My kitten chews bottle nipples. Is it safe? When can he eat solids?

Hello and thank you for contacting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Such a small and soft piece of plastic will most likely not cause any harm. You should just monitor Miso for the next 24-48hrs at home, he should pass the nub with his faeces. However, if he starts to vomit or refusing to take his food, you will need to take him to your local vets. If he is 4 weeks old, you should also try to feed him wet food mixed with warm water or milk. He should be able to eat solid food at this age.

At 3.5 weeks I would recommend weaning her onto semisolid food to allow her to chew rather than suckle. Early weaning is possible from 2 weeks of age. I would recommend royal canin starter mousse initially either from a syringe or spoon

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!

Hello, and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Sounds like your kitten is successfully weaning! It sounds like she's becoming less interested in bottle feeding, since she is taking solids, and is likely playing with the nipple now more than feeding from it. At this stage, kitten food will do her more good than meat or milk replacer. I recommend offering her both dry and canned kitten food (you may want to crush the dry food a bit if she needs help eating it), and you can also offer a bit of the milk replacer in a little saucer for her to lap up herself, to encourage self-feeding. Keep trying to do the bottle feedings until you're confident she's eating kitten food on her own, but don't stress too much if she seems to be losing interest as her "real food" consumption picks up. Hope this helps!

I would recommend to start weaning him off the formula and offering the cat food more and more. He is old enough to eat dry kitten food and he isn't getting what he needs with just the formula. Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

I certainly understand being worried about Keanu! If the piece she ate was small, then more than likely it will pass without problem. You can try to help her pass it along by giving her some chicken baby meat with no onion or garlic in it. It may give her a bit of diarrhea, but it should be fine. Keep an eye on her feces to make sure she passes it. It can take up to 72 hours for it to pass, and if you don't see it after this time, I would have her seen by a vet. If she stops eating, starts vomiting, has severe diarrhea, and/or becomes very lethargic, have her seen by a vet right away. At four weeks old, she is now old enough to be weaned onto kitten food, especially since she is chewing on the tip of latex nipples. To help her 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 she is eating the dry kitten food only. I hope this helps!

How lovely of you to look after Chloe! She may be old enough to not need to be fed with kitten formula, and since she ate a nipple, it would be a good idea for her to be seen by a vet. There's a chance the nipple may pass without problem, and even if it does, she needs a health check from a vet. The vet can let you know if she is old enough to eat a kitten formulated food. As for the worms, it will take at least two deworming treatments given two weeks apart to kill all the worms. I would give her another deworming treatment two weeks after the first was given, and then they should be given monthly until she is six months old. She should be given a deworming treatment every three months thereafter once she is six months of age.