Day 34 - September 30, 2006

I have now realised that holding off weaning the Burps was definitely the right move to make because when I took Drambuie and Cointreau their breakfast this morning, as soon as I put Cointreau's down on the paper, Coke came straight over and started eating from the plate alongside his mum. He wasn't the only one though, because within a couple of minutes of Coke and his mum chomping away, Fanta, Pepsi and Sprite realised that they were missing out on something good and they also joined them at the plate and started eating as well. I was amazed, and totally delighted. I think it's fantastic when weaning just comes together like this and babies are allowed to choose when the time is right for them. For whatever reason, our Burps decided that the time was right today. The breakfast meal consisted of cooked fish, goats milk yoghurt and Hi Life kitten food and the babies all loved it which was brilliant. Of course what this means now is that I will have to start putting out a larger plate with bigger portions on it :) I will be very interested to see if this continues throughout the day or if it is a "one off". I have personally found that sometimes when babies start to wean, they start off incredibly well and then, for whatever reason, they revert back to mum's milk only and won't touch any food. I know with my older babies who are currently in the home, that the one thing that got them eating very well was the fish and the yoghurt, both of which they love so it is possible that it's having the same effect with the Burps. Chances are, that I will actually add a small amount of the fish and yoghurt to each meal today. It won't do them any harm at all, particularly if a good quality kitten food is also mixed in with it. At the moment, the main kitten foods we are feeding are Hi Life and Nature's Menu. I'm really excited that our kids started eating all on their own and I guess now that they are "growing up", starting from Monday, the door to their kitten room will be left open and they can also then wander into the bathroom, on the upstairs landing, and come down the stairs. Then, once our older babies join the rest of our adult family, the Burps can move into Graham's room during the day as they will have lots more space to run around in there. Now that weaning is starting, it's imperative that I monitor the kids weights on a daily basis because during weaning time, weights can fluctuate quite dramatically. At the moment, the smallest baby is Fanta who is weighing in at 535 grams, whereas the largest baby is Coke and he is currently 607 grams. These are weights that I am very happy with, particularly as they are still so young

Day 33 - September 29, 2006

Today I was trying to take photos of the babies when they were running about like lunatics to show you what they are like when they are in their "playful" mode. As you can probably tell, they having a wonderful time chasing each other, destroying my books, and trying to cause as much chaos as possible. Cointreau is a bit put out that her own litter tray is no longer her private tray because the babies are now more than capable of climbing in and out of her tray which she does not appreciate. I did feel sorry for her though as she was trying to "do her business", and in climbed Coke and Pepsi to see what their mum was up to. I am still amazed at just how fast the Burps can move when they want to and when I'm in the room balancing plates of food and a camera, I have to be so very careful that I don't accidentally step on one of the babies because they do get under your feet. Of course you can't stand still for more than a minute in the kitten room because if you do, then one or more babies start the ascent all the way up your legs.

Day 32 - September 28, 2006

I had wanted to take individual photos of the kittens this morning, however, when I went up to the room with the camera, as you can see by the photos below, three of our Burps were sound asleep and there was no way I wanted to wake them when they all looked so cosy and peaceful. Coke was not sleeping because he is a very nosy young man and as soon as I enter the kitten room, even if he is asleep, he has to know what I am doing in there and will it affect him or not. I was speaking with Tina earlier today and she was saying how lovely the Burps were to which my reply was that they are actually little fat sausages with legs and it is true bless them. They still have a little while to go yet before their kitten features have fully developed and they grow out of the "sausage" stage. It's odd but I've found that Orientals never go through this stage, and they just look like proper kittens all the way through, yet the Siamese never start off looking like kittens. They are such time wasters and it's very easy to spend hours in the kitten room watching them play and they have been having fun and games with my bookcase and it's not unusual to enter the kitten room and find at least 2 or 3 books out of the case and on the floor.

Day 31 - September 27, 2006

We had a friend visiting today so I've not had any time to take photos for the diaries. When I was in the kitten room last night, I fed both mum's and was having some cuddles with Coke when I looked behind me, looked again, and thought that not only had one of our Burps suddenly changed from a Chocolate Point to a Seal Point, one had also grown an awful lot bigger. I put Coke down, picked up the baby who looked unfamiliar, only to discover it was Frosties! He must have slipped into the kitten room when I was going through the door and obviously thought it would be fun to be part of this litter, rather than his own. He was happily checking out all the Burps and having the time of his life. The poor guy was a tad upset when I put him on the other side of the kitten door. The Burps were not phased at all by a stranger in their midst and just carried on with what they were doing. I was able to witness both Pepsi and Fanta use their litter tray this morning, which confirms that the babies are definitely progressing very well in the litter department. There's still been no real interest in food yet, but at 4 1/2 weeks of age, I'm not overly bothered. Their weights are still good, and they are very active babies.

Day 30 - September 26, 2006

Never before have I known such a noisy litter. Generally speaking, in a litter, there is always one baby who stands out from the rest due to how loud that baby is, and normally, this is an Oriental as they are much more talkative than the Siamese, however, our Burps are the loudest we have had. Whenever I enter the kitten room, they quite literally start shouting at me, coming running over to me, try to climb my legs, and they are shouting the entire time. I really do not even know what they are shouting about because they are still so very young that their speech really is "baby talk" and doesn't make a great deal of sense yet. I don't even think their own mother understands what they are babbling on about half the time. But apart from that, so far, everything is progressing as it should and our Burps are now starting to use the litter tray because their is evidence in there of mess made by kittens so this is an excellent start. We've not had any single "accidents" at all with regards to their litter training which is really pleasing. I'm always amazed at how quickly the babies pick up exactly what it is they are supposed to do with very little interference from humans.

Day 29 - September 25, 2006

Day 28 - September 24, 2006