My kitten lost a baby tooth and won't eat. How should I feed him?

It can be scary to see blood when a kitten loses teeth, but a small amount is normal. If you see broken teeth, if Ember is having difficulty eating or drinking, or if you feel as though he is in pain, please see your vet. You can soak a rope toy in water and freeze it and see if Ember would like to chew on it to provide some relief while he is teething.

If you have soft food to feed her, like canned or moist food that would be easier on her sore gums right now. You can moisten dry kibble with water or low-sodium chicken broth to make it softer and entice her to eat. You can even soak the food and mash it with a fork with some extra liquid so it's easy for her lap instead of trying to chew. It is very important that your cat eats because just a few days without eating can result in liver damage in cats.

You can typically age kittens by weight. They should gain about 1 pound per month. They start losing teeth around 12 weeks of age and permanent teeth should be fully in place by 6 to 9 months. I hope this helps and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

You can soften the dry food by soaking it lightly with just plain warm water or low sodium chicken broth. Don't completely soak it, just use enough liquid to lightly soften the kibble. If you make it too mushy he probably won't eat it. Hope this helps. Best wishes!

It could be that Burger is teething, and that is causing him to not want to eat. Teething can be painful in kittens, and you can try tempting him to eat with some boiled white meat chicken, or gently warming up really smelly wet food such as sardine or fish based. You can also soak his dry food in gently warmed low sodium beef or chicken broth. If he won't eat this food, I would have him seen by a vet immediately for a health check.

Some cats prefer one type of food over another. I would just leave dry food out for him to nibble on and then feed him small amounts of canned food twice a day. He has plenty of teeth that he should be able to chew small kibble. He will begin to eat more dry as he continues to get older and gets hungrier. I hope this helps!

I don't usually see kittens lose their appetite when they are teething. However, he may have hurt his mouth chewing on things he shouldn't. I would be very careful to keep him away from cords so that he doesn't get electrocuted or get an obstruction from eating pieces of the cords. I would try to find toys such as feathers on a string, little catnip mice, stuffed animals and even a laser pointer as these are things that cats usually love, but that the cats can't destroy and also won't do damage to their teeth when they chew them. They also make various toys that are attached to a platform by a long spring so that cats can pounce on them and they bounce around.