They came to me as skinny, hissy kittens. I’ve had them for almost a month and they aren’t growing. I freefeed them kibble and handfeed them treats and gooshy food. They have been vetted and the output, while small, seems to be OK.
Mostly I foster adult cats, so have no idea what I’m doing wrong. The vet seems to think that they are doing well, but I can feel their bones. This just seems very wrong to me.
Suggestions will be appreciated.
Have they been wormed? If the answer to that is yes, your kittens sound pretty normal. Kittens shouldn’t normally have much fat on them.
ETA: even on an adult cat, healthy weight means you can feel the ribs with slight pressure.
Are you actually weighing them? Kittens will grow by ounces, not necessarily obvious in the first month. Weigh them and as long as they go a little up instead of down and eat what’s put in front of them, don’t worry :).
have you tried feeding them raw food? hamburger? chicken? If they are old enough to be off mother’s milk, that should tempt their little appetites. Cats not only love meat, they have to have it! And its best in its original form, before it gets processed down to kibble and adulterated with grains.
Do you know how old they actually are? How long ago was the last stool sample analyzed?
I thought my foster kitties were not growing, but they were actually gaining a small amount every day when I weighed them on a digital postage scale. Kittens with worms usually have disproportionately big fat bellies, so it doesn’t sound like worms, but there are other parasites they could have.
Kittens will seem boney and lean to a certain extent because all of their metabolic effort is going into growing skeleton and not fat.
I’m not a fan of leaving raw meat out for pets because 1. it’s not a balanced diet and 2. it’ll grow bacteria in a few hours that can lead to fatal GI infections.
If they’ve been wormed recently, if they are happily eating as much kitten food as they want and otherwise acting like happy kittens, I wouldn’t stress it excessively. Weighing them daily can help verify your piece of mind.
If they kind of eat but they are otherwise quiet and don’t really do the expected kitten crazy playtimes, I’d be worried. If your case is the later, talk to your vet about FIP or “poor doer” syndrome.
grumbles…you folks are telling me that I should be worried.
Kittens have been wormed, they have had bloodwork done. We test for FeLV and FIP.
I’m probably worrying about nothing, but they are skinny kittens. And they don’t seem to like to eat. I just gave them some fancy feast and they licked up some of the juice and went back to doing their lay around thing.
No, I’m not worrying about nothing, kittens don’t do that. There is a serious problem here and I’m not getting it.
I don’t know how old they are. They look like they are about 3 months old and have very nice teeth. Claws are sharp and tails have fur. They looked like they were 3 months old when I got them about a month ago.
worried a lot.
What is “poor doer” syndrome please? I called the rescue director and asked about the rest of the litter and they are also not normal. no crazy stuff, not eating like kittens should, just laying around and half hearted hisses when she tries to touch them.
I am not an expert in kittens, but lying around in between sleeping and eating doesn’t sound normal to me, either - they’re supposed to have two speeds, dead stop and full out. “Failure to thrive” sounds like it would fit, too. Looking it up, it might be an infection that they all have - a link to fading kitten syndrome. My gut says it’s an infection that all the kittens from the same litter got.
Is there anything at all that they eat with gusto? It sounds obvious, but have you tried different brands of food? When I got my cat, I didn’t realize that she didn’t like her food for a while - I thought she was just a light eater. I switched foods, and she gobbled everything in sight.
Thinks about going all hissy over that link. The momma is out of the picture. Its one of the reason’s I’m so worried about them. Kittens don’t seem to understand what food is. They will lick up the juice from the canned stuff, and will happily chomp down on treats, but they don’t eat the meat and won’t eat kibble.
This is really hurting my heart. I am offering the kittens food that makes my personal cats climb my leg and the kittens just look at it, take a taste and then go off to zone.
They looked really interested when I gave them some of my salmon, but went off to zone again.
There is a good reason I never have money. These kittens are going to the vet in the morning. I can’t let them die because I’m ignorant
Try tuna. I’ve had two old cats that would only eat that in their fading days, maybe little kittens will eat it, too. Yeah, I know, not a balanced diet, but I’m thinking the goal here is the same as it was then, get whatever you can into then. And yes, also…keep trying with the vet. Let them know that something is NOT RIGHT.
Felidae seems be put some serious “heft” onto cats. Also, there’s the 2nd age kitten fomulae, try some of that.
Are they drinking enough water? Cats are notoriously under-hydrated. You might consider getting a water fountain for them to play in/drink from. Something like this - but there’s lots of different models so you can shop around for them.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3261+14390+14426+1783&pcatid=1783
Also, here’s the 2nd age formula Dr. Deth suggested. Some kittens need a bit of prodding before they figure out what is and is not food.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3261+14390+14394+18523&pcatid=18523
Good luck at the vet!
My very young kitten had failure to thrive. She needed to be fed 100% wet food. No kibble. Then she started growing appropriately. The vet said kittens shouldn’t really eat dry food under 8 weeks. (Yes, opinions differ on that, but the vet was right with my cat.) Give it a try! 
Or, if they are young enough, do they still need formula?
You’re probably confusing Feline Infectious Peritonitis with Feline Immunodeficiency Virus. Unlike FIV, FIP virus is very difficult, expensive, and inaccurate to test for, so I sincerely doubt that your kittens have been tested for it.
There are a bunch of symptoms, but the most common one I’ve seen is a kitten that simply doesn’t do well: they’re quiet, they don’t really want to eat, they stay skinnier and smaller than they ought to. It seems to set in around 3-4 months old. FIP is untreatable and always fatal within a few weeks to months of the clinical symptoms showing up. Generally, it’s one kitten out of the litter, so it’s pretty clear that one cat just ain’t right. I can’t decide if that is worse or better than having a whole litter of them.
“Poor Doer” or “Failure to Thrive” are generic veterinary terms for “We have no idea why your animal is slowly dying despite all our best efforts.”
The more you describe them, the more it sounds like there is something seriously wrong with the kittens. I’m glad you’re going to talk to the vet. Don’t panic until you have a chance to get them professionally evaluated, but steel yourself.
{{hugs}}
You might try Royal Canin Recovery RS. It’s a wet food for cats that are rebounding from illness and need to put on weight.
Another food recommended by our vet is baby food, specifically the ham with ham gravy, which is pureed. She said that there are no known dietary issues with this, and you’re only getting ham without all the preservatives and extra salt.
Came in to say what Chefguy said. When I’ve had cats recovering from illness who were listless about eating, baby food (meat only) was always eaten, even when nothing else was. If you can get a little extra vitamin oompf in it, so much the better. If they like that, you can try mixing in some wet kitten food. Sometimes I had to spoon or finger-feed them at first to get them to take it, but they always ate it right down.
I don’t know how advisable this would be for kittens, but when I was trying to put some extra calories on an older cat recovering from surgery I added a little soft butter swirled into the baby food. This apparently was kitty crack.
My husband’s cat is crazy for ham - that sounds like a good idea for something to try.
Our cat had to be put to sleep yesterday, but the last time I bought the baby food, I mentioned to the cashier what it was for and she said they sell more baby food to pet owners than to anybody else.