My husband and I have been raising an infant
kitten since he was 10 days old. He’s almost eight
weeks old now and still refuses to eat anything
but formula from a bottle. We’ve tried several
types of food, several flavors, even went as far
as plain old tuna fish and he turns his nose up at
everything. Any suggestions on how to get him off
the bottle? Thanks!

Diane
Port Charlotte, FL

The most effective way to wean a kitten off of formula is to do it, as the word wean implies, gradually.

The first step is to eliminate the bottle from the equation. Offer him formula from a bowl or saucer. Warm formula may be more enticing. Some bottle-fed kittens are happiest if they are held by a person during feeding, so experiment with that. As well, it may be effective to start feeding your kitten with a bottle, and then remove the bottle and immediately offer formula in a saucer.

Once your kitten is regularly drinking from the saucer, add increasing amounts of high-quality kitten food to the formula at each meal. Over time you should be able to eliminate the formula completely.

Most kittens are weaned by six to eight weeks of age. However, each kitten is an individual. A kitten that is not fully weaned at 10 weeks is not abnormal. Be patient and keep trying the tricks above. Eventually he’ll come around.

One final note: don’t try to wean your kitten forcibly by withholding the bottle altogether. If he refuses to drink from a saucer, let him have the bottle (but continue to employ the tactics listed above). A few extra weeks of formula shouldn’t hurt him.

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Different people have told me not to let my cats
drink milk as they can’t digest it. All my life
my cats have had milk to drink. Should I continue
to give them small quantities of milk? They never
get much at a time, just a small amount. Thanks.

Sandy
Prineville, OR

When I was a young child, one of my daily habits was giving the leftover milk from my breakfast cereal to my cat, Patches. He enjoyed the routine and lapped up the milk with relish. He never suffered any adverse consequences from the milk he consumed.

Several years later, I decided to repeat the ritual with a different cat, Mandy. Mandy seemed to enjoy the milk as much as Patches. However, an hour later she wasn’t so happy. She was in the litter box producing explosive diarrhea. I felt very sorry for Mandy (and also a bit sorry for my father, who had to clean the litter box).

It turns out that some cats, like some humans, are lactose intolerant. Others are not. If your cat can tolerate a bit of milk every now and then without suffering adverse effects, go ahead and use it as a treat. But if the milk makes her sick, then you should avoid it.

I am going to invoke the tuna caveat here: remember that cats cannot survive on an exclusive diet of milk. Some cats have medical concerns that necessarily will exclude milk from their diet. But for healthy cats with no medical issues, small amounts of milk now and then shouldn’t cause much harm–as long as they are lactose tolerant.

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