For the life of me I do not understand why Gobi is so much larger than his siblings. He is a monster of a boy bless him and as you can see by the below photos he is more than happy to put his size to good use when wrestling with his brother. Kalahari on the other hand really does love her food, perhaps more than her brothers, yet she is the smallest in the litter. She looks like a little dolly in comparison to the boys but she is ever so sweet.

Last night the babies got their first taste of free reign in the home. Our own cat family were all in the back room having their dinner so I opened up the door to the kitten room and out they came. None of the Deserts hesitated at all to rush straight up and down the stairs and they were having the time of their lives chasing each other. It was wonderful to see them exploring the hallway and the stairs and I am certain that I saw disappointment in their little eyes when it was time for them to go back into their own room.

Apologies for the lack of entry today and photos. This flu seems to have really taken hold and I really just don't have the energy or motivation to do a diary today. However the Deserts are all doing extremely well and again today, they have been in very playful moods. Sahara continues to eat from the plate and has done since yesterday which is just brilliant but he will have a long way to go before he catches up with his brother :)

I'm not feeling a great deal better today so it's a relatively short entry again sorry.

Houston we have lift off!!! In other words, Sahara has eaten from the plate for the first time in his life. I tell you, I was beginning to despair of this child ever eating. It was lunch time and I prepared a plate of raw beef mince with tinned salmon and baby clams mixed in. Everyone else tucked straight in and I don't know if it was the salmon or clams that tempted him but I sat on the floor, put him on my lap, put some of the food on my finger and he proceeded to have 2 licks and then chomp down on my finger <sigh>. So I took him off my lap, put him at the plate, he put his head down and started eating. Obviously up until this point in time I must not have got the combination of foods right according to his taste buds. What a relief though, I stayed and watched and he continued to eat for at least 10 minutes. This means that now he is getting used to eating from the plate, he should be more inclined to join everyone else at meal times rather than run off and play by himself which is what he usually does when everyone else eats.

The Deserts have been in a "hoon around" mood today which basically means when they are awake and playing they hoon around the room like absolute lunatics. Each time I go in the room they all come running over to me as fast as their little legs will take them, all vying for attention and when they have had enough of cuddles, the games of chase and running around start all over again. Now Gobi and Kalahari do play chase together an awful lot whereas Sahara runs solely for the fact that he seems to enjoy it. He doesn't actually seem to have any end goal or purpose but so long as he is running then he's happy. During these mad moments the adult cats in the room are smart enough to stay out of the way and tend to either go and lie in the kitten box or get up on the high places that the babies currently can't get to.

It is a miracle that there is even a diary entry today and this is what I call "The joys of living with animals"! At this present time I have a horrendous flu which started 2 days ago. This in itself is extremely unusual because I don't ever get sick. I don't get colds, don't get the flu, I am never ill. It's the sort of flu whereby even going up and down the stairs is exhausting to say nothing of the vile cough that is non stop. So due to how I am feeling, I was planning on doing as little as humanly possible. That is, until I opened up our bedroom door and stepped out onto the upstairs landing.........................I don't know what was worse, the mess or the smell. At some point during the night, Jag had been sick and I'm not just talking about a small pile of vomit, I am talking about every single stair from top to bottom was covered in vomit, as was the entire downstairs landing. Unless you have also shared your home with a 50 kilogram Rottweiler, you won't actually be able to fully comprehend just how bad it was. It was so bad that it did bring tears to my eyes, solely because I am feeling so darn lousy and to have to deal with all of this first thing in the morning, on top of having spent a sleepless night due to illness is just too much. I put Jag outside, made a coffee and then made a start. All the cats had to be shut away until everything was back to normal and it took me 3 hours to clean, mop, and bleach the downstairs hallway, and scrub the stairs and the upstairs landing and by the time I had finished, I was just totally exhausted. And this is the reason for the short diary entry today, as well as the fact that having written an extremely long diary entry, we have just had a power cut and I lost the lot as I hadn't saved it!

Kalahari is really showing a huge interest in the adult's meaty chunks and bones and it's so funny to watch her eat because she is such a determined little soul and managed to get through chunks that are almost as big as her own head, yet she does this with such grace and looks so dainty and elegant as she eats. She is eating less of the mince now and more of the real food.

The Black Tortie featured in some of today's photos is our own beautiful Cacao. Cao is the most special cat in our home and we have a real family affair happening in the kitten room at the moment because Cacao is grand mother to Nocello, Nocino, and Afrikoko, mother to Sambuca, and great grandmother to our Deserts, all of whom are in the kitten room. Cacao loves the children and always assists with mothering them and keeping them safe and she doesn't hesitate to reprimand the kittens when they get out of control.

Today's diary is a bit later than normal due to the fact that I also had to update Afrikoko's Pregnancy Diary.

Well I managed individual photos today however the babies were more concerned with eating the bedding than they were looking at the camera so unfortunately the images below don't really show just how beautiful our Deserts are.

As the babies have now passed the 5 week stage I have cut out the evaporated milk mixture that was previously being added to their raw mince so they are eating the raw mince just as it is, although obviously some meals will have goats milk yoghurt, or raw egg, or tinned oily fish mixed in with the mince. I want them to start showing more of an interest in the raw chunks as well, rather than just having a few nibbles of their mother's food, so today I have been cutting very small pieces of the raw chicken thighs and turkey thighs and have been mixing this in with the mince to try and get the babies to start eating it and I'm delighted to say that both Kalahari and Gobi are more than happy to eat the diced meaty chunks. It does take them a little while to get through them but that is the whole point. We want our babies to have very strong and clean teeth and gums and this has to happen while the teeth are developing. Sahara is proving to be a very stubborn child indeed when it comes to food and I'm really struggling to get him to even taste the mince or meat chunks but he is a good weight and I am certain that when he is ready to, he will start eating of his own accord.

The Deserts started their Nosodes course and to give you an indication of just how much they DON'T like it, let's just say that I will be extremely pleased when Wednesday evening comes and the first part of the course will be finished with!

Today's entry is rather short and there isn't much to it, mainly because I'm having a very chilled out Sunday and really do not want to spend any more time than necessary on the computer.

During the past few days I have seen both Gobi and Kalahari eating the raw chunks of meat that their mother eats and it is so funny to watch them because the babies are so tiny with very small teeth yet they have such a look of determination on their little faces as they battle with meat chunks that are larger than their own heads.

Everyone one is doing very well and the Deserts are showing such a huge interest in our older babies, so much so that I am going to introduce them to the older gang later on this afternoon to see how they all interact. I'm sure that Xanath and Ivy will be thrilled to meet new little people whereas Xaica, who can be extremely arrogant when the mood suits her, will possibly try to show the babies who is boss.

I was looking briefly at today's kitten photos (as per usual they are not great) but I am actually stunned to see the size difference between Gobi and his siblings. He actually looks as if he could be a couple of weeks' older than Sahara and Kalahari because he is just so darn big. I don't notice it as much when I am playing with the babies but it is a lot more apparent in the photos.

Now that our Deserts have become 5 weeks old they have decided that they must spend a lot of their waking moments playing games and pouncing on each other. They are just doing so incredibly well although they continue to show far too much of an interest in escaping from the room each time I open the door. I have told them that they will not be allowed full house access until they are at least 6-7 weeks of age but it doesn't stop running out of the door each time I go in and out.

Sahara still refuses to eat and it doesn't matter what I offer him because as far as he is concerned there is nothing better than mummy's milk. He may have a valid point as he is doing so incredibly well despite not eating solid foods yet. As we all know, Gobi and Kalahari love their mince/milk meals and they do have very good appetites.

Tomorrow I will be starting them on their course of Feline Combination Nosodes. I normally start the babies on the Nosodes much earlier than 5 weeks but just didn't get around to it with the Deserts. I'm hoping that they won't protest too much!