Kittens sucking kibble

Nody

Meet Dana and Fox; some well meaning people took them from their mother at 4 weeks old "because she was hissing at people" and handed them into the rescue we work with. They were bottle fed and are now on RC weaning kibble and kitten soft food (RC pate or Bozita Kitten in jelly, they were moved over to solid before we got them) at ~7 weeks of age.

Beyond having the sexes "wrong" (Dana has a set of brass balls that would make Duke Nukem green of envy were as Fox is timid and wants to be cuddled and carried around at all time) they are doing fine and enjoying their new place (still waiting to do final tests before I can start to let them meet the rest of the family so contained to the kitchen atm).

How ever I've run into a behaviour I've not seen before; they will usually eat both their soft food and kibble as any other cats; how ever sometimes they will simply flop over the bowl (it's a double bowl of kibble) and lay flat there sucking up the kibble instead of eating it. While it's cute it also tends to spread kibble all over the place as they show their head down like they are trying to drown themselves in kibble (most likely due to being moved away way to early from their mother but that bus has already left long ago).

Any ideas on how to support them to move away from this behaviour and / or something else that can be done?

Pumpkinseeds

Ahh they are so gorgeous. What about trying one of those bowl stands that raise the bowls off the floor? They're designed for dogs but I've seen ones that are cat sized.

looking_around

less food in the bowl?

Could also try those balls that only drop kibble when hit. (It's great for slowing them down if they're eating too fast .. I also fine there's less mess)