Well it's still only Snugglepot who is interested in weaning and he really does love his food. Banksia Man was interested in the saucer, particularly when he saw his brother eating the mixture, however, he couldn't be tempted to try it himself. Today I saw Cuddlepie drinking out of her mum's water bowl and it's really nice to see the babies venturing out all around the room and trying different things.

I've been up in the kitten room every 3 hours (approximately) today as I really want to get this weaning underway properly. The first effort this morning was not appreciated by either Cuddlepie or Banksia Man however Snugglepot as per usual, ate most of the mixture straight from the saucer. I'm going to keep persevering though and to be honest, it's very early days so I'm not really expecting a great deal but at least they will start to get used to seeing other food on offer besides Amaretto's milk bar. There's no evidence at all of the small litter tray being used but I'm not really surprised at that either because the Gumnuts are really still so very young. Their weight gains are all reasonably good and I am happy with their progress. They are exploring far more floor space in the kitten room now and oddly enough, Amaretto doesn't try and stop them from being independent. She is happy so sit down and watch them move wherever they like, without interfering but she does monitor them very closely. Both Cacao and Tia Maria could obviously learn a thing or two from Amaretto.

I'm pleased to say that Snugglepot had a weight gain of 11grams between yesterday and today so I'm really pleased as that's been his largest gain for a little while. I syringe fed him 4 times yesterday with my kitten mixture and within seconds it was very easy to see that there is nothing wrong at all with his appetite so I'm rather relieved. As I was already in the kitten room with the mixture in my hand, I figured I may as well start introducing the others to it as well. Cuddlepie nearly chewed off my fingers to get to the mixture. He went nuts over it and once it licked if from my fingers, he then continued to bite them as I couldn't get them away quick enough!!! Banksia Man had a few sniffs but his little tongue remained firmly in his mouth so he obviously wasn't ready for my cooking just yet (can't say I blame him either). I had some more success this morning though with Snugglepot. I went into the kitten room to top him up with some mixture, and I gave him 5 mils by syringe. After that, I decided that it was madness doing it by syringe when at his age, he should be learning to wean. So I put the remaining mixture in a saucer, held the saucer up him while he sat on my lap and within 2 seconds he had his mouth in the saucer and was gobbling it up so I was over the moon. Cuddlepie had some licks from my finger but wasn't interested in the saucer whereas Banksia Man doesn't know what to make of it at all. All 3 Gumnuts now roam all over the floor in the kitten room and they scoot around quite fast now. I put a small litter tray in the room last night as well now. Up until then, the only tray in the room was the big hooded tray. When I cleaned it our last night, I was rather surprised to see tiny little nuggets in there that I am positive could not have been left by Amaretto (sounds a bit odd but you do get to know all of your cat's stools rather well). It must be a mystery because I'm sure the Gumnuts could not be doing anything like that yet, nor could they have even climbed into the hooded tray so it will just have to remain a mystery known only to Amaretto.

Again today, I have news for you. I went into the kitten room last night when I first went to bed, just to see how the Gumnuts were all doing and everyone was fine and everything was normal. I then went back in 2 hours later only to find that the babies and Amaretto were missing. Even though I knew they had to be somewhere in the room, there is always that split second of panic when you think "What's happened to my babies." I then heard a few little squeaks and looked under the sofa bed and found them all. Amaretto obviously felt that now the babies were walking around, she would move them onto the floor as it would be much safer, even though I had made the sofa safe so that no one could fall off. Anyway, there is an old sheet that covers the sofa and Amaretto had pulled it down a bit so it hung over the sofa and was on the floor, she then had put the babies on the sheet on the floor and pulled a bit more down so that it covered them at the back and sides. The only problem in my eyes is that a sheet is extremely thin and has now warmth or comfort really so I "rearranged" her new bed (I just can't help myself and have to interfere) so that they were all much more comfortable. Of course once I had done that, all 3 were up out of bed and walking all over the floor so from now onwards, I am going to have to be very careful when I go in and out of the kitten room. On a not so good note, I'm not happy with little Snugglepot's weight gains as he is now 50 grams behind his brothers. This normally isn't anything unusual but as there are only 3 in the litter, and up until a day or two ago, their weights were all very close, I'm getting concerned. Rather than panic just yet though, I went and compared his weight gain at this stage of life with the babies in Cacao's first 2 litters (I used Cacao's as she is also an Oriental) and found that Snugglepot's weight is on par with a baby in each of Cacao's 1st and 2nd litter so it's obviously not a great problem. He is looking very well in himself, alert, bright and walks around, he's not thin, nor is he dehydrated, however I'm still not happy. As they are 3 weeks old today, normally I would be starting to wean them in a couple of days anyway, however I've decided to start this afternoon with Snugglepot and see if that puts some weight back on him.