Setting up the first saucer
Use a heavy, shallow saucer she cannot tip, and fill it with kitten formula stirred into finely mashed wet kitten food until it pours like thick soup. Warm it to about body temperature — cold food from the fridge is the commonest reason a kitten turns away from a first saucer. Choose a quiet corner on an easy-wipe floor, because the first session will be untidy, and keep other pets out so she is not pushed aside or startled mid-lap. Offer the saucer when she is due a feed and alert, not when she has just been fully bottle-fed and is sleepy.
Guiding her without forcing her
Let her sniff first. Dab a little gruel on your fingertip and let her lick it off, then move your finger down toward the saucer surface so her head follows. Some foster carers gently dip a front paw so she licks the food off it and makes the connection herself. Never push her face into the food: a kitten who inhales gruel or gets it up her nose can develop breathing trouble, and a frightened kitten will refuse the saucer at the next attempt. If she walks through it, wipe her down warmly and try again at the next feed rather than repeating until she is stressed.
The bottle does not disappear today
This is a crossover day, not a switch. Top her up with the bottle after each saucer attempt for as long as she needs it, reducing the top-up only as the amount she laps grows. A kitten who laps a token amount and then cries is telling you she is not ready to fill up from the dish, and her stomach capacity and lapping coordination improve over days, not hours. Keep stimulating her to toilet after feeds as you have been doing, since that need fades gradually as she eats solid food and uses a litter tray.
Weighing and watching on the day itself
Weigh her at the start of the day and again in the evening on kitchen scales, in the same container, and write both figures down. A hand-reared kitten should keep gaining steadily; a flat or falling weight on transition day means the saucer is not yet delivering enough and the bottle should carry more of the load tomorrow. Watch for coughing or bubbly sounds after lapping, repeated vomiting, or diarrhoea, and contact a vet promptly if any appear, because very young kittens go downhill quickly. Also note whether she is weeing and passing stool normally after the new food.
Coordinating everyone who feeds her
Hand-reared kittens often have more than one carer across a day, and mixed messages — one person persisting with the saucer, another going straight to the bottle — slow the transition. Write down the gruel ratio, the top-up rule, and today's weights where every feeder will see them, and update after each attempt. KinsLe Care Teams keeps that bottle-to-saucer plan, the weights, and each completed feed in one place, so a hand-reared kitten gets the same patient routine from every person caring for her.