Cat's nipple hurt from nursing. What food can 4-week-old kittens eat?

Yes you are correct about your thoughts. It does hurt when they nurse now with their little teeth, and after three weeks they are old enough to start eating solid food. I’m glad you are starting to feed them. You can give wet kitten food now four times daily and add warm water to it to make it very wet. Usually having them lick it off your finger by the dish will teach them to eat. Just let the Mom go in and out as she wants and she’ll gradually wean them herself. Once her milk is dried up it’s a good time to spay her as she can get pregnant again soon afterwards. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to help you care for your kittens.

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!

You can feed them canned kitten food mixed with an appropriate kitten milk replacer, such as KMR. Mix them to make a gruel or slurry. Have them examined by your veterinarian to diagnose and treat any pre-existing conditions and to deworm them. The deworming should be repeated every weeks for 3 treatments. Once they are about 8 weeks old, you can discuss vaccines or begin to rehome them.

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.

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.

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!

It's not a dumb question at all! :) It's recommended to feed kitten food to the nursing mother cat, because she is using lots of calories during this time to make milk for her babies. The kittens will likely start to show some interest in their mother's food around 4-5 weeks of age, when their teeth begin to erupt and they are capable of eating solid food - it's fine for them to begin eating it also, if/when they want to.