Everything You Need to Know About 7 Week Old Kittens
If you have been around my blog then you know that I have recently rescued and fostered an orphaned kitten. We estimate that we got her around three weeks and had a big awakening throughout the process.
I wanted to walk you through the information that I gathered for each of the different weeks of a new kittens life.
If you started from the beginning, they you know we have come a long way. Your kitten’s development skills have grown from two week old kittens through now seven week old kittens. Your friends better look out!
I want this to be a complete guide for caring for a kitten week by week. If you find a kitten, as always, you want to try your hardest to keep with them with their mothers. Their mothers will be able to nurse them, keep them warm, and protect them.
Mothers know how to care for their babies so if they can be left with their mothers, they should for at least 8 weeks.
Orphaned 7 Week Old Kitten
If you find a kitten who has no mother nearby, then you have just found an orphaned kitten. This kitten now needs you to be their mother. They will need to be fed and protected by you, the human..
We have already talked about caring for a two-week-old kitten through six-week-old kittens. So, if you have read that article, that means that you are now caring for a seven-week-old kitten.
Can you believe it SEVEN WEEKS GUYS! You have survived at least 6 weeks with your kitten! That’s longer than a month!
Is It OK To Take A Kitten At 7 Weeks Old?
Or, you have just found a kitten are thinking it is about seven-ish weeks, though we will mention how to be sure in a little. Seven-week-old kittens are at that wonderful age where they are almost at the age of being able to leave their mothers! They are really growing into an awesome kitten.
They should be weening onto wet food and requiring a bottle fed from time to time.
However, for the most part they should be on a combination of slurry and wet food. They should really be getting the hang of litter box training , and continuing to gain weight as they grow.
They should be continuing to gain weight steadily until they are full grown.
At this age the speed may be slowing down slightly, but you should still see weight gain week after week.
How to Tell a Kitten is 7 Weeks Old
First, let’s talk about how to tell if a kitten is seven weeks old. You can tell by the 7 week old kitten size. At seven weeks, they will really start looking like a kitten! They will be coming into their personality.
Their teeth should be a full set of kitten teeth and their size should be close to the size of a normal kitten you see at the shelters. This is also the age that they will start to climb!
At the beginning of seven weeks, kittens will be transitioning into their own unique eye color. They will be playful and be learning their hunting instincts.
How Big Is A 7 Week Old Kitten?
Their weight at this age should be between 750-850 grams depending on the kitten and should still continue to steadily gain weight each day.
If you notice your kitten is not gaining weight for a few days, make sure you are feeding them enough, and speak to your vet about possible other reasons for delayed weight gain.
At seven weeks, they will be able to keep warm on their own. They may still want to cuddle up with you form extra warms, but the extra heating sources should be long gone!
Feeding a seven-week-old kitten
I talked a lot about feeding a little bit in my articles from two-week-old kittens to five-week-old kittens. Let’s talk about what to feed a 7 week old kitten.
At seven weeks, they should be off the bottle and continuing with their ‘slurry mixture. We mentioned ‘slurry’ in their sixth week. A slurry is a combination of formula and wet kitten food. At this point you should be adjusting to more wet food and less formula mixture.
When it comes to creating the slurry, I would recommend using the KMR formula that I recommended for the kittens week 5 and younger. If you just found a kitten at 7 weeks, you can choose any kitten milk replacer formula. KMR has two formulas, and one helps with the weaning process. That’s why I decided to stick with KMR as we went onto the slurry.
When it comes to finding the wet food to add to the slurry mixture, you can really choose any wet canned kitten food. Again, I recommend Fancy Feast because that is what I have fed my newborn kittens and that is what they seem to enjoy! But that doesn’t mean you HAVE to choose Fancy Feast! Just make sure it is wet canned kitten food and you are good to go!
How Much Do You Feed a 7 Week Old Kitten?
At seven weeks, kittens should be starting to really get the hang of the slurry and you can start adding more wet cat food and less formula into the slurry mix.
They should be confidently eating on their own.
How often should you feed 7 week old kittens?
You want to just make sure they are continuing to gain weight and from there you can let them eat when they are hungry. I usually fed the kittens in the morning and in the evening. And if I noticed they ate all their food in the morning, I would may add another slurry/wet food in the afternoon.
7 Week Old Kitten Care
Kittens at seven weeks old will be will walking confidently on their own and running in their little sprinting fashion. This is really the age in which they start to come into themselves.
They really seem like a real cat! This is where I think the fun really begins.
At seven weeks, they should be able to confidently go to the bathroom on their own, and the accidents should minimal to not at all.
The litter box should be small enough for them to walk in and out of, but still enough room for them to move around.
You also need to start introducing a small litter box into the mix, instead of the small make-shift one you were using during week four and week five.
When it comes to choosing a litter box, I will be super blunt and say GO CHEAP! The litter box needs to be small enough that your kitten can climb in and out of, and your need to be using non-clumping litter for the next few weeks.
Now is not the time to spend money on a litter box. Go cheap, and just get a better one as they continue to grow!
I mentioned earlier that you need to continue using a non-clumping litter. The reason you need to use a non-clumping litter is because well kittens like to put anything in their mouths. Clumping litter clumps and can cause obstructions in your kittens tummy if they accidentally eat some.
There are a lot of non-clumping litters you can choose from. We went with Yesterday News because we could have it delivered to our house every two weeks which made the entire litter box process so much easier!
What Do 7 Week Old Kittens Need?
Another IMPORTANT! IMPORTANT! thing that I am going to mention again is this.K ittens cannot use clumping litter at this point.
Kittens are like babies where they want to put nearly everything in their mouth. If your kitten eats clumping litter, it could cause bowel obstructions and serious harms to your already sensitive kitten.
You want to get a non-clumping litter, like Yesterday’s New. You will want to change this out a little more often than clumping litter to keep if clean, but I think your kitten’s health is worth it.
Finally, and maybe the most important is you want them to still have a safe space. At this point, they are probably safer to start roaming around on their own, but you want to make sure you have kitten proofed the house.
Loose wires, or things they can chew and eat should be places away from them. They won’t be able to jump high quite yet, so height can always be a safe place for things.
For Binx, when she was about 5 weeks old, she was able to climb out of the bin we used for her not too long ago. We started locking her in the bathroom at night so she could roam and be safe, and eventually just let her roam the apartment.
At 7 weeks she was pretty much free to roam around after we did the necessary cleaning and kitten-proofing. If you want to learn about how to complete pet proof your home for your new kitten, check out ‘How to Easily Pet Proof Your Entire Home’.
We always gave her a little cat bed near my bed that she could sleep in so she felt like part of the family.
My best advice is if you have a big home, slowly start to let them roam around small areas on their own until you feel comfortable with them out completely on their own. This probably won’t happen until week 5 or 6. So around week seven, they should be getting more and more comfortable on their own.
The last, and still important thing I want to mention is taking them to the vet. They can get their first round of shots at around 4 weeks. There is also a good chance that your little kitten will have worms.
Especially if they were orphaned at a young age. You want to make sure you take them to the vet and get them their needed shots, de-wormer, and anything else they may need medically.
If you’ve read Binx’s story, you know that her worms caused a lot of problems for us. So the earlier you can get the de-wormed, the better!
Are You Ready To Care For a Seven Week Old Kitten?
If you find a seven-week-old kitten, they still need to be kept with the mother.
Kittens this young still need need their mother to help them get big and strong even though they are looking like a real kitten. However, if no mother is found, that is not a death sentence to your kitty.
Educate yourself, get the supplies you need, and become the kitty mother of the world!
Remember to have patience throughout this whole process, especially if this is your first time handling orphaned kittens. Everything will come with time and getting frustrated won’t help anyone.
The most important things for them right now are warmth, shelter, and food. If they have that and are starting to gain weight as they should then you doing good!
And that means in a few days you will move onto week EIGHT!!! WHAT!!!.Last week guys! Are you guys ready for that one?!
Thank you this really helps.
My kitten is 7 weeks old very actuve but quite small i presume the runt we got her at 4wks from a random man in the street looking to guve her away to say the least its been challenging as we were unprepared but hapoy to say shes accomplished and excelled at all her milestones exceeding our expectations my concern is she eats about 6 small meals p/day she has been dewormed and deflead at 5 weeks altho with the latter my son bathed her the next day as he was concerned about the amount of fleas and thought that the meds were insufficient and even now she still has some fleas even with occasional bathing (sponge/wipe down) so what to do until the next vet(SPCA) visit