How can I get my kittens to wean?

[Pepsi13max]

Hi, I posted recently about the cat that I adopted who now has 4 week old kittens. She is booked in to be spayed in 10 days as there is a high chance she was outdoors after giving birth, before she came to live with us. The vet advised me to get it done early in case she is already pregnant, so that she won't be too far along.

The kittens appear to have no interest whatsoever in being weaned though. I obviously want them onto kitten food before their mum goes to be spayed. I have tried kitten milk and mashed up kitten pouches and also both together. Is this normal and should I leave them to do it in their own time? I'm worried about having to delay getting the mum spayed in case she is pregnant and gets too far along for this to happen.

I used to foster kittens and weaned them onto Ready brek made up with kitten milk the started adding bits of kitten food in with it!!

Oh that sounds like a good idea! One of my main problems is that the mum is eating everything I put out for them! I'll have to put her in a separate room for short periods to see if that helps. They just don't seem interested, I have tried getting them to lick a bit of milk off my fingers but they won't lap. I'll definitely try your idea though, thanks

4 weeks is quite young for them to be eating food i usually start worrying if they arent looking at food at around five weeks, some are quicker than others, what i do though if i have fosters that are a bit tardy is cut up fresh cooked chicken into tiny little pieces and then sprinkle it over the mashed up food, an put loads of food down so that even if mom scoffs quite a lot there is still some for the kittens eg if you put two plates of food down till they get the hang of it put three plates of food down , another trick is to mix kitten milk in with the food so its softer and the kits can smell the milk in the food

Thanks Issey I'll give that a try

My kittens had no interest in food until 6-7 weeks. I would have to dab it around their mouth or just above their nose for them to lick it off, but by the 7 week mark they had small meals on their own. Try different foods, I found that some kittens did well with the kitten milk and others did better with softened cat food.

I have just spotted one of them eating a couple of the tiny kitten biscuits I put down, but the other 3 are showing no signs. I'll try a few different things, I guess the only reason I'm panicking is because the mum is getting spayed next week - I'm worried if they haven't weaned and then get milk dries up. I could postpone it by a week if needed I suppose.

*her not get

when i foster moms with kittens we book them all in at the same time which is around 10/11 weeks for the kittens when they reach 1kgs in wheight it just means you have to be super vigilant about keeping mom in the house but in your circumstances i would get her spayed early, but we have had cats that have had ceseareans and or early spays and still produced milk because the kittens are there

and usually the moms dont come into season till the kittens are around 4-6 weeks so hopefully she isnt pregnant again xx