Patient Mama

Heheh. Poor Indigo, stretched right out to accommodate all six kittens at feeding time. Why she's lying on the floor, instead of the various comfortable places we have around the room, is anyone's guess! I suspect she was accosted unexpectedly by hungry kittens.

Mostly she only feeds two or three at any one time, but seeing them all bundled on top of her like this was too good to miss. It's a rarity though, easier to feed them in batches! She's not looking so sore now, so clipping the babies' claws a little does seem to have helped. She's eating better again- plenty of kibble as well as wet food...and chicken once a day. She's a bit skinny, like most nursing mothers get, it would seem, so she's still on the nutri gel. Whether it helps I don't know, but she seems to enjoy it, so why not!

The Boys

I am a handsome kitty, oh yes!

(Monty, I think, although I always confuse him with Kenneth)

Kitten puddle! I THINK that's Kenneth looking at the camera.

Wendell and Kensey

Uncle Theo

Hey Mum... I'm gonna say hello to that floofy guy over there...

 (that's Hope, she luffs Theo)

AnnElise joins in...

Mister? Wake up Mister!

Yay, he's awake!

Hello Mister! You sure is fluffy!

*snuggle* (AnnElise)

*smooch* (also AnnElise)

BUNDLE!!!

Good old Uncle Theo!



Lovely AnnElise

Such a sweet girl! AnnElise is one of the quieter of her litter, but she's rapidly gaining in confidence now. When the others come out to play, so does she, and she's been known to stalk and pounce on a sibling with much skill. She's quite agile and has been known to jump up in the air, which I've not seen from her siblings. Boing!

She's gaining in confidence with people too, playing games mith me and batting at my hand playfully. Just earlier I was playing with the kittens en masse and AnnElise crawled right into my lap for a cuddle. And purred at me. Aww!
Her face has more cream on it than Hope's does, and where Hope has a cream back foot, one of AnnElise's front paws is paler than the other. So it's easy to tell them apart even when they are sleeping.

Just as an aside, I love how they look like proper cats now, and not bats or mice! Oh, and I'm typing this with Monty on my shoulder... he tickles!

Food, Glorious Food!

Now, all the sites I've seen have recommending starting to wean the kittens at around five weeks. But- well, my kittens seem to be weaning themselves. One day I put down some chicken for mama (she's still on one meal of plain boiled chicken a day to boost her appetite for her other food... I dropped it one day and she ate hardly anything) and Wendell tucked in like he'd been doing it all his life. Kensey was a little more tentative, and baffled by the plate I think, but he had a few good chews as well. Well by now there's a scrum when the chicken gets put down... all the kittens are straight there.

It was never my intention to give the kittens this chicken... nutritionally it's pretty blah, it's not a complete cat food, and it's had most of the goodness boiled out of it. But that's how it's worked out. It would be daft to STOP them wouldn't it, when they are eating of their own accord?

Really I'm not too concerned, other breeders use a baby cereal to start their kittens off which is equally bland- so I reckon boiled chicken is equally inoccuous. At this stage they are getting all their nutrition from milk, and food is more about exploring tastes and textures than anything else isn't it? However, now I'm starting to think it's time to introduce some other food... after all I do NOT want to be handing on kittens who will only ever eat chicken- their new families wouldn't thank me for that hehe.
Anyway yesterday and today at Indigo's meal times, I've mixed some chicken with a can of kitten mush to see what happened... and again Wendell was right in there. The others have had a sniff, a few have had a lick and it all seems to be going rather well.

As for the dry food... well lots of sites say start this at around six to seven weeks. Someone really ought to tell Hope that... hehe. She loves the biscuits- Royal Canin Babycat, specially sized for tiny mouths. As you can see, she likes to get right into the dish...

Oh! And we had a POO IN THE LITTER BOX yesterday!  And we've had a couple of wees as well. Hurrah! I am pathetically pleased by this. After the dramatics of Friday, I'm just pleased that I seem to be doing something right!

Yesterday...

He's fine.  Here he is, just now, scoffing.

Oh my goodness.

Yesterday, the teenager accidentally stepped on Wendell. I didn't see it happen, but my goodness, I heard it, and I'd rather not ever hear a kitten making that noise again :(  Poor, poor baby!

I checked him over gently and couldn't feel anything obviously broken but Wendell then limped off to under the sofa and I could see he wasn't bearing any weight on one of his back feet. Of course, I rang the vet straight away and got the next available appointment and set out pronto, coaxing Wendell out with a bit of chicken. By the time we got to the vet he was walking much more normally, thank goodness. He was checked out, and as far as the vet could tell, he's fine, just shocked and a bit sore no doubt.

I have to say- both the vet and the receptionist were very kind and I just about held it together, but I don't mind sharing that later on that night I did have a good weep. I just feel so terrible about it. But Wendell is fine and walking as he should be this morning, so all seems to be well.

I've thought and thought about posting this. I'd rather keep it quiet, you know? And then I remembered one of the aims of this blog... complete honesty... and decided to go ahead. It was an accident, the teenager feels dreadful about it... and so do I. Comment if you would like to, but please be gentle- no-one could feel any more badly about it than we do.

I have good news as well though... I grabbed a kitten to take with Wendell- I thought it might stress him out less to be with a littermate  (Indigo had hidden under the sofa with some of the other kittens at all the noise and stress so taking the whole family was not an option) It was Kenneth. I was just about to swap him (not wanting to take Kenneth out in the cold) when I thought I might as well take him too, to be checked over. Well the vet did so, and couldn't detect any noise on Kenneth's chest at all. Hurrah!

Moving House

I've been busying myself moving the blog over to this site. Blogger makes it pretty easy, and all is now moved over except the genetics posts... which I am going to review VERY carefully in the light of my blooper earlier in the week lol! I'm pretty sure everything I wrote is accurate, and I had just ('just' lol) missed an important fact when considering the orange-making gene, but I don't want to post anything that is wrong, so I'll check it all over before reposting those.

Also, I'm more 'aware' that this blog is public. On the private blog, I've whittered away to myself quite merrily in the knowledge that no-one can 'hear' me... but now they can. Also, what is it with the fact that anything you wrore more than about... ooh, two weeks ago? seems very embarrassing indeed? He he. Ah well. One can't make an omelette without breaking eggs, so they say, although what that has to do with kittens is anyone's guess.

Otherwise it's just more of the same here... playing with the kittens, watching the kittens, cuddling the kittens, tearing myself away from the kittens to earn a crust... lol. After my wobble yesterday, I feel bound to report that I have not heard Kenneth rattle in the past 24 hours, despite spending quite a lot of time with him, so I'm holding off on the vet visit for a couple of days to see what's what.

Also, a gripe. I've had a couple emails since going into hyper-advertising mode, and... well, people are very odd, aren't they? One mail said 'I'd like two females'- that's it, no hello, no let me tell you a little about myself, just that... as if I was a market stall and selling bananas! I replied politely of course, asking for a bit more info but got no reply and I'm not at all upset about that! I've had a couple other mails which I have replied to which have fizzled out when I've asked a few questions (nicely, I swear...) but seriously what do people expect, that I'll do them up neatly in brown paper and stick them in the mail???

And as for that, would anyone REALLY want a kitten from a breeder that showed NO interest in where or what the kittens might be going to? *shakes head sadly*