Newborn Kittens Food
The first milk produced called colostrum is rich in antibodies and will help protect kittens against diseases.
Newborn kittens food. At about three to four weeks old they can be offered milk replacer from a bowl and then small amounts of moistened kitten food four to six times. If the mother cat doesn t produce enough milk for all her kittens or if your newborn kitty is a rescue you may need to obtain cat s milk for her. Feeding the wrong sort of milk such as cow s milk can have short term and long term effects including diarrhea dehydration nutritional deficiencies and long term health problems due to poor growth. Newborn kittens should get all of their nutrition from their mother.
A newborn kitten can only digest milk and more specifically the milk from a female cat. This will continue until they gradually transition to solid foods when they are around four weeks old weaning. If you prefer you can make homemade food for this stage of life but our vets recommend a complete feed since it is very difficult to maintain a perfect balance between all the nutrients. These antibodies last for six weeks or more.
Because of that newborn kittens do not need food until they re old enough to begin weaning. At the end of week six decrease meal times to only three times a day. For the first month of life newborn kittens eat only the milk their mother produces. Newborn kittens may nurse about every 1 2 hours.
The following is a general eating schedule for newborns and young cats. The commercial names of food for growing kittens have names such as kitten growth etc. Kittens from six to 12 weeks. So look at this detail to select the best food for your little one.