What to feed my new kitten?

[Patti]

You can temporarily feed her (human) baby food, just make sure it's stage I, meaning only meat (chicken, turkey, beef) and water - no garlic or onion. If she likes this you can slowly start mixing in the cat food you want to eventually transition her onto.

 

[Patti]

this was the company and this was their tweet. it was the chicken pumpkin, chicken white fish wet food with gravy that i purchased her.

This sounds like a standard disclaimer and not necessarily saying that the food will spoil after an hour, just that it might go bad if left out at higher temps for more than an hour (e.g if you leave your house in the 80ºs during the summer).

 

[maryanne.christi]

Have you tried feeding her raw? We got our Kosi abut a month ago and he loves the raw diet. We also leave out kibble as that is what our other cat eats but Kosi is not to interested in the kibble.

 

[Rafiki]

I just visited their site. According to the feeding instructions, "The above quantities can be fed as one meal or divided into two meals based on your cat’s preference. Please adjust the amount you serve to ensure your cat finishes the food within three hours. If any food remains, please discard and clean bowl before serving new food."

I don't think that the food spoiled. I think that feeding a kitten something different than the breeder was using is what upset her tummy. I would suggest contacting the breeder and finding out exactly what brand of "grain free food" they were feeding her and only give her this for a few weeks. As Patti suggested, adding Stage I baby food (I keep both Gerber and Beechnut turkey on hand for sick/fussy kitties) is good as well. Most cats/kittens love this stuff. It is only pureed meat and water. Serve it to her at room temperature so that she can smell it better. You don't want to feed her baby food long term because it lacks many things that a kitten/cat needs such as taurine and calcium.

Once you have decided what you want to feed her long term, gradually add it to the "grain free food" (and baby food if that is palatable to her). A cat can detect the smallest change in food so gradually can literally mean adding a 1/2 teaspoon of new food to what she is used to!

 

[Igor]

Also, is the kitten free roaming in the house/apt? A new environment, new smells and noises will distract it from eating. I would put all the things she needs in a small room or bathroom, especially when there's nobody home. This way, she will get comfortable in the closed off area and remember to eat, drink and use the litter box. There will be crying, but she'll get used to it eventually. She's probably way too excited and anxious right now and food is not her main prerogative (yet).

Even if she's not eating the food, I wouldn't keep changing it. She will eat it eventually. It's instinct not to starve. Wet pate food should be easy on her stomach.

When all else failed with Crixus I had the vet sign an rx for Hill's Digestive Health chicken and veggies. This wet food has fixed every loose stool bout he's had. Till this day he's still obsessed with it

 

[Igor]

she went to the vet a week ago, she tested negative on all of the tests.

the tweet above states the pet brand which is called pet fresh.

she is barely eating and i am unsure what to do. what to feed her. she is very picky. all the wet food she just licks the gravy. the soft mushy wet food she wont touch. the dry food i got her, shes barely eating it. so i mixed the wet gravy food in with the dry food. im waiting on the stellas dehydrated food to arrive. i was going to get a food topper or wet food to mix in with that food. i have an appointment tomorrow with the vet.

No need to stress yourself out. Everything has a solution. We've all been in your shoes at one point

 

[Moggieslegacy]

I recently got a kitten that was 9 weeks old. What I noticed is he seemed to still need a sense of physical connection to maintain an interest in eating. Now he is 14 weeks he is much more independant. I found he would often eat a lot more if I sat with him on my lap, semi holding him, on a furry plush blanket, with a paper towel under him, and hand fed him bits of soft canned food using a small disposable type of fast food plastic spoon. After a while I would transfer him and the spoon to the big cat bowl for him to finish up on his own. He also would want to eat my food when his bowl was full, and sitting eating my food beside his bowl would also help get him focused on his food.

But maybe leaving a Savannah kitten alone with a plastic spoon is a chewing choking hazard and this part of this suggestion would need to be done differently...

 

[potierdemadi]

This sounds like a standard disclaimer and not necessarily saying that the food will spoil after an hour, just that it might go bad if left out at higher temps for more than an hour (e.g if you leave your house in the 80ºs during the summer).

I live in vegas and the Nevada energy changes the air during times of the day so if I'm away or sleeping I can not manually go in and change it.

 

[potierdemadi]

Thank you everyone for the help. After our vet visit today we found out Sesha has a temp of 104. We are unsure what virus she has that she was not tested for at her first visit. So I'm feeding her formula that the doctor gave us and antiobiotics. Really hope my fur baby gets better.

 

[Rafiki]

Even if she's not eating the food, I wouldn't keep changing it. She will eat it eventually. It's instinct not to starve.

Sorry but I have to disagree with this. There are many reasons why a cat will not eat and no amount of instinct can change that. If a cat does not eat, the body starts to consume the body fat to survive. The liver is not designed to deal with this much fat and fatty liver disease can happen in just a couple of days. Furthermore, this is a kitten. Kittens are very fragile and can succumb to dehydration in just a few days. The kitten is already under stress from being in a new home environment and its immune system can crash. You do not hope that a new kitten will eventually eat, you do absolutely everything to ensure it.