I have raised several litters of foster kittens, and what Tessa said is absolutely true. Some show interest in eating on their own before others. And why not? Those kittens don't want to give up the yummy private feeding and the cuddles that go with it! They WILL, however, begin to eat, and they will learn from the other kittens.

The mother cat should be allowed to nurse them as she wishes, and the extra KMR will not hurt them. It's almost impossible to over-feed kittens for the first 6 months of life.

I usually feed dry food to my fosters and they learn to eat that at about the same time as canned. I don't like to leave the canned down as long as it takes them to finish it.

If your humane society will allow it, try to keep them until they are 10 weeks old and by then you can be certain that they can sustain themselves eating on their own.

Now is about the time for them to be given their first kitten vaccine, also.

Thank you for doing foster care. It's so important, and so hard for shelters to find good people to do it.
-----
The Wiscats: Every life should have (at least) 9 cats!

Monsieur Gervais le Blanc

Beau

Simba

Minette

Henri le Chanceux

Andre-Guillaume

Annie-Claire

The Excellent Lady Sophie-Marie

Poucette-Noelle

Sylvie-Chantal la Joie

~~and varying numbers of foster kitties coming and going, including right now Flame, Stevie, Wi'l Chloe, Cocoa, and Fiona, plus Hans, Fritz, Greta, Liesel, Heidi plus TinyBabies Maple, Soren and Maija~~

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