Day 27 - August 21, 2005

As stated in our other current kitten diary entries, apologies for not getting this entry online today and also for no photos. We had to go out very unexpectedly and I wasn't able to get the diary done. We've had a bit of a breakthrough even further now. All of the babies now eat directly from the plate, the only problem for me is that they are not eating anywhere near as much as I would like them to. At this stage in their lives, I normally wouldn't worry if they were weaning or not because they would still be getting loads of milk from their mum however, that is not the case here and the sooner they are weaned, the better. Yesterday afternoon I spotted Twix eating the dry JW kitten biscuits which absolutely made my day. He is the first of our babies to show an interest in the food bowl that lives right next to their bed and I'm hoping that in a few days time, his brother and sisters will follow suit. Both litters now have a new "bed area". I would normally have left the box down for them but this morning, they were out of the box and noticed their mum lying in the cat bed on the floor, so they all piled in there on top of her, trying to feed (naturally, she got out!), and they then settled down in there and slept which did surprise me as the bed was out in the open without any privacy or security at all. While they were sleeping, I removed the box, put down some bedding on the floor where the box used to be and I then put the bed there and all 7 babies were more than happy to make this their new home instead of the box now which actually does make it a bit easier for me as well.

Day 26 - August 20, 2005

Day 25 - August 19, 2005

The "Change" has finally happened, a bit earlier than I anticipated and it now means that when the babies are awake we have absolute havoc and chaos. By the "Change", I mean that moment you can pinpoint where the babies stop being dependant little kittens who do very little and they suddenly become proper little kittens who can eat from the plate and who can climb your legs, climb the side of the box, and constantly run into the kitchen. This happened at about 3pm yesterday afternoon. I put 2 plates of food down, one of evap milk mixture only, the other of the JW mashed up biscuits with some evap milk and a bit of a/d. The babies all came out of the box, screaming like banshees, running through both plates, scattering milk and food from one end of the room to the other, and creating a mess that you couldn't possibly believe. Buttons has now learnt to climb up my legs (he was taught this by Mr T) and Crunchie has learnt to climb up the side of the box by using the towel that is draped over the box. Their paws were covered in food which they tracked all over the room. When I went into the kitchen, they all came running in after me and I didn't even get the chance to close the door before they got in. Twix is the worst for this as he is constantly running in there when he's awake, mind you, he runs throughout the entire room now! I've also put a small water bowl out for the babies which is left next to their box now as well and I had to giggle last night as Whispa went to explore the bowl, promptly stuck her entire head in it and came up spluttering and rather annoyed. During the day now, Amaretto rarely goes into the box at all. Once the Chocolate Bars are awake and tearing around, she sits either out in the cat run or up on top of the fish tank, and leaves it up to me to feed them which is fine as she desperately needs a rest. It is so much easier now that most of the babies will eat from the plate and I was thrilled last night after dinner when I put the plate down and a couple of the babies just came straight out of the box, over to the plate and started eating with no encouragement from me at all. I'm hoping this means that we have turned a corner now and some of the pressure is being lifted.

Day 24 - August 18, 2005

Day 23 - August 17, 2005

Just like the T's, the Chocolate Bars are starting to spend more time awake and playing games which is so very funny to watch. I love them at this stage of their lives where they are learning how to interact with each other just like little kittens. They also come out of the box much more now and Crunchie, in his usual fashion is always the first of the babies to walk straight through the plate of food that is left close by to the box in case it will tempt any of them while they are walking/running about. Amaretto is still being amazing and spends most of her time with the babies. Remember how before I had kept the glass doors open so that our other cats could have access to the cat run etc? Well since we had the incident with Amaretto where she wouldn't feed the babies because of how sore she was, I have since kept the door shut because I'm worried that if I open it up, then she will wander off throughout the house and forget about her little ones and I really do not want to take any steps backwards with the babies. I might open the door for a brief period today to see what will happen. The only problem is that our one of our young male boys in the house likes to jump in the box and then stay there which I don't really want at the moment when the babies are so young. I must say thank you to my friend Vicky, for the very generous offer of having her lovely Siamese girl, Ling, here to help out as Ling is still lactating. I do hope that I won't need to take Vicky up on this offer but how lovely it is to know that if I get stuck, Ling is not too far away from us.

Day 22 - August 16, 2005

Before I start with this entry, for those of you who had been following The T's kitten diary, we've had something unbelievable happen and their diary is still continuing for the time being.

I've now remembered what the problem is with weaning at this age. When babies are weaned, this means that they start doing rather solid poos, now this normal, however, they are nowhere near old enough to even know what a litter tray is, let alone what it's used for so they just poo where they are lying down..........in the bed <sigh>. This also means that they lie in the poos, roll on top of them and play with them, so every time they come out of the box they have bit of dried poo stuck through the fur. So our bedding in their kitten box is now changed at least 3 times a day. I'm delighted to say that Amaretto still has not left her babies' sides. She spent all of yesterday feeding them, and grooming them and hugging them which is such a massive, massive relief and now that they are eating more solid foods as well, and now that she is back to feeding them overnight, I actually made the last feed at midnight last night, and then slept until 8am which is the most sleep I've had in weeks. When I weigh them today, if they have lost any, I will go back to the normal feeding routine. Twix is still a definite "meat" man as he flat out refuses to drink the evap mixture from the syringe, however, he still enjoys mum's milk and when I put the a/d in front of him, he can't get enough of it. I thought I'd share with you the "feeding process" so you understand how it's done. When the babies are awake, we take out one baby from the box (or off the floor if that baby is walking around), we then put the a/d on our fingers and keep encouraging the baby until he/she starts eating it. When that baby has had enough, he or she is placed in the cat carrier on bedding, and the process if repeated with baby number 2. The reason they get placed in the cat carrier is because if they are put back in the box, they obviously get mixed up with the unfed babies and we forget who has been done. Once all 7 babies have been tried with the a/d and are all in the carrier, the evap mixture is then heated up and we take one baby out of the carrier and syringe feed him or her the milk, when the baby has had enough, he or she then gets put back in the box, and so forth until all babies are back out of the carrier. At the start of the feed, each baby is also washed with cotton wool balls and warm water, eyes are done, and a check is done to make sure they look okay. After all this, and the babies are in the box, if any of them come out within the next 20 minutes, and there's always one of two who do, they are they tried again with the a/d in case they are still hungry.

Day 21 - August 15, 2005 - 3 weeks old today!

I fed the babies their breakfast this morning, which was a very messy affair because I've now managed to teach most of the babies to eat from the plate which is such a bonus. Once 2 or 3 start eating, the others watch them and then figure out that they should do the same thing. We still have a long way to go before they all eat from the plate but it's a really good start. I make sure I put lots of newspaper on the floor under the plate because while some are eating from the plate, others are standing on those babies and then they all just walk straight through the food! After feeding the babies, bathing them with cotton wool balls (the food goes everywhere and they have no mum to clean them up), I then opened up the door to the back room and at 8:35am, Amaretto came in to the room, climbed up on top of the box, leant over the opening at the front, saw the babies and jumped down and got into the box. I was not impressed because they were only just settling down to go back to sleep and I really didn't need her waking them up, growling at them and then leaving screaming babies behind. However, after a few little cries from the babies, the box went quiet, and I tiptoed over, bent down and peeked in and Amaretto was lying down feeding the babies! And all was quiet. I am surprised they are feeding from her when I had put Vaseline on her last night as she was rather chafed and sore so I imagine it must taste rather vile to the babies. You have no idea of the relief I felt because prior to her going in the box, and prior to me finally getting them to eat from a plate, I was about to go on a begging spree to try and borrow a lactating queen for a couple of weeks but hopefully now, that won't be needed. I would really appreciate any prayers that Amaretto goes back to being the wonderful mum that she normally is. I haven't taken any photos yet as I do not want to disturb Retto at all while she is with the little ones so I may add some photos to this entry much later on this afternoon.