Question:
I'll try to make my question short.

My husband and I purchased a Himalayan kitten yesterday from a breeder, she's 3 months old. We also purchased a bag of the cat food that the kitten was use to from them. We brought her home and she has used the litterbox on her own five times. The problem is that she hasn't eaten or drank anything. I have used a syringe with water and put it in the side of her mouth so this way she doesn't get dehydrated.

I did phone the breeder and asked if this has happened before and it hasn't. I phoned the vet but they were closed. I phoned the emergency vet clinic and the receptionist talked to a vet and said to get soft food and to heat it up and to phone the vet tomorrow. She did asked me if she was lethargic and she has been for most of the day, now I'm not sure if it's because of the heat or because she does like to sleep a lot. She also told me that it could be from the stress of the move too.

I want to make sure that I'm not overreacting but I'm concerned. It would be greatly appreciated if anyone could tell me that if they have gone through the same thing or just some advice on what to do.

Thank-you

Answer:
I recently went through this with my 13 week old kitten..
I watched her barely look at her food and wanting to play in the bathroom tap water.
She would eat off the end of my finger though.
It dawned on me that she didn't know how to dig food out of a bowl..I put food on a saucer, separated the crunchies and the wet food on their own saucers and she ate it all up.there has been no going back now.

This is ofcourse a quick check before looking for medical reasons.if it persists, I would take puss to the vet.

I also wanted to add my baby did nothing but sleep for 3 days when she arrived at 10 weeks, perfectly healthy, just needing to get used to the changes!

Good luck, enjoy your new baby!
Kimmee

Answer:
Any good breeder should answer all questions and concerns,good for you for calling them first Like Sweetgrass said if this persists pls take her to the vets, a little kitten can go downhill very quickly. I think it might be a combination of acouple things stress, heat, new environment. (IMO) if she has gone to the litter box five times something must be going in maybe she is eating and drinking while you are sleeping, I would get her some canned food, like already suggested, put it on a plate/bowl whatever you want and confine her for the night (bathroom) and see what happens, do you have CA or an AC? Pets are alot like people I think in when the weather gets too hot, we are lazy and don't feel much like eating, hope this helps alittle, keep us posted

Answer:
Thanks for the advice and the responses.

My husband went and bought a bunch of cans of the soft food and tried to hand feed it to her, nothing, gave some water by syringe and Dutchess was not a happy camper. I know that you are not suppose to give water from canned tuna (hopefully I'm not going to get too flamed for it) and mixed a tiny bit with her food. She had approximately 10 pieces. After she ate she started being more alert and playing.

The breeder gave me a call back to see how she was doing. I asked her how long has Dutchess been on the kibble and she told me since she was 5 1/2 weeks old and that the kitten doesn't like soft food at all. We both agreed that it probably was because of the heat and the new place. I asked her a few more questions and she told me to give her a call tomorrow.

We do have air conditioning up stairs and planning to put another one in downstairs on the main floor, right now we are using a couple of fans. So that's where the cat spent most of the day up there.

We had play time, wiped her eyes and brushed her. We went to bed and she decided to play until 3 a.m. this morning.

She woke me up, went downstairs and she ate her kibble so now I'm the happy camper , she still hasn't taken the water yet. Now she's having a cat nap. It another scorcher today, so I might have to give her some water by syringe again.

Thanks again for the advice, it was greatly appreciated.

Lisa

Answer:
Glad to hear she is doing alittle better,as far as the tuna goes (IMO) if it helps and doesn't cause her to have the scoots alittle won't hurt in moderation, glad to see that the breeder is concerned and checking in, keep us posted

Answer:
Try ice cubes in the water dish....(at the very least its a funny sight)

Random Tangent: I've got two kittens and seeing them with the ice cubes in the water dish was hilarious! Leo (the more inquisitive of the two) couldn't figure it out! He even stuck his paw in the water then looked disgusted because his paw was wet! He sat there for at least five minutes trying to figure out what the heck to do with these cold floating things!

I almost never see my cats drinking (I have a small one bedroom place with a grand total of three rooms) but I do know that they are because I check the water level whenever I change it. I mean you aren't glued to your kitten's side so it may very well be that she's drinking when you aren't around.

Just my 2 cents.

Megan

Answer:
Just to let everyone know that she finally did take a drink earlier today, I was doing a happy dance when she did, okay maybe I was overreacting, I'm just glad that my neighbours didn't see me they would have thought that I was out on a week day pass.

I did try to put an ice cube in her water dish just an hour ago. At first she looked at it and then ignored it until it started the crackling sound, she did look a look a couple of times then decided to eat instead and kept looking back to the water dish whenever it did make a sound. After she was done eating, she kept going in circles around the water dish and took a little sip.

Thanks for all the advise, it was so helpfully, hopefully I will be able to do the same thing for someone else.

Even though my hubby doesn't like himmies, he's become smitten with this one, plays with her, cuddles, kisses her and looks for her, he even says that she's cute. She has become a big part of our family.

Thanks again guys.

Lisa

Answer:
Ahhhh! Just 2 days and already she has hubby wrapped around her little paw. I would love to see some pictures.

Answer:
I'll try to post some pictures, let's hope it works.



So far this is my favorite, but I'm sure that there will be more favorite pics to come

Answer:
Another picture of our little beauty. She's like a little lost puppy, if I'm not in the room, she will cry out for me till I come and get her. Ever since she started eating early this morning, she hasn't stopped and I'm not complaining at all.



Answer:
OMG,she is adorable please keep the pics coming!!
I am glad she's eating and drinking,kittens can get in real trouble if the don't.

Answer:
Oh, she is a very cute kittie. And glad to hear Megan's ice cube trick worked and that she's now drinking and eating.

Answer: