HOW TO CARE FOR ALMOST INDEPENDENT (WEANED) BABIES
Baby cats usually wean at around 4 weeks, and then start the process of becoming independent. The transition from nursing to independence can take a week or two, and you will need to know how to adjust your care protocol.
The steps toward independence don’t always happen in an order that makes sense. Lots of babies will start to go to the bathroom and run around the house on their own before giving up the bottle. You need to be very aware of what each baby is doing (they don’t all develop at the same rate) in order to get them safely through the process. Pay close attention to how much and how often each baby is eating and peeing/pooping.
Kittens usually make it pretty clear when they are ready to wander around outside the nest. They’ll escape from their boxes and scream if they can’t. They want to play and explore! See the world! The best is to give them a small room to start their explorations in (bathroom is great, and easy to clean) and just turn their nest box on its side or prop open the door to the cage. Put a towel down by the entrance to the nest, since they normally kind of just hang out there at the front door and shouldn’t sit on a freezing floor. Keep their hot water bottle or heating pad in place until they leave the box for good! They need the heat source until usually 6 weeks! Make sure the place they are roaming doesn’t have anything dangerous, like open drains, holes in the walls, or anything else to get stuck in. They like to squeeze in to small cracks and holes!
The transition from bottle to solids is almost never instant. Occasionally a kitten will just dive in to a can of food and never come up for air, but it’s really rare. More likely is that you will have to teach each baby how to eat. That starts soon after the teeth emerge, so plan on trying to wean at about 3.5 weeks. What I do is open a can or blend some raw meats (see my post on Meaty Shakes) and offer it directly. Usually I have to kinda stick the baby’s nose in it for him to understand it’s food. Then, if no luck, I try to put a tiny little speck in his mouth. It’s not likely this will happen without a bit of a fight. What you have to do is use the pointer finger of one hand to pry the mouth open a bit, using the corner of the mouth. Only do this as close to the jaw’s hinge as is comfortable for him so that you don’t hurt the baby! If you try to open the front of the mouth, you risk hurting the teeth or jaw. With your other pointer finger, place the tiny bit of food in the front of the mouth. Never push it back. See how baby reacts: if he loves it and wants more, keep going! Hooray! If he resists and keeps spitting it out, let it go for now and try again tomorrow. For kittens willing to eat, repeat this method each feeding session, followed by a bottle, on his regular feeding schedule. Try solids AFTER making the baby pee (that always comes before the meal), but before offering the bottle. If he’s already full, he won’t cooperate. You need to keep offering the bottle until you are absolutely sure the baby is eating readily on his own and is gaining weight. Usually, the crossover takes 3-7 days. ONLY when you are fully, absolutely confident that the baby is going to the dish regularly and eating on his own volition can you stop scheduled feedings and ditch the bottle completely.
Newly weaned babies can’t drink from a dish, so you need to make sure they are getting water with their food. Mix in as much water as the food will hold. Kibble should be pre-soaked and have broth, and wet food should be more like stew or soup. Offer a bottle or two a day until they really aren’t interested in suckling anymore. Kittens usually start to drink on their own at about 6 weeks, and then you can stop adding water. Lots of kittens will actually prefer dry food (the best kibble I’ve found is Royal Canin Mother and Babycat), which is great, because it’s easier, cheaper, cleaner, better quality, and can be left in a bowl all day for snacking. It’s essential to note that kittens up to 4-5 months old need 24 hour access to food and water! Hypoglycemic events can happen up to about 2 months, though they get rarer as the kittens grow and gain weight (cellular energy stores). DO NOT put your kitten on a feeding regimen. Make fresh, clean, yummy food available 24/7. Kittens reject canned food after it’s been sitting out for a hour or two, so don’t just leave out a big pile of canned food.
Some kittens learn to pee and poo on their own early, at around 3.5 weeks. Many will learn before they are weaned. Some need help for a few extra weeks, or will do one thing, but not the other. I now have a 7 week old who still wants help pooing sometimes. Weird, but true! When they’re learning the litter box, be patient. It can take a while. They usually pee in a bunch of corners for a few days before they remember the box is their toilet. You can put litter boxes in all the corners they like, or just keep trying to teach them where to go.
As soon as the kittens are able to roam around the apartment without getting in trouble and know to go back home to their heated boxes to sleep, I let them join the family! Just make sure to kitten-proof dangerous spots and always look down when you walk and under pillows and blankets before you sit! Remind visitors to, also! My rule about beds is that they can sleep in bed with me as soon as they figure out how to get IN the bed on their own. I’m not a crazy, active sleeper, so I don’t worry.
Enjoy your babies!!!!! There’s nothing cuter or sweeter than kittens :)
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