We are 3 weeks old now!

Twenty four hours of being back on a total raw diet and already I am seeing changes. Nocello has been using the litter tray far less frequently and already, stools are starting to firm up which is a huge relief. She is back to spending a lot more time with her babies and seems a lot more relaxed than she has for the past few days. It really is amazing the difference that a natural diet makes compared to a commercial cat food diet. At the moment, quail and chicken thighs are the apparent favourite food and that's fine because she is still eating the other raw meals that I give to her. I have been told by dear Gwenny Squish Brain, and I quote, "Also, stop feeding Cells crap, she doesn't need it, and won't miss it if it's not there. But she will continue to eat it if it is there :)" Of course, Gwen is right but I don't like to tell her that too often ;)

I said to Graham last night that for the life of me I do not understand just quite how these babies minds work. Last night all 3 Deserts were in a "Let's Go Walkabout" mood and so they were walking over to the edges of the basket, falling out and landing on the floor, they would then stand up, take a few steps, wonder where they were and how they got there and then scream blue murder because they wanted to be back in the bed. Nocello and I kept picking them up and putting them back in the bed and they kept falling/jumping straight back out and then started screaming again. I think that their little limbs want to explore, I think that there little eyes are now seeing beyond their bed and want to know what is out there, but then when they get "out there", their little brains become a tad confused and they don't know where to go.

Gobi seems to be having a few difficulties learning kitten etiquette at the moment as I saw for myself yesterday afternoon. He and Sahara were both awake and exploring their bed, trampling all over their poor siste, Kalahari, and Gobi sat down so Sahara went over to his brother, decided he must be a bit dirty and smelly and that he really needed a bath. He raised his right paw, placed it on Gobi's shoulder, and then started to groom his face with his little tongue. Instead of accepting his brother's grooming session, he mistook it as a game and he stood up and quite literally jumped on top of Sahara knocking him to the ground. Of course he was most indignant and retaliated by smacking him in the head over and over with both arms.

Something has got to give! Nocello has got to come off this commercial cat food rubbish and back on to her proper raw diet because the effects that the commercial foods are awful. When Nocello was in the later stages of pregnancy, she was still on her raw diet however she would also have extra meals with the older kittens we had in the home at the time. Those kittens were on raw and some commercial wet foods because with the kittens, we have to get them used to commercial foods prior to leaving home as not all new kitten families want to feed a natural diet. For the life of me I can't think why! Anyway, after giving birth, Nocello turned her nose up at the raw meals, (probably because she was becoming addicted to the "junk food") and so I offered good quality commercial wet foods to her. She relished them and for the past 2 1/2 weeks she has barely touched any raw at all.

Then we had this warm weather and it's not uncommon at all for our fur kids to go off their food a bit when it's this hot and Cells was no exception but because she is feeding her babies it is imperative that she eats enough to sustain herself and the babies. It didn't matter what I was offering her, she would have a few nibbles and turn her nose up and as a result, I have been buying almost every brand of cat/kitten wet food you can imagine in the hopes that she will love one of them. I'm sure if Gwen is reading this she will know exactly where I'm going with this.................

Due to having so many different varieties of commercial foods all in the space of a few days, the assault on Nocello's digestive system was just way too much and to say that litter tray duty has been unpleasant is an understatement. She has been using the tray far more frequently and suddenly, the perfectly solid small stools I am so used to seeing were gone. Let's not even go down the road of describing them at this present time!

This morning, she waited at the bedroom door with me so I could let her out as she wanted to join the rest of the cat family for breakfast and this morning's breakfast was chicken thighs and drumsticks. She spent a good half an hour out of the bedroom happily tearing away at the chunks of raw meat and bones and this made me realise that there really is no reason at all why she shouldn't go back on to the raw diet because if she's happy enough to leave her babies and go and eat with everyone else, then she should be happy enough to eat the raw in our bedroom.

Our own adult cat family are fed twice a day, the current babies we have in our home are fed 3-4 times per day, and Nocello has been given meals approximately 7 times a day and I have made the decision to stop offering her any commercial foods at all and the only food I will offer her is the raw food. When I pop out briefly a bit later on today, I will buy a variety of raw foods such as quail, game, steaks etc. One way or another I am determined to get her back onto a proper diet and my concern had been that if she kept turning her nose up at the raw diet, then she, and the babies would be going hungry, however, the Deserts weights have still been incredibly low but is it any wonder? The commercial crap Nocello has been eating is going straight through her! I know full well that the natural diet will make all the difference in the world and I just have to remind Nocello that a raw diet is the best thing for her and her children. As it is, her babies will be weaned onto the raw diet as have previous babies and speaking of the babies.....................

They are doing quite well despite weight gains being on the low side this week and their favourite kitten game at the moment is to sit up in the bed and take it in turns at smacking each other in the head. This game has taken priority over kitten wrestling. The limb biting game has not begun yet but I don't think it will be too far off.

Nocello still has very little interest in food and I was so concerned by the weights, or lack of gains yesterday that I started syringe feeding an evaporated milk mixture to the babies and just to be on the safe side I am doing this every 5-6 hours. They are still feeding from Nocello of course but Cells seems to be struggling quite a bit with the humidity and it has put her right off her food.

When I left the bedroom this morning she flew out the door straight downstairs and waited there until I had served up the raw breakfast to the rest of the cat family and she joined them and ate some of the raw which I am pleased about yet if I offer her raw in the bedroom she refuses it. Obviously, none of the kittens are in any "danger" at all but I just want them to get back to the daily gains that they originally had so my aim is to continue to top them up, allow them to feed from their mother, and also try to get Cells eating properly.

Kalahari is definitely the most vocal baby in this litter and now that she has found her voice she doesn't hesitate to use it when she wants something. I do think that she's going to be quite the drama queen when she is a bit older, the signs are already there. With Kalahari it's all "Me, me, me".

Having given it a lot of thought, if this humidity continues I am going to look at early weaning the babies. Normally in a litter of 3 there would be absolutely no need to try and get them onto solids and I'd wait until around 5 weeks of age but if Nocello isn't eating properly, then the milk quality will not be as good and this will have an effect on the kids so I'll see how they're all doing by Day 21 and if I'm still not happy with weights then we'll try some solids.

This is not the longest of entries today because one of our older babies, Masala Bin Laden, is leaving home today so I've spent the morning preparing all his paperwork and kitten pack and doing the normal cleaning. I also had to go out for a very short while so I have no time at all really today and did consider skipping today's entry however I set a challenge for myself in that once, just once, I am going to complete an entire kitten diary without missing a single day's entry.

Nocello is having a rough time of it with this heat and yesterday's weights were not good at all, the lowest they have ever been however I was not surprised because Nocello ate very little yesterday. By around 8pm drastic measures were needed so I went downstairs and mixed up an evaporated milk mixture (something that none of our cats ever turn down), and mashed some Hills a/d in with that and sure enough, Nocello at the lot and I was so relieved.

When it is as warm as this it is imperative that the nursing mum's still eat plenty and are also taking in lots of liquid because obviously dehydration is a big issue for any furry family member. Obviously with a raw diet etc. our cat's do not have the same thirst needs that "biscuit fed cats" do. Apart from the very small gains yesterday, our Deserts are doing very well and they are the funniest little creatures. They sit up in their bed and wrestle each other and smack each other and we have the most entertaining kitten games occurring over these past couple of days.

It's just as well that I did not place any money on Gobi being the first to walk out of bed because it was Kalahari. She decided to go walkabout last night, got about 2 inches away from the bed and howled and cried because she was "lost" and didn't know where she was. Nocello flew straight over to her, picked her up and plonked her at the very back of the bed where Kalahari then proceeded to scream at the top of her voice, blaming her mother for the fact that she was "lost" for a very brief period of time. It took Cells about 10 minutes to console her daughter and settle her back down.

Okay, even I have to say that I am stunned at Gobi's size so much so that last night I was doing a comparison and could not believe that he is almost 100 grams heavier than his brother, Sahara! I would not normally expect to see such a huge gap between 2 brothers in such a small litter and Sahara is by no means tiny, he is a very big, strong, baby which means that my original guess was right and Gobi is not an Oriental Black kitten, he is in fact, a Panther.

Sahara fell out of bed this morning bless him and judging by the look on his face, he really wasn't sure what happened or how he ended up out of bed. As you know, the babies live in my side of the wardrobe and there is a very large basket in there with bedding in it, the basket is probably no more than 1-2 inches high so it wasn't really a huge drop, more of a tumble really. It was to be expected of course because now that the babies are 16 days old they are wanting to explore their surroundings properly . If I had to take bets on which baby will be the first one to come walking out of the wardrobe I would put my money on Gobi.

Today's photos are not overly exciting as they are of our Deserts sleeping but you have to admit that they really are adorable children :) I'm not really sure why I actually took so many photos of sleeping babies but there you go.

The Deserts continue to do very well and they are such a very easy going litter which is due to Nocello's fantastic mothering skills. As the days go by our babies are become more alert and active and they are so cute when they are awake and lying in their bed trying to play with each other's arms and legs. The first attempts of "kitten wrestling" has now begun and as you can imagine, Gobi wins the majority of the little wrestling matches solely due to his rather large size.

Kalahari and Sahara continue to fascinate me just like every other Tabby Oriental we have bred. There really is something about the Tabbies and you can't help but smile when you see them and interact with them. I have no idea what we are going to do with Sahara and we have already had inquiries for him from other breeders, both here and overseas which is quite remarkable considering the poor chap is only 15 days old. I look at him and wonder if he is aware that he is creating such interest? I doubt it :) It is possible he may stay here, we may run him on, I just do not know. If he doesn't stay here, I would like to see him participating in a Tabby breeding program, solely because he is a Blue Classic. I guess time will tell and we are in no rush at all to make any decisions regarding his future.

Our babies are 2 weeks old today and are doing quite well. I've not weighed them as of yet so don't have any weights to share with you but I must tell you about Gobi last night, it was one of those moments where you watch in amazement and grin and tell your husband very proudly about Gobi being all grown up.

It was around 7pm and I was giving another meal to Nocello and I placed the bowl in the usual spot and she came out of the wardrobe and went to the bowl and started eating. Then, to my surprise, following along behind her was a Black kitten. At 13 days of age, Gobi has gone from being a very dependant baby to a proper little kitten who can walk, who can smell food and who can follow his mother. It was just the most delightful sight and I stood there watching him as he sat up as straight and as tall as possible and then walked, not in a baby kitten clamber, but proper kitten walking behind his mum following her to the food bowl. I have no idea what he was planning to do once he got there however I picked him up and put him back in the wardrobe with his siblings. What a wondrous moment to see Gobi having his first kitten exploration.

This morning, I thought I would risk the wrath of Nocello by removing her babies one by one from the wardrobe to try and take photos of them. Whilst I managed to get just a couple of decent shots here and there, she still insisted on trying to carry the kids off the bed back into the wardrobe so my plans of celebrating their 2 week birthday with lovely photos didn't quite work out as I had hoped.