There were supposed to be more photos in today's kitten diary however what you are seeing below is the best of a very bad bunch of photos! It is so difficult trying to photograph the kids because in order to do so I have to climb into the wardrobe, hold clothes out of the way with one hand while I take photos with the other. The only other alternative is to start taking them out of the wardrobe each day for photo sessions so I may try that tomorrow.

Sahara is the only baby who still has a cord left as Kalahari's came off last night and Gobi has decided that he will start to open his eyes now and if you look very, very closely at the 4th photo, you will see him yawning with his eyes partially open. We truly have been so blessed with our darling Deserts. Our Deserts really are the sweetest litter you could ever imagine and not once since they were born have they given us a moment's concern or worry. This is due to the fact that there are only 3 of them and that their mummy, Nocello, is just the perfect mother bless her.

Kalahari has decided that it is no longer any fun to just sit in the scales and be weighed, it is much more fun to keep trying to climb out of the little container ensuring that human mummy does not get an accurate reading. I have explained to her that she really needs to stay very still and quiet in the container but before I even finish the words, she is heading towards the side trying to climb out. I may have to get a larger container soon.

I will not be surprised at all on Day 7 if I discover that Gobi has doubled his birth weight. In an ideal world, we would like our babies to double their birth weight in the first week of their lives, however, it does not always happen like that. Far from it sometimes, particularly in a large litter. Personally, I am happy with gains of between 60 -100 grams during the first week of their lives. Obviously with babies being such big birth weights of 100 grams or more, as you can imagine it is even more of a challenge to double the birth weight. As each day passes, Sahara and Gobi are well and truly overtaking their little sister in the weight department. Kalahari is making very good gains of over 10 grams per day now, however being a female I would not necessarily expect her to be making the same gains as her brothers and the gap is increasing between Gobi and Kalahari.

Nocello is doing extremely well for someone who has recently given birth and we have some wonderful "Cello Cuddle Time" every single evening. She waits until her Deserts are sleeping and then she comes out of the wardrobe, jumps up onto the bed and alternates having cuddles between Graham and I. These times with Cells are so very special.

Our 3 Deserts all had very good weight gains again today and are progressing wonderfully well. They really are such sweet babies. Kalahari's eyes were fully open by this afternoon which is just totally adorable and Sahara has one eye fully open and the other eye is half open.

Yesterday afternoon I decided that I would have a proper look at the babies to determine genders and we are rather gutted to say that Sahara is a definite male, not female, whereas Kalahari is a definitely female. Those of you who know us extremely well are aware that we would love to have a Blue Tabby girl join our family and have been waiting a few years now so you can imagine our disappointment at discovering Sahara is male. Having said that, despite the fact that he is a boy, we are still going to make no definite decisions regarding his future.

Gobi has decided when he is all "growed up" he is going to become a Black panther and not an Oriental Black. This is actually becoming more and more apparent as each day passes due to his rather large weight gains! He really does love his milk bless him and being your typical Black Oriental kitten, he is extremely determined. I have a feeling that he will be quite a character when he develops.

We're starting to see small changes with the babies now and Gobi is the first of the children to lose his cord. It was lying on the blanket this morning. Kalahari and Sahara have started to open their eyes which is really sweet. I do love this progressive stage of the kittens' development and watching their little eyes go from being firmly shut to seeing tiny eyes appearing. It's just so amazing watching the babies view the world for the very first time.

As you can see by the bedding, Nocello is still bleeding slightly. This is perfectly normal after birth and some queens will have spots of blood for the first few days after giving birth.

I have to say that at the moment, all 3 babies are just so very well behaved and I know some of you will be thinking "well of course they are, they are too young to show any character traits", but I totally disagree. When you spend a lot of time watching the babies feed, sleep, stroking them, handling them, you can see glimpses of personality traits developing from a very, very young age. For example, within minutes of being born Gobi was already trying to climb his mother's tummy to find milk, he was clambering over his sister if she was in the way and determination like this will remain with him for life. In comparison, Sahara and Kalahari are more laid back and happy to go with the flow. Being tabbies of course they will have a very playful and sometimes mischievous nature but that is to be expected.

I did manage to take individual photos of our Deserts for today's entry however, they are quite possibly the worst photos I have taken in a long time. Let's take poor Gobi for example, I mean honestly, does he even look like a kitten? (Julie stop laughing!) My goodness, in the first photo of him he looks more like a little hedgehog type of creature bless him. I dread to think what his new parents must be thinking when they view these photos. The images of Sahara are no better, truly, she IS a Blue however in these photos she looks like a "brown". The only baby who even looks remotely like an actual kitten is Kalahari and even then I have my doubts. Still, it can't be helped, I'm not going to go through the whole process again so everyone will just have to take my word for it that a) these 3 babies are in fact kittens, and b) they are the colour/pattern that I say the are :)

Our 3 Deserts all made gains again during the past 24 hours and they appear to be progressing exactly as I would expect for 3 days of age and their mummy is doing very well indeed. Since the birth she has become a tad fussy about food and because it is still very early days I am giving in to her demands and feeding her what she wants. So if I put down a plate of food and she won't touch it, I will then go and put down something totally different because it is so important that she eats enough to sustain her babies without losing any condition herself.

Nocello and the Deserts had a good night and I'm really pleased to say that Sahara and Kalahari have both now regained the weight they lost and have passed their birth weight so there will be no need to top up or supplement at all. It is very apparent where all the milk is going because Gobi is making excellent weight gains and may end up being quite a large boy.

Despite being quite protective of her babies as all mothers are, Nocello has no problems with me handling or touching the babies which is lovely because I do believe that if babies are handled from birth they are much better socialised compared to babies who have no human interaction for the first few weeks.

All 3 babies are adorable and Cells is being a superb mum. Graham actually said to me last night that "These babies are very quiet aren't they because they don't make a lot of noise". My reply to that was "That is a sign of well fed, contented babies and the reason they are not crying a lot is because they are all feeding well, they don't have to fight for nipples and there is plenty of milk."

Again, photos are not great today and I did want to take the babies out and get some decent images of them however they were feeding when I went in to take photos so I did not disturb them. This means of course that today's photos are nothing more than some furry little blurs <sigh>.

We only had one minor scare during the night when I could hear a baby crying so I got out of bed, switched on the light, went into the wardrobe to see that Cello was feeding the 2 Tabbies but her Black baby was nowhere in sight. Starting to panic I was lifting up bedding, checking the other side of the wardrobe when I finally discovered that the Black baby was in front of the wardrobe next to the food bowl. So either Nocello took him there in the hopes he would early wean :) or he had been latched on and when she has gotten up to move he has fallen off the nipple and she didn't bother to pick him up and put him back into bed. I popped him back in with the rest of his family, the crying stopped and I was able to go back to bed.

I was awakened this morning by Nocello sitting on my stomach telling me it was time to get up and give her some breakfast. During the night I had been up periodically checking on mummy and babies and was so relieved to see, at times, that Nocello was lying down comfortably on her side with the babies latched on. She really is such a very clever mummy. I gave her some breakfast, the babies were sound asleep so Graham and I had some "Nocello cuddle" time which was lovely.

After giving it some thought, I won't say a lot of thought because we decided in about 10 minutes, a theme and name for our new babies. So, we would now like to officially introduce you to.............

The Deserts
Baby	Colour	Birth Weight	Day 1 Weight
Kalahari	Black Oriental Classic Tabby	100 grams	96 grams
Gobi	Oriental Black	104 grams	117 grams
Sahara	Blue Oriental Classic Tabby	105 grams	103 grams

Weights during the past 24 hours were as to be expected, 1 gain, 2 small losses. It is no surprise that Gobi gained because this is one extremely determined Oriental Black kitten. When he smells milk he pushes his brother and sister out of the way and they don't get a look in. At the moment there is no need to step in and top up or supplement, I will give it another 24 hours and see what tomorrow's weigh in brings. If Kalahari and Sahara have lost again, then I will start to supplement.

Again, today's photos are not great but it is early days and I do not want to disturb Nocello or her children any more than is necessary.

Birth - June 13, 2009