We are 5 weeks old now!

Day 34 - November 20, 2007

Kenny has at long last decided that it's time to eat proper food, just one day short of turning 5 weeks of age so I am delighted. You can tell by the first 2 photos below that the Indians are now being fed from trays because with mum and 6 babies all around the food at meals times, the small bowls are just no good any more. I'm sure in another couple of weeks we will have graduated to an even bigger tray though. I am really relieved that Kenny has started to eat because for the past few days he had been making very minimum gains. This is because he was only drinking mum's milk but doing an awful lot of running around so he has been burning off loads of calories. Now that he has started eating, I fully expect him to be making the normal weight gains that I'm used to seeing with him.

Day 33 - November 19, 2007

Don't ask what happened to kitten diaries over the weekend. It's just been incredibly hectic. On Saturday we had a kitten family visiting, on Sunday we were out for the day, and as well as all that, we have also been doing some supervised honeymoons for a couple of ladies so it has been non stop. Even today I'm struggling to catch up with everything but I am trying to get the diaries back on track.

Weaning is going tremendously well and now Kenny is the only baby who still won't eat from the plate but I know that will change soon. I get a lot of pleasure from watching the babies all gather around the tray and eating so well. They are just coming along in leaps and bounds. CC is the first of our babies to become acquainted with the litter tray and she looks so very proud of herself as she climbs in and does her business and she is also extremely thorough when it comes to covering up her little messes. The same can not be said for our other babies though as I've yet to see any of the others in the tray although I think some of them must be because I am finding fewer and fewer nuggets on the floor now :)

Day 30 - November 16, 2007

Today was a very special day today because Rafael had a visit from her new mummy, Sharon of Withajay Siamese. Now if that's not enough to make a little girl feel special, she also had some lovely cuddles from Stef of Manolo Siamese, as well as Kerry. It was great to meet Kerry, Birnie, and Stef for the first time and they are just as lovely in person as they are via the computer :) It was a pleasure to be able to show off all of our cats and babies to them. Kerry had the dubious pleasure of having cuddles with Punky Monkey who now has one eye open and she is so small bless her but Kerry found out quickly what a big voice she has (Punky that is, not Kerry as she is very quiet). And eventually, I am sure Jag will forgive Stef for sitting on him ;) Stef is a tiny little dolly and I reckon Jag did her more harm than the other way around :) Whether or not Stef will forgive Parsley for puncturing her legs I don't know. Tuaca proved what a fantastic stud cat he is.................................not!!! (I can see that boy being neutered sooner rather than later and he can just become another loveable loafer in the home). I don't need to say that it was such a pleasure to see Sharon again because that goes without saying. I adore Sharon, and she's welcome in our home any time. The babies were more interested in sleeping than playing, so like the insane people that we are, we all just hung around in the room, watching the babies lying on the bed doing nothing. Weaning is going exceptionally well and now CC has caught the hang of this feeding lark and she also joins everyone else around the plate now and tucks in. It is only Kenny and Victor left who still haven't really tried to eat from the plate yet. Victor has no interest whatsoever, whereas Kenny is very keen but he still does not understand that the nice smell is not coming from the top of the other babies' heads that surround the plate <sigh>. Why is it that the girls are always so much more intelligent than the boys? Never mind, I'm sure they'll both get there in the end and I am fully expecting both boys to be eating from the plate by the time they are 5 weeks of age.

Day 29 - November 15, 2007

So much for the small kitten litter tray! As you know I put the tray in the room yesterday afternoon, I even went so far as to pick up a few small nuggets and put them in the tray so that the babies would be drawn to using the tray. What happens? Well this morning when I entered the kitten room, the small tray was still clean with just those same few nuggets I had put in there the day before, whereas the kittens' bed had 3 brand new little nuggets on there. I had to laugh :) I changed the bedding, cleaned the room, and then put their bedding where they were sleeping, and I put the litter tray where their bed was. It will be interesting to see, throughout the next 24 hours, whether or not they actually figure out what the tray is for. I could end up spending the next week playing musical chairs with the litter tray and bed :)

Day 28 - November 14, 2007

How did our Indians celebrate their 4 week birthday? By showing me just what big kids they are now by leaving tiny little nuggets scattered around the room for me to find :) I had gone into the room to give the babies their breakfast and there were 4 little nuggets behind the door. I thought okay, serves me right as some of the Indians have been eating solids for almost a week now and I still hadn't put a small litter tray in the room for them. I grabbed a show tray, set it up in the room where I had found all the nuggets, I then changed their bedding and started to hoover their room. As I hoovered behind the TV unit what did I find? Yet more of the blasted nuggets. My one consolation is that they were quite small and extremely firm, so obviously our babies' digestive systems are working extremely well. Babies and I are very proud of their little nuggets :) At 4 weeks of age, their progress is more than acceptable, although we still only have 3 of our Indians eating solid foods but again, at just 4 weeks of age, who cares? I don't as they are all doing incredibly well and Kenny, Victor & CC will eat when they are ready. Kenny has proved to me however that it is true that you can't have beauty as well as brains because when I was trying to encourage him to eat the solid food, he was certainly very interested once I had put some in his mouth. The problem was of course that his brain cells really are lacking because he could not, for the life of him, comprehend how to get the food to his mouth. He sat beside the plate, he watched Ryan, Casey & Rafael tucking in, and then promptly proceeded to nibble on Rafael's ear. He could not understand why he wasn't getting any food and despite me showing him over and over, he still kept nibbling on the heads of every baby that was eating. I did give up in the end as I was laughing too much to be able to help him :)