At last, we're having a little more success with weaning. Neptune and one other baby (either Jupiter or Saturn) will now eat straight from the saucer when I put it on the floor. It does help that when I put the plate down, all the Planets come running over to me to see what is happening. Then there is Venus who doesn't stop running and continues to run straight through the mixture! There has to be one in every litter. The Planets are all much more active now and do a lot of exploring much to Sambuca and Tia Maria's disgust and it's not unusual at all to see a little Black baby in Sami's mouth and in Tia's mouth being taken back to the bed. The only thing they have started doing yet is climbing the scratch posts etc. but I'm sure that will come soon enough. What I do really need to do is take some photos of the Planets when they are not on the beds and when they're running around because it's sill so very impossible to make out shapes or features etc. in the photos. Of course this simply could be my extremely bad photography.

I'm having one of those days today where I simply can not tell the Planets apart, except for Neptune and Mars obviously. As for Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus, your guess is as good as mine which is why all the photos are simply labelled "The Planets". All of them are doing really well and are getting much braver when it comes to exploring the room. Particularly at feeding time. When I put down the plate of food for the Musketeers and then try to wean the Planets, they all start to come running over. At this point, they still aren't particularly interested in eating the mixture but they will have a few little nibbles and then go off to explore different parts of the room and it is really nice to see them getting their independence. I had to laugh yesterday when Jupiter had gone wandering off, Tia was feeding other babies and Sami was sitting on the work surface. Anyway, Jupiter decided he'd had enough of wandering but rather than just go back to the bed, he decided to sit there and cry instead. Tia wasn't going to rescue him as she was feeding about 5 babies so she looked up at me and I looked at Sami who at this stage was showing no interest in saving him, although her ears did prick up every time he cried. Tia then looked at Sami and must have sent her some telepathic thoughts of some kind because next thing you know, Sami has jumped off the work surface, gone over to Jupiter, picked him up, carried him back to the bed and plonked him on top of Tia.

There's really very little to put in the diary entry for today as it's been such a very hectic day here. 2 of our Herbs left us today to live with their new owners and another one is leaving tonight so that means a day of paperwork etc. It is so much easier though have the Planets and Musketeers downstairs here with me particularly as their room is right next to the kitchen so feeding is much easier. I still can not convince Mars to eat from a saucer, although today he had a few laps of it which is possibly promising. None of the Planets were at all bothered by their move and every now and then when they are awake, they will walk around the floor exploring everything and then running back to the safety of their mum.

We'd made excellent progress with weaning the Planets last night, every single Planet, except for Mars was happy to eat straight from the saucer for every meal yesterday from lunch time onwards which was great. Naturally, by the time this morning's first meal came around, Venus & Neptune decided that they weren't 100% sure about this eating off the plate lark after all. Still, they are all doing very well with regards to weaning and I'm really happy with their progress. The big move came this morning and by 9am, all the babies and the mum's were downstairs. Sambuca was incredibly stressed about the whole deal, her hair went up on end (as you will see in the photos below), she fed the babies in an extremely uncomfortable position and it took quite a while for her to settle down. The Planets weren't bothered at all by their move and as soon as they were placed back on the bedding they simply settled down and went back to sleep.

I've come to the conclusion that either Mars is growing a bit or Neptune is shrinking because when I did the last feed of the evening last night, I picked up Mars, gave him 3 syringe full's of mixture, popped him back on the scales and was astounded to see that he weighed just over 160 grams. It was then that I realised I had been feeding the wrong baby! I had picked up Neptune by mistake (they truly are very similar) and felt like a bit of an idiot. Neptune was rather pleased though as he got an extra meal. Poor little Mars was still sitting on the floor, looking up at me, waiting for me to pick him up and feed him. Goodness only knows what he thought when he watched me feed Neptune. Poor little guy. I was missing some babies when I went into the kitten room first thing this morning. Three of the Planets had chosen to go on some bedding under the sofa where they couldn't be seen, along with one Musketeer. I brought them out from under the sofa and put them back onto the bedding with the rest of the population and wouldn't you know it, Saturn went straight back to where he'd come from. All of our Planets are really doing very well, I'm still happy with their weight gains but naturally I'll still be working really hard to get Neptune and Mars a lot higher in the weight department. They all play and run around now and the time has really come to move them all from the kitten room to down here in the back room. My intention is to do this on Thursday as I will need some time to totally clean the back room and disinfect everything as the Herbs and all of our other cats use the back room. The move is not going to be easy and I know that while the babies will think it's fantastic because it's new territory to explore, the mum's are going to be very annoyed at having their world upset. They will get over it though :) I am thrilled to say that Jupiter and Saturn now both eat the kitten mixture from the plate. When I was feeding morning tea to the Musketeers, I thought I'd give it a go with Jupiter and Saturn and both babies ate straight from the plate and had quite a bit so I was over the moon. I also decided top top up Neptune so I wrapped him up, put him on my lap, but rather than use the syringe, I thought I'd put the plate in front of him and see what he did. I was really surprised (and very pleased) to see him lapping the mixture straight from the plate as if he'd been doing it all his life. It will be interesting to see if they behave the same way during the next weaning meal at around 2pm.

As I'm already weaning Tia's babies, I thought I would give it a go with some of the Planets (don't ask me which ones because I have no idea). I tried with 3 of them, one of whom just stared at the mixture on my finger, opened his mouth and squeaked, then he closed his mouth, opened it again and squeaked. This went on for about a minute so I waited until he was due to open it and when he did, I slid a little bit of the mixture in the corner of his mouth :) He licked his lips, had a bit of a chew and then wandered off. The 2nd baby (this was Neptune) did not want to know at all, min you, at 22 days of age, I'm not particularly bothered. My one little star though was Mars! I put him on my lap, put the mixture in the saucer, and let him lick it off my fingers and then he started eating from the saucer which was wonderful and so sweet to see. He's such a tiny little baby who can fit in the palm of my hand and the saucer is so much bigger than him, but he knew what to do with it straight away. Next time though, I shall remember to put a cloth on my lap first because I did end up wearing an awful lot of the mixture. All of our Planets, even our tiny ones are just as active as the Musketeers and they spend a lot of their time exploring, chewing on each other's ears and trying to climb all over me. Last night when I gave Mars his last evening meal at 10:30pm, I then laid down with the babies and they all came running over to me, started to climb on top of me, sniff my arms and kiss my face and I could have stayed there with them for hours. It's so wonderful to see our Planets really starting to take in everything in their surroundings and they have no fear at all when they are exploring new territories.

I'm delighted to report that at 3 weeks of age, Mars gained 10 grams in the last 24 hours and within the last 48 hours, I've seen some changes in him and the rest of the babies. All of the Planets are now far more active and they do run all over the room, they also come up to me when I sit on the floor and try to climb up on my lap for cuddles which is so very sweet. In the last 2 days, Mars has also changed in the respect that he now actually runs right over to me when I open the door (obviously he knows it's feed time from human mum) and he's suddenly developed this huge fighting spirit when it comes to feeding time. Prior to the last couple of days, I was constantly putting him on Tia's nipples, but lately, when I've entered the kitten room, or when I've been sitting in there for a while watching them all, Mars will go straight to a nipple, latch on and when the other babies try to push him off, he won't let them and is fighting back. Up until now, due to his size, he just wasn't able to keep hold of his nipple if someone else wanted it but it's a totally different story now and I'm really thrilled with these changes in him. My aim today was to take individual photos of the Planets which up until now hasn't been done and I do hope you appreciate it because it was a nightmare from start to finish. I would pick up one baby, weigh him/her, take photos and put him back with the others, make a note of who I photographed, went to pick up another baby to find they had all moved and I had no idea who I had just weighed. It actually took me half an hour just to take their photos and sort out their weights. Having 5 Blacks in the house is going to cause rather large identity problems I fear.