrical on her gums as well as a dab of Karo syrup to see if increasing her blood sugar helps. Unless she starts having a better suckle you will have to keep going with the dropper for feedings.

As long as they are all continuing to gain weight steadily you can continue to monitor them for now. It is normal to see some variation among littermates. However if they're smaller kittens show other signs are not thriving such as decreased play behavior, being isolated from the other kittens, or they stop gaining weight then you need to try to supplement formula again.

It would be the right time to start introducing solid food gradually. Initially just mixing it with kitten milk, then over 4-5 days wean her off onto solids completely. She is too big to rely on milk only.

At 43 days of age, it's time for Tarcisio to be weaned off milk. Milk won't be enough at this point to meet his nutritional needs, so that may be why he's not gaining weight. To help him wean and to get used to dry food, I would soak a high quality kitten formulated dry food in warm water until soft. Then mix that with kitten formula such as KMR to make a mush the consistency of oatmeal. Over the next two weeks, gradually increase the amount of dry kitten food and decrease the amount of water and KMR you use until he is eating the dry kitten food only.

Your best bet would be to bring the kitten into your vet. They can check for any issues such as congenital problems causing the weird back arching, cleft palate that affects nursing, etc that you may need to treat differently or take particular care for. If the kitten is otherwise healthy, adding in supplemental feeding may also help with weight gain if it can't nurse enough from mom.

He is still very young and misses his mommy and his siblings. You should feed him canned kitten food, as kibble is still too hard and a kitten cannot eat enough of it. Feed him small portions 4-5 times a day and feed as much as he wants to eat, ie refill the bowl a little bit at a time. Make sure water is available but not next to the food. It needs to be about 6 feet away from the food bowl. At this age (71 days) he should weigh a little over 1kg, or 2.3lbs