When do i start giving kitten food to my kitten?

jess: When do i start giving kitten food to my kitten?
My cat had a kitten dec 17th. The kitten is now 4 weeks old. When should i start to give her soft kitten food? When and how do you litter train her. She wants out of her bed, but im afraid she will go to the bathroom on my new floors. any advice will help, this is our first kitten! i have always gotten cats after they are on food and litter trained.

Answers and Views:

Answer by sophylakes
show your kitten where the litter box is,,, she should use it automatically, as for the food,,,, let kitten have access to dry kitten food,,, she will eat it when she is ready..

Answer by Andrea
wait until its 6 to 7 weeks old.it can’t be away from its mother until its 6 weeks old.

Answer by telisha l
The kitten will go in the litter the litter box, from learning from its mother ! All you have to do is show the kitten the litter box and they are trained, cats are easy!! Cats nurse for several months sometimes, Dont give the kitten any soft food untill they are 8 to ten weeks old! Mix it with the dry when you do this is very important for teeth development . Plus you dont want a cat that wants to eat only can cat food if they eat only this there teeth will rot out. Did your cat have only one kitten?Good Luck!!

Answer by Keely M
well start feeding her soft food and when ever she goes on the carpet or you see her ready to go, go put her in the litter box i have 5 cats and thats all i have ever done

Answer by catmomiam
Anytime now you can start with soft food. The best thing to try is putting formula and water or milk over dry kitten food, as this will make the food soft enough to eat, but not disturb the stomach as can food will. As far as litter training, I am sure the mother is still cleaning the bathroom mess, however most kittens learn from watching other cats, especially mom. What I did with my girls, who did not have a mother, was bathroom them over a litter box, by rubbing their bottoms with a wet wrag, then using their paws to cover it. This worked realy well as by the time they where 5 weeks old they where using the box on there own. Another good idea would be to get a small card board box for the litter which you can cut to make lower so that the baby can get in and out easily on her own.

Answer by Kyle :o)
Litter training can begin as early as you want it to. Most mother cats will show their young through action – so if you have another cat around let them “show by example” what they do. If not, there’s no time like the present.

As to your question about soft kitten food, let them tell you when they are ready. Typically it’s between 4-6 weeks when you begin taking them off formula/kitten milk and move them over to soft food – but take it slowly. Just like changing foods with an older kitten or a cat, do this in stages. Offer the kitten a little nibble or so of soft food as a “treat” and cut back just a little on the milk/formula. As the kitten shows more interest in the soft food, give it more of that and less of the milk until finally you have taken it off milk altogether and it is now on nothing but kitten food.

You should move the kitten into hard food also. It’s very important that you don’t always feed it soft food. I strongly suggest Royal Canin as a quality brand of kitten food. There are two types for kittens – BabyCat and Kitten. Begin your youngster on BabyCat from the age of 1 to 4 months – and move to Kitten at age 4 months until they are 12 months.

Answer by pico24_1999
usually about 6 weeks-start with soft food first-or moisten kitten food with kitty milk/water

Answer by Jane
As for feeding the kitten, leave some dry kitten food in a shallow dish, she will eat when she is ready. Dry food is best for their teeth. Canned food should be given more as a treat than a meal.

Litter training is easy. The mother cat will do the work for you. Just make sure you are using a pan small enough for the kitten to get into. Cats usually won’t share litter boxes so you will probably need 2 anyway.

I had a kitten that was abandoned (about 3 or 4 wks old) we used a disposable pie tin as a litter pan.

Answer by Rmorsy
Hi, I gave my kitty soft food when I first got him (6 wks) and she was fine, I eventually started adding hard food, now (5 mths) I give him about 70% dry and 30% wet, but i do sprinkle some vitamin dressing on his food. I know, he’s spoiled, but his coat is also silky smooth. It really does make a difference what you feed them.

Answer by joel s
We start setting out a milk substitute at about 5 1/2 two 6 weeks also we feed Nutra soft packs for kittens , they love it .

Answer by marylou6996
I work for a pet shop where we get kittens in everyday. They have to stay with their mother till they are at least 6 weeks old. As far as using the litter box, they will pick it up from their mother by watching her. As far as feeding them, they will know when to stop nursing off of their mother and try to eat food on their own. If you have the mother cat on hard food and you notice that the kittens are having a hard time eating it, you can either try soft food or take some hard food soak it in hot water until it softens and then drain the excess water out and use a spoon to make it into soft food.