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.

Kitten Diaries

Cointreau

August 2006

Birth

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

Week 10

Week 11

Week 12

Week 13

Cointreau's 1st Kitten Diary - August 2006 to November 2006

We are 1 week old now!

Day 6 - September 2, 2006

My head is totally in the clouds today so this is not a particularly long entry because it probably wouldn't make much sense! I would like to start off today's entry by saying Congratulations to Jacqui, owner of Champion Schimmel Sun Chaser, and Caryll, owner of Grand Premier Schimmel Chilli Tequila. Both cats had an amazing day, with fantastic results at the Herts & Middlesex Cat Club show today.

As for our Burps, hopefully you will have noticed (if you haven't there is something wrong with your eyesight) that I have managed to take individual photos of our babies at long last. Let me assure you that this was no mean feat because every single Burp was extremely unimpressed with having a photo session. At least now though, you can see which baby is which and you should be able to tell by the photos that all four of our Burps now have their eyes fully open. It's hard to believe that tomorrow they will have already reached the 1 week of age mark. Graham is particularly concerned that the Burps will advance too quickly and will be climbing out of the box and into our bed before we move them out of the bedroom, which won't be for at least 2-3 weeks yet!

Coke

Pepsi

Fanta

Sprite

Day 5 - September 1, 2006

Okay, back to eyes again :) Fanta has one eye fully open and the other eye partially open, Coke and Pepsi, as you know, have both eyes fully open. When I weighed the babies first thing this morning, I noticed that Sprite had one eye fully open, however, her right eye was stuck shut with a bit of a crust forming on it. So I grabbed the container of boiled water (cooled of course) and wiped her right eye. I was relieved to see that her eye opened perfectly normally and that there is no sign of any infection and that she can see just fine :) I will monitor her eye and perhaps bathe it a few times a day for a couple of days just to be on the safe side. Now that our Burps are older and can see the world, they have suddenly found their vocal chords and let me tell you, when these babies do not want to be taken from mum and weighed, or examined, they tell me about it in no uncertain terms. Their weight gains were very good again this morning and I think that by Day 7, a couple of them may have doubled their birth weight. For some reason, the "books" always insist that newborns must double their birth weights by the time they are 1 week old, but I do believe that when they wrote these words, they never took into account the Siamese or Oriental breed. I have personally found that there is no right and wrongs with regards to how much weight the babies have gained by week 1. I must admit that with my first few litters, I was constantly panicking about my babies not having doubled their weight at Week 1 and I probably spent more time weighing them and worrying about them, than I actually did enjoying them. The main thing is that they do continue to gain, and just like humans, they will all develop at different stages and you can have slender babies, and massive babies in the same litter. I guess what I'm probably trying to say is that babies are doing extremely well and I'm still really pleased with their progress. One of these day soon (promises, promises, I know), I will take individual photos of the babies rather than "family photos" in the box.

Day 4 - August 31, 2006

I am rather delighted to say that Pepsi has both eyes fully open now, Coke has 1 and 1/2 eyes open, and Fanta and Sprite are starting to open theirs up as well now. Colours are starting to come through much clearer now on our Burps' ears and little button noses. I can't help but feel somewhere, in this litter, there will be a Chocolate Point Siamese. Not for any other reason that the fact that I do believe Cointreau carries Chocolates, as does her mum, and if she does, then this litter should produce one. Of course, if there is a Chocolate it will make it slightly easier to tell the babies apart for the first few weeks of their lives at least :) The Burps are all doing extremely well, as is Cointreau, however Cointreau has an extremely odd habit at the moment. She is constantly pushing the bedding in the box over to one side, forcing her children to lie directly on the floor of the box, rather than on the bedding. She is also shredding the box so more often than not, whenever I enter the room to check on the children, they are lying on bare cardboard surrounded by flaky bits of cardboard that Cointreau has shredded. I am constantly rearranging the bedding in there. I'm wondering if the reason she does this is because the bedding is washed and changed so often (minimum of once a day) and that she prefers the bedding to remain with her scent and the babies' scent on it. I've not ever had a queen do this before and it's rather interesting to try to determine the reasons behind it. Would you believe the stupid spell check monster is now insisting there is no such word as Fanta and has suggested I use "Fanta" instead. I have rather harshly explained to stupid spell check monster that if I had wanted to call a baby Fantail then I would have!

Day 3 - August 30, 2006

Today I am having one of those days so it's not a particularly long entry at all. You will probably notice that the first photo has nothing to do with the Burps at all, however, if you have ever ready any of our previous kitten diaries, you will know that every now and then, our daughter pops up in a photo, or to be more accurate, normally her feet or hands. Don't ask me why, I really do not know, however, today's masterpiece is Mo wearing Graham's glasses on the back of her head. Right, as for our Burps, again we had amazing weight gains last night so the milk is obviously very plentiful and flowing freely. Last night I had to remark all of the babies with blue permanent texture as it is the only way I can tell them apart. At the moment, I could not tell you which baby was which without lifting their arms and legs to see which one is blue. Coke is the first of our babies with an eye open because when we looked at him this morning, his right eye is fully open and he can see the world which is so very lovely. I am sure it will not be too long at all before his brothers/sisters follow suit. Which brings me to that dreaded word, sex. I have absolutely no idea what sex our Burps are, mainly because I've not looked at all. Of course it should have been done when they first popped out and were wet because now their little bits will all be swollen and it will be virtually impossible to know which baby is what. However, maybe tonight I will have a look at them and make a very bad guess.

Day 2 - August 29, 2006

Yet again we had more fantastic weight gains by our Burps when I weighed them this morning and I'm really delighted with their progress so far. Cointreau is one of the most doting mum's I've ever seen and it's really difficult to try and convey in words just how much she adores her children. She will only leave their sides to eat, drink or to use the litter tray. The rest of the time she is in the box either feeding them, cuddling them or giving them baths. She does allow me to weigh them each morning so long as I do not have them out of the box for too long but if she feels I should have returned them sooner, she is out of the box like a shot and she tries to take them out of the scales. Her own appetite is great at the moment and her diet consists of: Hi Life kitten pouches, James Wellbeloved kitten biscuits, freshly cooked chicken, scrambled eggs, all of which she really enjoys. We were a bit concerned that she may want to still be on the bed with us of an evening and therefore neglect her babies but that could not be furthest from the truth. Even when she is eating, if one of her the Burps cries, she stops eating, goes straight in the box and comforts her baby. You may, or may not be aware, but normally when our babies are born, once they have reached the 24 hour stage, they are moved into the kitten room, so that mum and babies can have peace and quiet and get to know each other, however it's not been possible to do this as our kitten room already has little people in it at the moment. But so far, fortunately, all is going extremely well :) Already, some of our Burps' ears are showing the dark seal edging and eyes are starting to have the tiniest opening of slits so this is a really exciting time for us, watching our babies develop into their colours, and the wonder of little eyes opening up to see the world.

Day 1 - August 28, 2006

I'm thrilled to say that all 4 Burps made it through the first 24 hours of their lives without any topping up from me, and without any problems at all. In actual fact, the smallest weight gain in the first 24 hours was 9 grams and the largest weight gain (Coke) was 22 grams so this is really wonderful. Cointreau is doing a marvellous job and she loves her babies so much and is extremely protective of them. I did think she might make a fuss when I weighed them this morning but she was really quite good about it which was a bit of a relief. Right from the moment they are born, it is important that I handle the babies daily because even at this very early age, it sets a precedence for having well socialised kittens when they are older. They are all just gorgeous babies and as always, I am totally amazed at how good their sense of smell is and how quickly they are able to find nipples and latch on straight away, despite not being able to see anything at all. Cointreau's appetite is very good and she is eating more than enough to keep the milk flowing and hopefully to ensure that our Burps continue to make good weight gains.

Birth - August 27, 2006

I am rather tired as I type this, having just had a couple of hours sleep but we are delighted to welcome into the world, 4 beautiful new babies from Cointreau and Sheridans. Goodness only knows if this entry makes any sense or not though! At approximately 12 midnight, Cointreau was very distressed and was howling, over and over again, and labour had most definitely started. Being a first time mum, she would not settle at all and was incredibly confused at was what happening inside her body so she just called out, over and over again, non stop. She wouldn't settle on the bed with us, nor would she settle in her box so I took her box out of the wardrobe, put it on the floor between my side of the bed and the wall, I then sat on the floor in front of the box and just spoke very calmly to her and constantly stroked her in the hopes this would reassure her. I sat there with her for 2 1/2 hours, by which time I felt like a sardine, (a very tired sardine), because I could not move at all because when I did get up to just go to the bathroom, she the screaming started over again because she did not want me to leave her side. It did work though and the whole time I sat there with her, chatting to her, she remained very calm and settled in her box which was good because I was worried all the pacing about and screaming would tire her out when she would be relying on every bit of energy she had to get through the birth. I can say that when the first sac appeared at 0254 I was rather relieved to say the least. When baby number one popped out, Cointreau knew exactly what to do by instinct, she sniffed her baby, and started cleaning her baby and removing the sac, she was an absolute star and did the whole lot. It was so incredibly beautiful to witness this first time mummy bond with her child right from the start. The problem was the baby was still attached to mum via the placenta which was still inside and then all of a sudden, out popped baby number 2, with no warning at all. Again, Cointreau started cleaning her new child and grooming him/her all over. Baby number 1 was still attached, as was baby number 2 because neither placenta had been expelled yet. I did not interfere at all because I had to allow her time with her baby, to do everything that she should be doing and by the time I actually took the baby off her to weigh him or her, the baby was almost thoroughly dry. I can honestly say that never ever, have we had a baby as long as baby number 1, the tail was incredibly long, as was the body. The weights of the first 2 babies were extremely good and both babies were just fine, so I changed the bedding and returned the children back to their mum. The placentas were then delivered so she ate both of them and left absolutely no mess at all. She continued to clean her children and then half an hour later, out popped baby number 3 and again, I sat back and watched while she did absolutely everything, the sac, the cord, dealt with the placenta, only this time she didn't dry this baby quite as thoroughly as the first 2, so while she was dealing with the placenta I took baby number 3 out of the box and finished drying him/her off and popped the baby on the scales. This one was a very large baby, again, so typical of a Sheridans child! Then, just another half and hour later, out pops baby number 4 with ease, and again she did everything while I sat in front of the box and looked on. After weighing baby number 4, I then removed all the babies from the box to change the bedding again because I had a feel of Cointreau and could not feel any other babies inside her. She was most put out when I removed her babies so I tried to make the bed change as quickly as possible so as not to distress her. When I put the babies back in the box she glared at me, and then proceeded to count them to make sure I had returned all of them. Once satisfied her children were all there and the wicked human hadn't catnapped them, she settled down with them, grooming them, and lay down for the babies to try and feed. All 4 babies were extremely lively and searching for nipples so mum lay there, very content. I covered her box over to give her more privacy and I got back into bed and sat there for a few hours, checking on her every 20 minutes to make sure nothing else was happening but each time I looked in the box, all I saw was a very proud, and slightly tired mum, snuggling up with her babies. At about 11am, she polished off a plate of Hi Life Kitten food (pouch) which I'm really pleased about because it's so important that she keeps her strength up. Graham and I are incredibly proud of our Cointreau, and just like her mother, her aunty, and her grandmother, she is an outstanding mum. And oh my goodness..............Cacao is now a Great Grandmother!! We currently have 4 generations of fur members in our home which is lovely :) In our own minds, we still think of Cointreau as being a baby herself and it's so weird to now have to think of her as a mother and not our little girl any more. Although, in reality, she will always be our little baby :) We have already decided upon names for these babies and they are going to be named after soft drinks, so collectively, our babies will be known as: "The Burps" :)

Baby	Colour	Birth Time	Weight
Coke	Siamese	0315	114 grams
Pepsi	Siamese	0333	106 grams
Fanta	Siamese	0402	120 grams
Sprite	Siamese	0432	101 grams

I did not take any photos of the birth itself because Cointreau was so distressed if I left her side, that it wasn't worth going downstairs to get the camera and upsetting her. These photos were taken at approximately 10am today.

Birth Photos

Click Here to read Cointreau's Pregnancy Diary.