Xiang and Xeric - Gruel Babies!

At 6 weeks old Xiang and Xeric are past due to be eating on their own; kittens can be introduced to gruel as soon as their teeth come in which can happen as early as 2 weeks old. Xeric and Xiang both have healthy strong teeth but have showed no interest in eating solo.

Xiang has shown a little interest in gruel-on-a-plate but does NOT want to eat it if a syringe gruel meal is available. 

Now that both kittens weigh at least a pound I can start to try and convince them that they need to eat on their own. For both their 6am and 10pm feeding they will get syringe gruel since those are the meals with the longest time between Feedings. At 10am, 2pm and 6pm however, they will get only a plate of the gruel. I make a fresh plate for each meal and even sweeten the deal with turkey baby food. 

They will probably fight me quite a bit for the first plate meal and won't want to eat it, however once their midday meal is due they'll be hungry and more likely to try the plate gruel. 

(Note: this was a post-in-progress from Tuesday morning!)

UPDATE!

Both babies are eating off the plate right now! I was right about them getting more hungry after not eating off the plate earlier and with some gentle persuasion I got them both chowing down on their own!!!! FANTASTIC!