Your kitten should have a nice little plump belly. He should be very happy, not irritable, not whining, not crying out as much. Most kittens will sleep about 90% of the time. So if they're sleeping a lot and they seem relatively happy and content, that'll tell me that they're pretty okay with the amount of food that they're getting. If you're unsure, I know sometimes worms can look very similar, you can always check in with your veterinarian to make sure that they're growing big and strong and that they're continuing to gain weight appropriately.

Most kittens can eat as much as they want. So ad lib is usually my general guideline. If you're not able to keep food out and keep it fresh and replaced all day, about four times a day is how you should be aiming for frequency wise.

Not necessarily when they're on the milk replacer. Usually when I do start to wean them onto solid food, I will put out a dish of water just so they have the option of drinking from that. Most kittens will get enough moisture from the canned food alone, but if you do choose to use more of a solid kibble based food, having some water available for them would be helpful.

Around that four to six week old age is when we start transitioning off of the milk replacer, if you do have them earlier than that. I will usually start by mixing some solid food into a little dish of milk replacer and seeing if they'll lap that up and slowly transitioning to more of a pate based food.

No, I definitely wouldn't recommend giving regular milk. Cow's milk usually doesn't have the nutrients that kittens need at this age. Instead, feed the kitten milk replacer, which has lots of proteins, extra fats, and nutrients that they really need to grow big and strong. These are not found in regular milk that you and I drink over the counter.

The biggest thing that I see people do is they flip the kittens on their backs and hold them like a baby. We really shouldn't be doing that with kittens. They should be on their tummies, similar to how they would be lying if they were nursing from their mother. Usually we'll use a little kind of replacement nipple, made out of silicone, and a small bottle. You can feed the bottle by gently placing the nipple into their mouth. They should start suckling right away. Keep the bottle inverted so they don't start gulping down a lot of air into their bellies because that can upset their stomachs.

Not all kittens. It depends on what age they are at. If you find a kitten that's about four weeks old, they may start eating regular solid foods by themselves or they may take a little bit of time to get used to that. Depending on their age that you find them, you may have to give them some milk replacer for a short period of time before weaning them off. And again, if they're a little bit older, they may just start eating solid foods regularly.

It depends on if the mother is still with the kitten or not. Usually, the age range for weaning is about four to six weeks old. Some kittens who are strongly emotionally bonded to their mothers may take a little more time and may still be nursing when they transition to foods around six weeks old.

Absolutely, we will give pain medication. In addition, we do nerve blocks for numbing just as human dentists do. They're usually given some type of a narcotic for pain relief as well as oftentimes some medications to go home. We even have a newer form of pain medication that's a transdermal, it goes on the skin and provides four days of pain relief so that we don't have to medicate the cat personally.

Dental appointments usually take at least two-thirds of the day. We usually have multiple procedures to do during a day so after they're dropped off we set up the IV catheters, do blood work if necessary, give them fluids and get them prepared for the procedure. The procedure usually lasts somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour and a half. After the procedure, they have to be recovered from anesthesia, they're monitored for a while and then they usually go home in the middle of the afternoon.