Like humans and many other animals, young kittens’ primary food source comes from nursing. This stage of their development is critical to shaping their development.

Although kittens may appear not to be doing much when they are first born—their eyes don’t open until they are about two weeks old—their bodies are hard at work, processing food rapidly. Kittens don’t have teeth at this point, so they must rely on nursing. Because its only real job in this stage of its life is to process food, a kitten will typically double in weight throughout the first week of its life and will continue to grow quickly, gaining about 10 grams every day, according to http://cats.about.com/cs/kittencare/a/tracksixweek.htm.

Kittens can begin to be weaned and litter box-trained when they are about five weeks old, a week after their baby teeth begin to show. One way to do this is to give them a non-dairy milk replacer in a shallow dish. Small amounts of canned kitten food can then be added. It’s important to use canned food specifically designed for kittens, as it contains a high amount of protein.Weaning is not usually very difficult, and it is even easier when the mother is involved. To ease the transition to solid food, start feeding the kitten’s mother the same canned food that the kitten should be eating; the kitten will follow its mother’s lead, although the kitten should be fed small meals more frequently throughout the day than the mother.

The most important thing to keep in mind when weaning a kitten is its health. Kittens need to be able to smell their food in order to develop their eating habits, and an upper respiratory infection or cold can impede this and can also come with risks that are far more dangerous than they would be for an older cat. As long as a kitten is healthy and gaining weight, it should be able to make the change from nursing to eating kitten food in a short amount of time.