My 2-month-old kitten is weak and skinny. What can I feed her?

Hi there. An 8-week-old kitten should be eating regular solid food at this point, not formula. If he isn't eating on his own, you can get canned kitten food and mix it with a little bit of water to form a slurry, and then use an oral dosing syringe to gently put it in his mouth.

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.

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 5 weeks Baby should be old enough to start eating some solid food. You can try mixing some canned kitten food with some kitten formula like KMR and putting it in a shallow dish. If she still won’t eat I would recommend seeing a veterinarian to determine what might be wrong. They can also teach you how to tube feed if necessary.

Kittens can sleep up to 18-20 hours a day, so it is normal that they appear to sleep all the time. If she is skinny, that could be caused by intestinal worms, which are very common in kittens. I would give her a deworming treatment such as Panacur, which you can get OTC. You will need to give a deworming treatment every two weeks until she is three months old, then once a month until she is six months old, and then every three months after that. I would leave a kitten formulated food out for her at all times. To help her wean and get used to kitten 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 she is eating the dry kitten food only.

At this age it is not recommended to put your kitten on a diet. I would just recommend feeding appropriately from here moving forward and your kitten should lose the extra kitty fat gradually as she grows. Also it is nearly impossible to be overweight to the point of causing any health concerns at this age (2 months). Follow the food guidelines on the back of your kitten food bag and also limit the amount of treats she gets. And most importantly, keep her active so that she remains healthy and slim. Best wishes with your kitty Emily. Take care! : )

You should be weighing them every day or two to make sure they are gaining weight. If the little on is not gaining weight then you will know it is a problem and you will need to get it to a vet. You can use a kitchen gram scale to weigh them.