Schimmel Siamese & Oriental Cats are Oriental cat breeders based in Oxford, UK. We sometimes have Oriental and Siamese kittens for sale. We also have 2 Oriental Stud Cats and online kitten diaries.

Day 34 - February 20, 2005

Yesterday's visit with Gemma went quite well and Gemma left some toys here for Rosemary which I'll be giving to them when they are a little older and I'm sure Gemma won't mind if Rosemary "shares" them. The only slight difficulty during Gemma's visit was the fact that unless I weigh Rosemary & Tarragon, I have absolutely no idea which is which! Those 2 Herbs are identical and you truly can not tell them apart unless you weigh them. At one stage, poor Gemma was cuddling little Rosemary, only to find out that she had Tarragon instead (a mistake I make on a daily basis!). You can see by looking at today's photos that the Herbs had lots of visits from "Aunty Sami". I'm really pleased that our little ones seem so unphased by everything. Even when Sami was on the work unit, peering over, trying to smack the babies that were closest to her, they never batted an eyelid. Sambuca doesn't really know what to make of the babies, however, due to her current condition, she had better learn quickly :) At the moment I am a little worried about my little Thyme still as she seems to very quiet in comparison to the other Herbs. Quite often when they are playing, she will sit on her own in the box and I feel so terribly sorry for her so she does spend a lot of her time sitting on my lap for cuddles. This isn't to say that she doesn't play, because when she's awake, she will run around and try and wrestle however due to her size, she tends to stop playing much earlier than the others because they really do overpower her. There is such a big difference between her size and the size of her littermates. I think if she were quiet all the time and never moved, I'd have taken her to my vet, but she's still eating quite well, and she does have her active moments but I'm going to be keeping a very close eye on her (nothing new there). Sage is the first of our Herbs to have discovered a toy. Apart from the climbing equipment which they use regularly, I had put a little ball and another rolling "thing" on the floor. Quite by accident, Sage discovered that the ball rolls when he pats it and after a minute or two of batting the ball, it occurred to him that it was lots of fun to send it flying so he had some fun games with it but it did end rather rapidly. He got the ball into a corner, belted it one, expecting it to roll, but as there was nowhere for the ball to go, it hit the wall and came back and smacked him in the head. It's no surprise that he then decided he'd had enough of his new toy.

Day 33 - February 19, 2005

Parsley is the first of our little Herbs to eat the dry kitten biscuits. As I was preparing one of their meals yesterday afternoon, I poked my head round the kitchen door to find Parsley chomping away on the biscuits as if he'd been doing it all his life :) I am so proud of him. The first of our little ones to eat dry food :) It sounds mad I know, but to a breeder, every new thing that the babies do is simply wonderful when you see it for the first time. Well most things apart from leg climbing! I hope that the other Herbs will see Parsley eat and will soon follow his lead. I've also noticed a couple of them have finally figured out what the litter tray is actually for which is quite nice because as it stands at the moment, the bedding is changed and washed daily because there are constantly little nuggets in there! It will be a particularly nice day today for Rosemary because her new owner, Gemma, is coming around for a visit which will be really lovely. All of our little Herbs now explore the entire room and they climb up anything that they happen to be able to reach so naturally we are all very careful when we're in the room (which I am most of the time) because we're never quite sure where a Herb will spring out from. Out of all the girls, Chives is the one who will not put up with her brother's bullying. Every time Sage or Parsley pounce on her or try to pin her down, she will bat them about the head with her paw, push them over and then start nipping their legs. It doesn't deter them though and very occasionally they will gang up on her, like this morning when I watched Sage tackle her around her neck, put her on the ground, while Parsley lay on top of her at the tail end, nibbling on her legs. And no, before you ask, I am not raising a little Rugby team, they really are kittens :)

Day 32 - February 18, 2005

I'm rather delighted to say that it looks as if Parsley and Sage will be sharing the same home when they leave me. I had a phone call yesterday from Linda who will be Parsley's new guardian. Linda had visited the babies previously and had chosen Parsley however she would like Sage to share her home as well. This is wonderful news for us because not only do we think Linda will be a fabulous cat mum, it means that 2 of our little Herbs will be together for the rest of their lives and that's always lovely. For the first time ever I've now seen 2 of our little Herbs drinking water. I saw Sage, last night, trying to drink from the bit water bowl (a dog bowl) but was finding it a little difficult so I went and grabbed a smaller bowl, filled it with water and Sage loved it. He was soon joined by Rosemary who was also interested in what was going on. The little ones are also starting to take an interest in the bowl of dry kitten food because every time Amaretto eats from the bowl, the babies go over to see what she's doing and watch her very intently. Chives actually stuck her nose in the bowl this morning but that was as far as it went because she wasn't sure what she was supposed to do next. Today's photos are absolutely appalling, the worst I've taken yet I think.

Day 31 - February 17, 2005

For some reason, I'm feeling really tired today so I am rather hoping that my little darlings will take pity on me and won't make me spend half the day running around after them. Chance would be a fine thing! The Herbs had a lovely day yesterday as they had a visit from Vicky and Charlotte (who are really lovely people) and they are going to be Tarragon's new guardians. Although it is horrid to think that the time will come when my little ones leave me but how wonderful it is to know that they are going to be loved so much and so wonderfully cared for. All, that is, except for poor little Sage and Chives who as of yet, don't have anyone who really wants them yet (other than us of course). Anyway...........the little ones did behave themselves during Vicky & Charlotte's visit and didn't do anything to embarrass me which was nice. I remember when Hermione's owner came to visit once, one of the little darlings did a wee on the floor right in front of her :( Mind you, in my baby's defence, she was very little and was still learning about litter training. Obviously the chat that I had with them beforehand asking them to be nice in front of the visitors didn't fall on deaf ears. They did make up for it though throughout the rest of yesterday by making sure when they were awake that they climbed all over me and refused to leave me alone and spent the entire afternoon creating havoc. At one point, Tarragon nearly lost her head because instead of climbing up my legs on the outside, she went up the inside and I wasn't wearing particularly loose pants and couldn't get her back out! I was trying to roll my pants up over here, not easy, whilst I pulled from the other end. I got her half out but then her head got stuck! At this point, she was obviously getting a bit worried and started wriggling around which only made her go further up my leg. Fortunately a bit of tugging got her (and her head) free so I sat her on my lap instead and we played belly tickles (her belly, not mine). I could just see me on the phone trying to explain to Vicky that Tarragon no longer has a head :) I'm a little worried about my Thyme at the moment because she doesn't seem to have the appetite that she did a few days ago and her weight gains aren't as good either. Although she's not losing, the gains are less than they have been previously. Starting today, I'm going to go back to feeding her more often than the other Herbs. Chances are, I'm worrying over nothing, but when the little have problems like Thyme has had, then you are forever monitoring their weights, their movements, everything they do really.

Day 30 - February 16, 2005

I don't know why but the activity level of little babies always amazes me. They are awake a lot more often now and when they are running around, there is simply no stopping them. I've lost count of how many times we have had battles with them to get in and out of the doors. It doesn't matter how fast we try and move across the room, the Herbs are right behind us. Their games now are getting much more entertaining and I always find it fascinating the way their mum's teach them to play. For example, they little ones are now learning how to pounce and stalk each other (normally with Sage and Chives being the most successful), so Amaretto either sits or lies down, and swishes her tail from side to side so as to encourage the Herbs to pounce on her tail and "catch it". She truly has the patience of a Saint. Most of their pouncing games take place inside their kitten box because when they are outside the box, a lot of their time is either spent eating, climbing my lets, or exploring and they are all getting much braver now in their little adventures. I was a bit unimpressed with Parsley this morning as he chose to do a little wee on the base of the CD tower! By the time I saw him and put him in the litter tray it was too late. Sometimes it's really hard to try and think what to put in the entries because even though the Herbs do at least one or two astounding things each day (at least in my eyes), I never seem to remember them when it comes to doing the entry. We have now graduated to all the Herbs eating from one plate at the same time but this means we had to step up from a saucer to a dinner plate because there simply isn't enough room around the saucer for that big heads! It's not helped by the fact that Thyme actually stands in the dinner with her front paws to make sure that none of the other Herbs steal "her" food. Naturally this makes it rather difficult for anyone else who's trying to eat at the same time because they have to navigate around Thyme's body.

Day 29 - February 15, 2005

We've now come to the kitten stage I've been dreading.............the "Climbing" stage and no I don't mean cute kittens climbing up chairs and cat furniture, I mean deadly needle sharp claws digging into my legs as they scale them so they can sit on my lap! Chives is to blame for this as he was the first one to start it, and when he first did it, I picked him up, gave him cuddles (my mistake) and put him back down. He then realised that if he wants instant cuddles, all he needs to do is climb up my legs. What made it worse is that I'm sure I heard him whispering to the rest of the Herbs "hey, if you want attention, dig your claws into those sticks that are attached to mum and start climbing, she'll pick you up and kiss you then". Horrid little baby! For those of you who are not breeders or who have never had a litter of kittens scaling your legs, you truly do not know how painful this actually is. They've also learnt that if they want to save their little legs and get a free ride around the room, they just have to sit on my feet and cling on. My little ones are getting far too clever for my liking. I was really pleased this morning when I looked in the litter tray to find that a baby had used the tray to do a little wee. Up until now, they tend to wee and poo wherever they happen to be, even in their beds! So what I've been doing is collecting all the little nuggets (gross I know!) and putting them in the litter tray, then if I see a baby about to go to the toilet, I put that baby straight in the tray and they do seem to be getting the hang of it, slowly but surely. Today's photos are really appalling. No matter how hard I tried, I just wasn't able to get decent pics.

Day 28 - February 14, 2005 (4 weeks old today!)

I'm really happy with the Herbs progression at this 4 week old stage but I do wonder where the time has gone. Sometimes it feels like the first 3 weeks of this litter has comprised of nothing other than feeding my little Thyme. It's really nice now to be at that stage where syringe feeding is totally finished with. We've now progress to the point where we can have 3 Herbs all eating from the same saucer at once which is great. Certainly makes things a bit easier. I had to laugh at Tarragon today because Thyme and Sage were eating breakfast so I put Tarragon at the saucer as well. He put his head down straight away (I thought to eat the food), only to start chomping on Sage's leg instead! While I found this rather amusing, I can't say the same for poor Sage who was most put out at having his meal disturbed in the manner. The babies haven't had any Hills AD at all today. I tried to feed them with it this morning as I normally do and no one was really interested. I then went and made up some more soggy kitten biscuits and the Herbs were over the moon with it, particularly Thyme and Parsley, both of whom have very good appetites. I'll keep them on the biscuits only for the next few days and see how things are getting on. Their weight gains are all still good and they are very happy little babies. They play a lot more now (as you can tell by the photos below) and it's so funny watching them wrestle with each other. You can just sit watching them for hours on end and I really get a lot of pleasure seeing them interact with each other. All the litter Herbs are true people lovers and when they are awake, they are following us around all over the place, trying to trip us up and sitting on our feet. More often than not, we end up sitting down on the floor so they can clamber all over us, getting to know us in the manner that kittens do.