Wendell haz a complaint!
The kittens are now three weeks old!
We've have had two more days of pathetic weight gain, (one day two of them LOST weight, which we haven't had before) and today was very good again. I've noticed that although Indigo goes to the biscuit bowl often, she only has a mouthful before giving up- it seems that the dry food is just too much like hard work for her at the moment. I sympathise... feeding a baby IS draining, I well remember, and she has six of them.
So yesterday I fed her entirely on sachets of kitten food, interspersed with cooked turkey/chicken. She ate a LOT and there's been a big gain in weight for the kittens today, so that's what I'm going to do from now on. If I feed just turkey, Indigo's interest dwindles, if I feed just kitten sachets, it dwindles, but feeding both one after the other seems to tempt her to eat more. Of course I'll leave kibble out as well.
My mum, bless her, has gone shopping for me to get some turkey and bless her she's going to cook it for me too! I had a minor procedure done yesterday (hence no blog post!) and I'm still feeling pretty wiped out by it, so it's very kind of her and I do appreciate it. All I will have to do is freeze it in portions, in a little of the cooking water/jelly. We have plenty of wet kitten food in the house of course, and loads of kibble but that isn't doing it for Indigo at the moment.
Despite worrying my socks off about the kitten's weights, they have had two days this week where they made big gains, so all in all their weekly gain is fairly respectable. I'm sure I will look back on this, when I've had more litters to compare with, and think what a wally I am for worrying so much... but there you go, one of the aims of this blog is an HONEST account of cat breeding -including the bad bits-which means you get to hear about my wobbles ad nauseam *grin* In all seriousness though, kittens are fragile, often they die if you are not on top of things, sometimes they die even then, and this particular period in a kitten's development seems to be a vulnerable time, I've read of lots of seemingly healthy kittens going downhill at two or three weeks, and poor weight gain/ loss is generally the first sign something is amiss. I'd rather worry too much than too little, frankly, even if it does make me sound a little neurotic!
That was depressing wasn't it? LOL never mind, here's the weights for this week.
Wendell
Birth 103g
1 week 217g
2 weeks 294g
3 weeks 362g
Kensey
Birth 91g
1 week 196g
2 weeks 255g
3 weeks 346g
Kenneth
Birth 94g
1 week 192g
2 weeks 274g
3 weeks 382g
Monty
Birth 90g
1 week 198g
2 weeks 290g
3 weeks 390g
AnnElise
Birth 92g
1 week 188g
2 weeks 262g
3 weeks 338g
Hope
Birth 83g
1 week 182g
2 weeks 257g
3 weeks 340g
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