Food, Glorious Food!

Now, all the sites I've seen have recommending starting to wean the kittens at around five weeks. But- well, my kittens seem to be weaning themselves. One day I put down some chicken for mama (she's still on one meal of plain boiled chicken a day to boost her appetite for her other food... I dropped it one day and she ate hardly anything) and Wendell tucked in like he'd been doing it all his life. Kensey was a little more tentative, and baffled by the plate I think, but he had a few good chews as well. Well by now there's a scrum when the chicken gets put down... all the kittens are straight there.

It was never my intention to give the kittens this chicken... nutritionally it's pretty blah, it's not a complete cat food, and it's had most of the goodness boiled out of it. But that's how it's worked out. It would be daft to STOP them wouldn't it, when they are eating of their own accord?

Really I'm not too concerned, other breeders use a baby cereal to start their kittens off which is equally bland- so I reckon boiled chicken is equally inoccuous. At this stage they are getting all their nutrition from milk, and food is more about exploring tastes and textures than anything else isn't it? However, now I'm starting to think it's time to introduce some other food... after all I do NOT want to be handing on kittens who will only ever eat chicken- their new families wouldn't thank me for that hehe.
Anyway yesterday and today at Indigo's meal times, I've mixed some chicken with a can of kitten mush to see what happened... and again Wendell was right in there. The others have had a sniff, a few have had a lick and it all seems to be going rather well.

As for the dry food... well lots of sites say start this at around six to seven weeks. Someone really ought to tell Hope that... hehe. She loves the biscuits- Royal Canin Babycat, specially sized for tiny mouths. As you can see, she likes to get right into the dish...

Oh! And we had a POO IN THE LITTER BOX yesterday!  And we've had a couple of wees as well. Hurrah! I am pathetically pleased by this. After the dramatics of Friday, I'm just pleased that I seem to be doing something right!