KITTY WONT EAT!!

Question
I went and got a 6 week old kitten yesterday and named her Jinx. I was super excited because I have never owned a kitten before and I have been doing a lot of research. However, I have encountered a bump in the road already! The litter I got the kitten from was the first litter for the mother cat. She had some difficulties during labor and I chose the runt. (she stole my heart!) The kitten I chose had the most difficulty during labor and almost died. When I brought her home last night she was a little timid at first but eventually was playing and pouncing around like a normal kitten would. I showed her where her dry/wet foot was and her litter box. At the time I got the kitten, she was still trying to nurse from the mother and wouldnt eat solids. I got her to eat a VERY small amount of wet food from my finger. She will not drink water and has yet to use her litter box. I checked on her today on my lunch break and she was VERY happy to see me. Meowing loudly and trying to climb up my leg! She is acting just as I would expect her to but she just wont eat! I have read that I can put some kitten formula on her solid food and she might eat then. I have also been told to just wait it out and when she gets hungry enough she will eat. I am just scared that she wont eat or drink and may get sick or dehydrated! HELP HELP!!

Answer
Jamie,

You are right to be concerned, it sounds as though this kitten was not weaned before you got her and some momma cats wait until their kittens are 7-8 weeks sometimes even later to do that. I would suggest that you buy a kitten weaning milk replacer. I use the KMR name brand and find it to be good quality and simple to use. You will mix the powder with water following the directions. Then what you will want to do is to make this kitten's soft food kind of the consistancy of paper mache, gooey, but not completely liquid. You may have to start her off by putting a dap of the soft food mixed with the weaning supplement on her nose to stimulate interest, you may even have to feed her by using your finger and having her lick it clean. The not drinking water is a big concern, so my suggestion would be that you offer her some of the weaning supplement from the syringe, when you do this you don't want to mix the soft food with it as getting the liquids into her is the object. I would start by giving her full strength weaning formula, then gradually decrease the amount of formula and increase the amount of water until she is getting water only. This should be done over the space of a few days. Once she understands that she must drink water then you can try to teach her about a water bowl. I would suggest that you hold off on the hard kitten food for a bit. Once she is reliably eating the soft food mixed with weaning formula you can try offering her some hard food with weaning formula poured over it and allowed to soften up a bit. When you notice that she is eating the softened kibble you can slowly decrease the amount of liquid poured over the kibble to soften it until there is no longer any need to soften her food. Please keep me posted. If you are already concerned that your kitten may be a little dehydrated you can take the loose skin at the scruff of her neck and gently pull it away from the body, if it seems slow to get back to the original position (it doesn't snap right back) then your kitten is dehydrated and needs to be seen immediately by your vet. Hopefully this information gets you off to a good start. I am sure that you will probably have questions and concerns over the coming weeks, do feel free to contact me again and I will try to help to the best of my ability.