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

January 2008

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 3rd Kitten Diary - January 2008 to April 2008

Litter out of Schimmel Forever Charmed X Schimmel Taking A Chance

We are 1 week old now!

Day 6 - January 24, 2008

Our Archangels are absolutely thriving and are totally adorable. They are gaining weight on a daily basis and are happy, fat little babies. What I am finding amusing is that out of our 3 Siamese, not a single one of them is a Red boy! Now what are the chances of that? Instead, our Siamese are either Seal Points, or Seal Tortie Points. Cointreau is being a superb mother yet again and she is more relaxed in herself now that Tia Lusso is not stealing her babies.

What is also nice, is that our Archangels are not "screaming" babies, instead, they are very placid, incredibly happy, and so content with their mum and the safety of their own little world. This is exactly what it should be like. None of the Archangels are being topped up at all as there is absolutely no need.

Day 5 - January 23, 2008

There are no photos in any of today's kitten diaries as Nocello went into labour this morning and both diary entries are exactly the same.

There are no photos in any of today's kitten diaries as Nocello went into labour this morning and both diary entries are exactly the same.

Tia Lusso caused us no end of problems last night and again we have not slept particularly well so I made the decision that heating or no heating, the babies have got to be moved into the kitten room. The problem was that Lucy became very possessive of the kittens, not just her own, but Cointreau's as well. It got to the stage where each time Cointreau tried to get into the wardrobe, Lucy would attack her and Cointreau spent most of the night sleeping on our bed while Lucy fed all 11 babies. It was very obvious that they each needed their own "posh box" and their own space.

I was not expecting to have to start moving everything around as soon as I got up though however the birth of a new baby made it imperative that the move had to begin. I went into the kitten room and evicted all the older babies as well as Toussaint, Drambuie, Cacao & Sambuca, moved their double bunk bed out into the hallway. Set up the very large posh box with new bedding, went into our bedroom and collected 4 of Lucy's babies and put them in the box, went back into our room, tripping over the Indians and Monkeys, scooped up the remaining 3 babies and put them in the posh box. Came back out, trying not to let older babies in, went back into our room and collected Lucy and put her in the posh box with her babies.

After that I tried to settle Nocello down but was not particularly successful and then went out to the shed to get another "posh box" (fortunately we have 3 of them courtesy of Tone who is an absolute star!), took it upstairs, still falling over babies and adults, put it in the kitten room and put new bedding in there. I then went back into our room and collected Cointreau's 4 Archangels and put them in the 2nd posh box. Went back into our room to collect Cointreau and I put her in the posh box with her babies.

Lucy jumped straight out of her own box and climbed into Cointreau's and started to growl, so I took Lucy out of the box and put her back in with her babies and then turned Cointreau's box around. I went back into our room and took out the heater, took it into the kitten room and plugged it in, bleached and changed the litter trays, filled new food/water bowls and left the girls to settle with the curtains drawn and the light off.

Back into our bedroom to try and settle Cells and her baby and by this stage, our room was (and still is) a total and utter mess. There are clothes everywhere as everything had to be pulled out of the wardrobe to make room for Cells. I started the first of countless loads of washing.

None of the babies could be weighed last night due to the scale problem so I went to Argos this morning and bought not one, but THREE brand new scales, 2 mechanical and 1 digital/electronic. It's now 1236, all is quiet in the kitten room, I have an awful lot of cleaning to do which I'm about to start now. I never want to have another day like this ever again!

Day 4 - January 22, 2008

This really is not much of an entry at all due to the fact that we had brand new babies born last night! Cointreau and the Archangels now have new "room mates" and Cointreau was an absolute star last night as she took care of the brand new babies while labour was still going on. In herself, Cointreau is looking so much better and is eating very well, and although she is still looking thin, she has improved dramatically.

I did not get to weigh the Archangels last night due to problems with the scales and due to the fact that our new babies were being born at around the time the Archangels should have been weighed. They will be weighed again tonight though and I will put in an approximate weight for the previous night. Today I am spending very little time in the bedroom with the babies because everyone needs to get used to each other and bond, although the signs last night were extremely positive and both mum's are happy to be together.

Again, the photos are not going to be great, but for the time being you will just have to bear with me until we can get the babies out of our room and into a proper "posh box".

Day 3 - January 21, 2008

I was delighted at last night's weigh in to see that all 4 of our Archangels had gained weight. Admittedly, Rafael only gained 2 grams, but considering he had lost 1 gram the previous 24 hours, this is very promising. I did manage to take some photos this morning and at the time of starting this entry, I've not downloaded them yet and I really don't know how they will turn out. It is difficult to get decent photos because I have to sit in the wardrobe to take them and it does get a bit awkward.

We will be relieved when the babies move into the kitten room because since they were born we have had very little sleep. The Archangels are very loud babies and they kept us awake again most of the night last night so we do look like zombies at the moment! We are hoping that within a few days' time we can move the babies out of our room and into the kitten room but everything depends on the Indians and the Monkeys at the moment.

Day 2 - January 20, 2008

Again no photos, and not much of an entry either to be honest. Today has mainly been spent updating our Schimmel web site, and more importantly, monitoring Cointreau and the Archangels, and waiting for Lucy (Tia Lusso) to go into labour. We are still both so shattered having been up all night Friday night, then showing yesterday and poor Graham was woken up constantly by the Archangels who are an incredibly noisy litter.

At around 2030 last night I weighed our children. I was not expecting any of them to gain considering what Cointreau was like and how difficult the birth was for her and we do know it is fairly common for babies to lose weight within the first 24 hours of their life. I was delighted that 3 of our babies had gained (very small gains) whilst 1 baby, Rafael, had lost 1 gram. This is not enough for me to start topping up as they have to be given another 24 hours. They are all lively, all screamers, and Cointreau, whilst incredibly thin, is looked much better and much less "shaggy" than she was yesterday. I will weigh them tonight at their 48 hour stage and then make a decision.

We are also waiting for Lucy to give birth as she is due imminently and I know when she does, it will take some of the pressure off Cointreau. Lucy is looking fantastic, fit, well and very fat.

Day 1 - January 19, 2008

There really is no entry for today as we are at a TICA cat show with Ashanti and Izarra. It was a very long night last night and an extremely long day today.

Birth - January 18, 2008

During the last 3 weeks of this pregnancy Cointreau had a dreadful time of it. She looked so pitiful and really was no herself at all and we were incredibly concerned about the birth and were preparing ourselves to have to rush her to the vets. Throughout the entire pregnancy we had not seen or felt any babies move at all and didn't think any of them had survived the gestation period. At approximately 1700 on January 18, Cointreau started having contractions and there was quite a lot of fluid and then part of a sac appeared. She was placed in our wardrobe where her "nest" was all set up however despite 2 hours of contractions, absolutely nothing was happening at all. At 1920, after a tremendous push, she gave birth to her first baby and we were incredibly relieved because we couldn't have given it much longer before taking her to the vets. Cointreau looked so tired, but was extremely protective of her child and she cleaned her baby up, did the cord, and then delivered the placenta. She had no interest in eating the placenta, she just wanted to lie down with her newborn who was already trying to feed. I dried off the baby and weighed her, and gave her back to Cointreau.

After waiting 5 minutes, Cointreau was not really showing signs of wanting to do anything else, so I hurriedly ate some dinner in the bedroom, and then at 2020 the contractions started again. This time, after delivering the baby, Cointreau cleaned the baby, and then lay back down to rest so I delivered the placenta and then dealt with the cord. This baby was our smallest baby in the litter, but still appeared to be thriving. When I returned baby number 2 to Cointreau, baby number 1 was already trying to feed, and Cointreau just wanted to sleep.

I finished off the rest of my dinner, whilst getting up to keep checking on her. This is not the first time one of our ladies has waited until we were ready to eat and then started labour. After I had finished, I went downstairs to make up an evaporated milk and glucose mixture for Cointreau. The photos below will show to you just how dreadful Cointreau looked during labour. She had done so well up until this point delivering her 2 babies and she had to eat something to keep her strength up. I had previously given her some Hi Life kitten food but she would not eat that. Fortunately, the milk mixture enticed her and she did drink some, although not as much as I would have liked.

A very short while later, baby number 3 was born, although she had difficulty delivering this one. After the head was born, Cointreau really struggled to deliver the shoulders so I sat with her stroking her and offering the milk mixture to her and then after another very large push, the baby was delivered, along with the placenta. Cointreau did the cord and cleaned her baby and while she was doing this, I picked up baby number 2. I noticed that there was more blood than normal on baby number 2 realised that he was bleeding from the cord. I gave the baby in a towel to Graham while I rushed into the kitten room next door, scaring the life out of the Monkeys and Indians who were sound asleep, while I rummaged through the kitten cupboard for the dental floss. Graham and I then tied a knot around the cord with the dental floss which stopped the bleeding. Once I was satisfied that baby number 2 was okay, I gave him back to his mother. Cointreau almost snatched him out of my arms and then snuggled him into her body whilst glaring at me for taking him from her.

Graham and I were desperately hoping there would be no more but I was not prepared to pick Cointreau up and stand her up to examine her. She just wanted to sleep with her kids while they tried to feed so we waited it out a bit longer and sure enough, at 2144, baby number 4 was born. The one and only Oriental kitten in this litter. Delivery of this baby was text book and our little Oriental girl had the best birth weight of all 4 children.

It was after this that Cointreau stood up and went to the water bowl for a drink and it was very apparent that there were no more babies. We were both incredibly relieved that Cointreau had managed to find the strength to deliver her children naturally but more importantly, we were relieved that Cointreau was okay in herself. All 4 of her babies were quite loud and were all fighting for the milk bar which is a positive sign. We did stay up throughout most of the night monitoring Cointreau and her children. I went to bed at 3am, Graham went to bed at 5am. Of course we then had to be up again at 6am for a cat show.

As we have 4 babies, I already had a theme waiting for this litter, so we would like to introduce you all to our Archangels

The archangels
Baby	Colour	Birth Time	Weight	Sex
Uriel	Siamese	1920	102 grams	Female
Rafael	Siamese	2020	87 grams	Male
Michael	Siamese	2110	105 grams	Male
Gabriel	Oriental Black Tortie	2144	107 grams	Female

There are not many photos of this birth, mainly because we were more concerned about Cointreau than taking pictures. The ones below were taken with Graham's camera as mine was already packed in the show bag ready for the next day.

Birth Photos