My mama indoor/outdoor cat had 5 kittens 2 weeks and 3 days ago. I read somewhere to start trying to feed the kittens mushed up cat food at around 2 weeks to get them weaned off of milk. I tried this last night. I allowed the cat food to soak in some water for a good hour and then mushed it all together. It was pretty soft. I then placed all the kittens around the bowl and had them smell it and they were not interested in it at all. All of them just went opposite ways. What can I do to make my kittens interested in cat food? Is it to early to wean them? Any suggestions will be much appreciated. Mama cat is still doing a good job at making sure they are getting the milk they need, but I'm not even sure how long adult cats continue to produce milk for.
I guess I can't swear that the same thing will work for everyone but I've always let the cats figure that out for themselves. At least my experience has been that the mother cat will do a pretty good job of deciding when enough is enough, leaving it for me only to be sure that an alternative food source is available. When my cats have decided that they were tired of nursing their kittens, they'd spend more time up high where the kittens couldn't get to them, and that was the time to introduce them to cat food.
I've noticed her spending more time away from her kittens, but the kittens still aren't eating any mushed up food. Am I better off starting with canned soft food maybe or is it a good idea to mush up the hard food? Maybe I am doing something wrong. The mom ends up eating the mushed food after a couple days of them not touching it.
I'd start them out with the soft food. Place some of it on their mouth, and they'll get a taste of it whether they want to or not. You don't necessarily need to shove their faces in it, but that's the idea. A little around their mouth and some of it will be swallowed. Before long, they'll get a taste for it.