6 week old kitten

Question
QUESTION: I am going to be adopting a 6 week old kitten. I am concerned that this is a little young, but the kitten lives on a farm and the owners of the mother cat don't want to deal with the litter after that age. I have a few questions. First of all, I am unsure what to feed him. I've heard that dry food soaked in warm water at first is good, but also that I should feed him only canned food. I was considering doing a mix of the two. Secondly, aside from what to feed him, how much does he need and how often a day? Is leaving dry food out at all times a good idea or could he become overweight? How about treats? Can they be harmful for a young kitten? Thank you for your help!

Andreea

ANSWER: Hi Andreea,

Thank you for taking in a kitten so young, it would be nice if it could stay with its mother a little longer but at this point he should be pretty much weaned and litter box trained.
I always leave dry food out for my cats and I haven't had a problem with them becoming overweight.  I would recommend you use a kitten dry food and, in fact, Royal Canin makes a "Baby Cat" dry food that is smaller and is meant as a transitional food before giving regular kitten chow.  You'll have to go to a pet store or on-line to get it though, its not sold in grocery stores, and its more expensive than regular kitten chow but you won't be using it for long.  I've found that kittens eat the dry just fine without it having to be a soggy mess that he's probably just going to walk through anyway.  I would give him canned food twice a day, no more than a 3 oz. can at a time, and if he doesn't start eating the dry right away you'll want to give him a third can of food during the day to keep his blood sugar up.  You can mix a little of the dry into the canned food so he gets the taste of it but he should  start eating it on his own soon.  I like ProPlan kitten food for the initial canned food, its quite palatable unlike some of the other canned kitten foods out there that can be very dry. Again you'll have to go to a pet store or on-line, but if you can't afford it you can use whatever canned kitten food there is on the market that he will eat.  I wouldn't give him treats this young, he's still getting used to the whole eating on his own thing (he was probably only weaned at about 5 weeks!) and they're not nutritionally sound for him.  Be prepared for him to be a messy eater at first, they tend to walk into their food for a while before they totally get the hang of it.  Its not a bad idea to give him a bowl of kitten's milk, either a commercial brand like KMR or Just Born, or even a lactose free milk from the grocery store (cats are lactose intolerant, cows milk gives them diarrhea) or even goats milk if you can get it.  You can make that his treat.
You'll want to confine him to a fairly small area at first, like a bathroom or laundry room where he'll have his food, water and litter box.  He's just learned to use the box and accidents will happen so you want to make sure he always has a box close at hand and you don't want him roaming the whole house if he's not completely trained.
Do you have other cats or kids?  Is someone going to be there during the day to play with him?  If he's an only cat and will be alone most of the day I would strongly recommend getting two kittens from this litter.  They'll amuse each other instead of the one kitten tearing up your house because he's bored.
Let me know how it goes, if you have any trouble getting him to eat let me know and I'll walk you through bottle feeding if necessary.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you, Pati! Your response addressed all of my questions very well. Either myself or my boyfriend will be at home most of the day so he will rarely be alone.

The kitten is about 4 weeks old now and is still with his mother, but we will definitely take him to the vet for a check-up as soon as we get him in a couple of weeks. Other than that, are there any warning signs to look for that indicate he may not be well, either now or later on? This is just preventive but I have only had dogs so I may not recognize something as abnormal in a cat.

Thanks again!

Andreea

Answer
Hi Andreea,

You want to watch for diarrhea, which could indicate the presence of intestinal parasites (worms) or Giardia or Coccidia.  Kitchens can get dehydrated very easily so if he has any problem in that department you should have him checked out.  Since you're getting him checked out with the vet anyway you could take a stool sample (as fresh as possible) with you so they can check for worms.  Also, kittens are very susceptible to colds and it can turn into a life threatening problem if not caught early.  If he has any sneezing along with runny eyes or nose you'll want to get him on some antibiotics right away.