Flirt

Why yes, I am utterly adorable....

Why do you ask?

This week, and only this week, my most 'aloof' kitten, Gretl (she's not aloof, she's just too busy- Wendell last year was the same) and my most timid, Brigitta, have both been approaching me for full on cuddling voluntarily. They have and do come for strokes, and they've been picked up and cuddled quite happily but it's different when they suddenly look at you and think I know what I want, climb up, nestle in and start purring up a storm. Liesl started last week and the others have been doing it for weeks.

It's a conscious decision on their part. I think it does etch something permanently in their minds- humans are to be trusted, they are a source of warmth and comfort and love, and that forms something permanent in their brains. Some kittens take longer to do this than others, and it is my belief that if they go through some kind of upheaval or insecurity before reaching this stage, such as moving homes, away from their mother and siblings, they might never reach it.

I'm a strong believer that 8 weeks, the usual time for a non pedigree kitten to come home, is just too early for many, if not most, cats. They are still developing rapidly at this age. By 13 weeks, they are ready to move on, Mum is definitely ready for them to move on, and although I miss them I kind of am too, 11 individuals is a lot of cat for one small flat!

Anyway, there isn't much point to my rambling, only to say that from now on in, I don't expect to be able to sit down without instantly having a lapful or purring kittens. Which is rather nice, really :)

Oh and D- I wrote this entry about 36 hours ago... it isn't in response to your  hopeful offer to take young Fred off my hands early! Just rather fortunate timing, that's all!

Goop

Liesl- so pretty! But definitely a bit squinty here...

Yup, Brigitta and Liesl have a touch of the goopy eyes. Or rather they did yesterday, I'm treating them (all, just in case!) with a very mild saline and hoping that will do the trick. There's no more goop this morning but I'll carry on bathing their eyes anyway. Brigitta thinks this is wonderful, and purrs and purrs when I do it- the others aren't so convinced, I must say.

We had the goopy eyes this time last year, I seem to remember. I do wonder whether the worm and flea treatments just lower immunity that little bit, making any kind of infection more likely? Or maybe it's just a coincidence both the litters have succcumbed at around this age. Who knows.

Anyway, I'm on the watch for any further squinting (quite clear in the pic above) that might indicate irritated eyes and any pirates will be treated pronto. You can't take risks with eyes. We're at the vet's Friday anyway, if we end up there before then for eye ointment that will make four times in nine days which will be a new record even for us! Oh well!

Such a happy kitten, purring and showing her tummy... whichof course I had to stroke right after I took this!

An Unexpected Bath

Well Louisa, the badness, has spent some time 'practicing' her kitten gate climbing skills. Most of the time she doesn't make it, but occasionallly those claws catch onto the edge and she hauls herself over. And then of course she can't get out, and howls and howls till I come and rescue her. Whereupon she comes and jumps over again. *rolls eyes*

Kittens watch their siblings and copy. Marta had clearly been taking in her sister's latest skill and decided to try it out for herself- onto the toilet seat. Yup, you can tell where this is going can't you? I heard the most agonised howl from the bathroom, causing me, Indigo and all the kittens to stampede en masse in that direction and there she was, feet first in the toilet bowl looking absolutely horrified. She'd obviously tried to jump up, slipped, and fallen in.

We usually leave the seat down but for some reason it wasn't this time... fortunately I never use a rim block or similar (as my adult cats are fascinated by them and ull them all over the house) and the bowl was cleaned just the other day, so it really was just water down there. A quick rinse was all she needed, and then much cuddling and drying off because she was sopping from her middle downwards and pretty shaken up to boot.

I was too, truth be told... it was carelessness indeed on my part because it is possible for a kitten to come to grief that way. It's another of those things I'd rather NOT report on here. No-one needs to know, right? But that's not what I blog for... one of the aims on here is complete honesty, even if it doesn't make me look especially 'good', and besides which someone might read this, realise how dangerous toilets can be to kittens and make sure their own bowls are lidded all the time too.

Oh... and obviously I have no photos of her in the bowl or sopping  wet afterwards as I was far too busy sorting her out... but after, when she was calm, just a little damp, and soothing her injured pride with a wash? I certainly did! Here she is smoothing down her ruffled fur, with a sisterly Gretl helping her out. Poor Marta!

Five Little Monkeys

Top: Gretl, Brigitta, Upper middle: Kurt, Lower middle: Liesl and one of the greybies but I couldn't tell you who!

Kurt has always been lighter than Brigitta. But he's obviously darker than Liesl. I do genuinely wonder whether he's a chocolate after all? A chocolate solid? Or is it just natural variation? I'm going to register him as a brown solid, but... oh bother it! I'm just not sure. Oh well, as ever, if he is obviously NOT brown as an adult I'd be more than happy to change his pedigree.

I do think, in my next litter, I really need to find myself a chocolate stud. I thought two of my blues were chocs, so I need a chocolate, or a chocolate and lilac ONLY litter, in order to get my mind straight as to what chocolate actually looks like... because you see I've only ever seen it at shows, not here, every day, for 13 weeks.  I'm not even sure if there is a chocolate stud in Tonk-world at the moment, or up and coming, at least as it will be next year minimum. Hope so!

Speaking of monkeys... Louisa was the first today to scale the 'cat gate' and get into the kitchen. She was incredibly pleased with herself. What a minx!

Warm

Freddie says jumpers are for snuggling in... especially if there's a human inside!

Indigo is feeling much better, playing and rolling around as normal. My goodness she did look a sorry scrap yesterday. Today she's her old self again. Whatever they injected her with yesterday (and I forgot to write it down, but it was an antibiotic and something else) has worked wonders.

SOMEONE weed in the hall earlier. Hmm. I suspect Kurt, who was certainly hanging around the patch looking very woebegone poor baby! They really do not LIKE being caught short... cats are clean creatures.

Out came the 'Urine Off' spray- wonderful stuff that is, I really recommend it- and hopefully it won't become the new favourite place to go. If it does I shall have to put down food or tinfoil there.  I must say an accident is pretty rare these days, it's been several days since the last. That hall carpet is vile anyway though... all my cats and kittens have weed/ pooed/ puked/ hairballed on it at some point or another, not to mention used the corners as a scratching post. As a result it's stained, stinky and threadbare- not good! I had it properly steam cleaned last year... but all that did was remove the dirt that was hiding the worst of the stains- it looked worse after the clean than it did before!

It's coming up VERY soon to be replaced with nice washable lino... but not until these kittens have flown the nest. Needless to say I didn't have any cats before I decided to put down carpet. I certainly wasn't envisaging ever having 11!

Anyway we've had no repeats so hopefully it was just a one off.

8 Weeks Old

Chaos! In the past 24 hours the heating has broken down, the washing machine has broken down, and, today, Indigo is unwell- vomiting. Indigo is never sick. When she then vomited a bright red fluid I whisked her off to the vet pdq. Several injections and a nasty tasting medicine later, she's back home, and I must say, looking distinctly chirpier this evening so something has helped.

She's lost quite a lot of weight- pre pregnancy she was 4.3kg, and she was a little portly if I'm honest. Now she weighs 3.5 kg, which is underweight for her and a significant drop. I know she's had 7 babies to feed, and mama cats DO get thin, but that's a big drop in just a few months. She's also rather dehydrated. If she hadn't improved over the course of today she would have had to go back in and be put on a drip.

Poor Indigo! She had that funny thing where her third eyelid was showing, then she had the dreadful morning sickness, then on/off diarrhoea, then her ear, then more tummy issues, all one after the other.  Once the kittens have gone I'll have to build her up a little and then consider her breeding career- perhaps not breed her again or give her a longer break between litters or something. Or perhaps it's nothing to do with that at all and it's just one of those things... I don't know, but everything will be carefully considered.

Oh- the heating is fixed, by the way. But until it was, the kittens stayed nice and warm with blowy heaters placed inside a cage so they couldn't get TOO close to them, much like a toddler fire guard... worked well. I understand our gas is going to be off next week for the day, so they will keep us all toasty on that day too, especially if the snow in the north heads this way! Stay warm!


Liesl

Birth 96g
1 week 172g
2 weeks 226g
3 weeks 250g
4 weeks 325g
5 weeks 420g
6 weeks 586g
8 weeks 880g

Friedrich


Birth 101g
1 week 187g
2 weeks 239g
3 weeks 271g
4 weeks 349g
5 weeks 449g
6 weeks 630g
8 weeks 950g

Kurt

Birth 102g
1 week 205g
2 weeks 280g
3 weeks 341g
4 weeks 448g
5 weeks 570g
6 weeks 740g
8 weeks 1020g

Louisa

Birth 82g
1 week 157g
2 weeks 219g
3 weeks 260g
4 weeks 334g
5 weeks 394g
6 weeks 530g
8 weeks 820g

Brigitta

Birth 83g
1 week 179g
2 weeks 248g
3 weeks 301g
4 weeks 374g
5 weeks 497g
6 weeks 641g
8 weeks 890g

Marta

Birth 91g
1 week 178g
2 weeks 249g
3 weeks 311g
4 weeks 389g
5 weeks 468g
6 weeks 603g
8 weeks 840g

Gretl

Birth 81g
1 week 150g
2 weeks 220g
3 weeks 269g
4 weeks 342g
5 weeks 402g
6 weeks 516g
8 weeks 780g

Comparison:

Birth

REM litter 83g-103g. Average 92g

Von Trapp litter 81g-102g. Average 91g

1 week

REM litter 182g-217g Average 195g

Von Trapp litter 150g- 205g. Average 175g

2 weeks

REM litter 257g-294g, Average 272g
Von Trapp litter 220g- 280g, Average 240g

3 weeks

REM litter  338g-390g. Average 359g.
Von Trapp litter 250g- 341g. Average 286g.

4 weeks

REM litter 437g-524g. Average 466g
Von Trapp litter 325g-448g. Average 365g

5 weeks

REM litter 539g-604g. Average 581g
Von Trapp litter 394g-570g. Average 457g.

6 weeks

REM litter 712g- 792g, Average 752g
Von Trapp litter  516g-740g, Average 606g

8 weeks

REM litter 962-1149g. Average 1063g
Von Trapp litter 780-883g. Average 883g

Oh Boy...

It's a GIRL!

Yes, the vets now think Louisa is a girl. Yes, a girl. Of course she COULD still be a boy. I was speaking to Monty's owner and she said his boy parts didn't descend till he was about 3 months old so I assumed 'Louis' has just inherited the trait from Dad. And this could indeed still be the case. But several vets had a good old prod today and said 'girl' unanimously

What I shall do is register her (as I must do this asap now) as female, and if she turns out to be a boy after all I shall just have to re-register him. Luckily his new family have given her a sensible name like Charlie, which can be boy or girl!

When I came into the kitten room yesterday morning (lol no, we don't have a living room any more, it's the kitten room) yesterday morning, I noticed that Gretl was walking with a slight limp. I wasn't able to get her into the vet yesterday, and they were booked in today anyway so I wasn't too worried. Anyway the limp lessened and went over the course of the day anyway. I suspect she'd been adventuring overnight, and perhaps jumped awkwardly or something. Anyway, she's OK.

Actually, I lie. I saw her and thought Oh NOOOOOOOOO I have another injured kitten, my poor baby, oh her family are going to kill me, I'm such a terrible breeder. LOL. But once I had stopped flapping (internally- externally I was very gently checking her out to make sure it wasn't anything serious) it was OK.

You may be sure I still asked the vet to check her over though. She's fine.

Freddie's progress is also great, in fact unless you were specifically looking, you wouldn't know anything was amiss. And all the kittens are healthy specimens and got a clean bill of collective health today. First jab next Friday...

They will all hate me tomorrow. First we have a pedicure session planned (because...) then it's time for a dose of wormer all round. Which they HATE. And then a flea treatment to boot. Poor kittens! Oh well, it's got to be done and they'll all have forgiven me by bedtime and will be wanting their cuddles as per usual!