My 9 Week Old Kitten Won't Eat Any Solid Food (wet Or Dry) And Is Only Drinking Water And Cat Milk. He Is A Lot Smaller Than His Brother Who Is Eating Well. Can You Suggest Anything To Help Him Eat Solids? (I've Tried Soaking Dry Food In Cat Milk But It Didn't Work).

Perhaps your kitten just isn’t ready to eat solids yet. Even though his brother might be, this does not necessarily mean that all the kittens will wean on to solid foods at the same time.

The thing that worries me is that you say he is considerably smaller that his brother. Ensure he has a regular feeding time and give him plenty of milk to keep him healthy. If he keeps losing weight, or does not wean soon, the best thing that I can suggest would be to take him to a vet. They will be able to tell you whether or not it is normal that he is not weaned yet. They will also be able to suggest to you various methods of dealing with this problem.

Do you feed the kittens out of the same bowls? If this is the case, it could be that the weaker kitten has not weaned because his brother has been bullying him and stealing all the food. This can sometimes happen with kittens. They are naturally programmed with a survival of the fittest personality. If there are more than two kittens, then the small one might be classed as the runt. To avoid any more instances of this, feed the small cat separately to give it the best chance of eating some food.

It sounds like you may have been forcing your kitten a little to move on to solids at the same time as his brother. Give him a little more time, and perhaps put a little food down next to his milk bowl to see if he if he takes any interest. Then gradually put more food and less milk down until the kitten will eat the solids and drink the water. If your kitten doesn’t seem to improve, though, do take him to your vet, because the reason he’s not eating might be that he’s ill.

When my kittens started eating solids their was one that just wouldnt eat so I put a little in his mouth and he near enough ate the hole bowl! Some kittens just need to be shown, try this it might just work?

I'm having the same problem with my 7 week old kitten. She loves real chicken. But she won't drink water and won't eat anything out of a dish. It has to be on the floor. I have tried wetting dry food down with milk and she'll sniff if and walk away. She does the same with wet food. I am starting to get a little concerned.

Try putting treats in her food or catnip

That is the craziest thing I've ever heard about the mother eating her kittens if you touch them.  If the mother is your cat and loves and trusts you, she will not mind you handling her babies.  Actually, it's proven that kittens handled from birth make better pets than those that are not handled until older.  If possible, I sit with my mothers while they are birthing, then handle the kittens immediately (sometimes cleaning them up myself).  After that, I handle them daily.  Sometimes there is absolutely no reason that a kitten won't eat.  You can try, but they just waste away.  Make the best effort you can.  And DO NOT give kittens or cats cow's milk.  They can have terrible allergies to it which can kill them.  I had one kitten that lost his voice permanently from drinking cow's milk..

WARNING! Don't feed your cat dry food from china because some ingredients in the food can kill the cats. My16 year old cat Shaky ate dry food from china and it gave her leukemia and she had to be put down.   

  February 20, 2010
  in memory of shaky

Had a kitten with no appetite while her sibling did.  Then noticed
she was loosing weight (half the other one's weight) and also that a
piece of the string holding a plastic ball was missing.  Went to the
vet.  X-ray showed the string blocking her intestine.  She had surgery
and got her appetite back.

Your cat might not like cat food so try and give it Chicken or normal food because he might have a upset tummy to cat food

Thanks guys for all the tips. My 9 week old wouldn't eat anything so I had to open her mouth and stuck the food in it. Instantly she started eating and got really upset when I took it away. I feel much better now.

It could be a allergy or maybe the kitten is already sick. Call a vets office and explain the problem they will most likely just tell you over the for no charge its a little time out of your day to save a small baby kitten it will be well worth it. I wish you and the little baby kitten luck.

Another thing, try giving it some of the soft food that isn't in chunks , the kind that's like a loaf and chop it very small try feeding it in a different room from the others .

We used to buy soft food and put skim milk with it and heat it in the microwave. I know you said you tried milk with food but maybe heating it up will help. Also, try separating the cats when they eat and on TV someone pretended to eat their pets food while the pet was watching and it worked.

Give it canned chicken or canned tuna. My 9 week old kittens were doing the same thing. Finally, after force feeding them for 4 days, they started eating this food on their own. Slowly start giving them the hard food, mixed in with soft food, then get rid of the soft altogether. Good luck!

If you have a dog keep the food away form the kitten. Cats can loose their appetite and go blind from eating dog food. If thats not it, GO TO THE VET!!! =)

My 7 week old kitten started vomiting last fri with diarrhea. I took him to the vet on Mon and explained to them the symptoms and that the other 2 kittens were not having a problem at this time. The vet did a fecal check that resulted in negative for anything, even worms. They sent me home $220. Later with iron supplement for anemia and metronidazole for bowel irritation. No blood work at all. They told me to give this to the other kittens as well. I did everything they said. Last night another kitten stared vomiting all night. Back to the vet again. More meds now. Ronidazole, ponazuril, and a depo medrol shot. Another $77. The first kittie will not eat at all or drink. I have to syringe him with food and water in his mouth now it's been since fri. He strains to swallow. Despite the vet telling me to give all of the kittens the meds, I stopped and now they are fine except the original one. No poop at all now only urinating. He will not eat anything though. The vet has no clue and I don't either. Please help. He's weak and seems to be slowly dying.

I know what you are talking about b/c I saw that my cat had 5 kittens and 1 of them was so much smaller than the others but today I saw that that 1 was gone and there was only 4 kittens so I think it died so the mother eats  them.