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

sambuca

August 2007

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

Sambuca's 6th Kitten Diary - August 2007 to November 2007

Litter out of Schimmel Sakuya X Ch Schimmel Stripe It Lucky

We are 1 week old now!

Day 6 - September 6, 2007

There are no kitten diaries today. Please read the Water Babies' kitten diary for an explanation.

Day 5 - September 5, 2007

It has been one of those days whereby every time I have attempted to start today's kitten diaries, my attention has been drawn elsewhere and as a result, it is now 1612 and I am only now just starting to type the entries. This means unfortunately there are no photos in any of today's diaries and all I have really done is just scribble a few lines. We have 2 of our older Oriental Black kittens leaving home tomorrow which meant I had to spend a minimum 2 hours doing their paperwork and preparing for them to leave. Tomorrow, there WILL be photos, one way or another :)

The last 24 hours has been another good day for Heston. He gained weight again, this is now the 2nd day in a row he has gained and not lost. Surely this is a good sign? I must admit that while I am thrilled about this, I am a bit despondent at how his brothers and sisters continue to leap forward in the weight department and they are all leaving him behind now. He has just made it over the 70 gram mark. This is Day 5, if I can get him back up to his birth weight by Day 7, then there is hope. He is such a beautiful child, he does not deserve to be struggling so much and we would appreciate some prayers for our little man please as we have such a very long way to go. Now...............you may have noticed that I mentioned "brothers and sisters"? No, it was not a mistake, I am starting to believe that we possibly have some females in this litter, which is no surprise to me whatsoever. As you can imagine we are desperately hoping our Chocolate tabby is a female, but time will tell. They are all doing very well though and Gordon is the first of our babies to start to open his eyes. It is so adorable and I can't wait until the others follow suit.

Day 4 - September 4, 2007

Before I begin today's entry, there is something I would like to say and that is a huge thank you to everyone who has taken the time to send an email regarding this litter and what we have been through. Graham and I are touched by the people who have contacted us. We have received emails from our kitten families, from novice breeders, from well known/experienced breeders, and some from people we don't even know. Thank you also to those very kind breeders who have taken the time to share some of their own, similar experiences with us. I know how much courage that takes, and we truly appreciate it. If we have learnt anything from this experience, then it is that there are decent and kind people in in this world which sometimes seems so incredibly harsh. As you can imagine, the 2 hourly feeding of Heston is tiring, however, as soon as I am able, I will reply to all of the emails that we have received, and please know how very grateful we both are to all of you who have taken the time out of your own busy lives to get in touch with us.

WOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOO Today, for the first time since he was born, Heston has gained weight in the past 24 hours. I know I shouldn't be too excited, nor should I think he has turned the corner, because we have a heck of a long way to go however, this does show that he has a fighting spirit and he is not ready to go anywhere. At the moment he weighs a mere 64 grams, which some of you will know is incredibly tiny, especially when compared to some of his siblings who are steaming forth in the weight department. I really am just so thrilled with Heston's gain and we are going to battle on until he catches up with the rest of his family. I know there are a number of people who are praying for Heston and thank you so much because the prayers seem to be working. Now on to James......................you will know that I mentioned earlier about his back paw which was bent at an abnormal angle? Well as I had said, I've been very gently massaging and manipulating his paw and I'm really over the moon to see that he is now holding it at the correct angle and all seems to be well with no actual lasting damage. Again this is something I had spoken with Teen about and I was considering putting a splint on it but am so pleased to say there is no need as the massaging has done the job. What will come as no surprise to any of you, is the fact that I am almost certain some of these babies are not male :) One thing we generally find in the litters is that the boys do tend to have much bigger weights than the girls, particularly as they start to really suckle from mum, and whilst weights is obviously not a true and accurate way of determining sex at this very early stage, I can't help but feel some of our Chef's names will actually be changing. Oh, and yes, everyone else made acceptable gains during the weigh in session this morning so things are looking good for the time being.

Day 3 - September 3, 2007

I want to only talk briefly about our Chef's today and then move onto something else, but still very much related to this kitten diary. Again, 5 of our Chef's gained weight but poor little Heston is hanging on by a wing and a prayer at the moment. I am continuing to feed him 2 hourly, and supplement with Nutri Drops every 12 hours and I tell you what, there is no way on earth this boy is going anyway without a huge fight. I don't care what it takes but he is going to make it because I totally refuse to lose him. I was surprised that our other 5 all gained again. It would appear Sami's milk is excellent quality as the children really are doing so very well. This now brings me to something extremely upsetting that had occurred with this litter.................................

There was a 7th baby in this litter, but one I have not felt ready to talk about until this point in time, and even now, it's only thanks to the support and help of my mate, Teen of Maroochydore Siamese & Orientals, that I feel I can at last come to terms with what has happened. I would like to say this does not make pretty reading, however, it is a part of life, and a part of breeding and should not be hidden away as if he never existed. If, God forbid, a novice breeder ever goes through this, then they will hopefully realise they are not the only person to have gone through this, and if they want to talk about it, they can at least contact me. I was horrified when this baby was born because I had absolutely no idea what on earth I was looking it. This poor little soul had no tail at all, and had an open wound on his back, as the minutes passed by, the wound was actually increasing in size. His head was perfectly formed, the back right leg was fused to the body. I have never, in all my times of breeding, seen anything like this little baby and it just broke our hearts. There was nothing at all we could have done for him, not even a vet could have saved him, so we had to let him die and that was so terribly difficult as you can imagine. I have been so saddened and upset by this little baby and last night I finally picked up the phone and spoke with Teen about him. Teen was marvellous and yes, I blamed myself for allowing this accidental mating of mother/son but I couldn't figure out why with a litter of 7 babies, if there had been a "bad" gene that was doubled up on, how come 6 out of the 7 babies were perfectly normal and not deformed. Why wasn't most of the litter like this? As soon as I explained to Teen about the baby, she told me that he wasn't actually deformed and was in fact a kitten with Spina Bifida (goodness only knows if I have spelt that right). She knew straight away what it was and Teen felt that this was not caused by the inbreeding, but was in fact just one of those things. However, that's certainly not how I felt, not even after Teen talked me through it. Bless her, she was an absolute angel. Then today, Teen phoned me this afternoon as I was on my way out the door. Teen had very kindly contacted her own vet and explained the situation to see whether or not this was a result of the inbreeding. I don't think Teen will ever know how grateful I am that she took the time to do this on my behalf. It turns out, according to the vet, that if we had babies born with actual missing limbs, or deformed heads, then that would definitely be as a result of the inbreeding. Apparently Spina Bifida is not caused as a result of inbreeding and the mating and the lines behind the cats had nothing to do with how this child was born. I can not tell you just what a weight this has lifted from my shoulders as I have been carrying such a heavy heart as you can imagine since the birth of these babies. So much so, that last night, I was seriously considering giving up breeding. At the moment, I know very little about this but will make time to research it. The vet says it is quite rare and we have been extremely unlucky. I have just not ever seen anything like this baby in my entire life, and I hope never, ever, to see this again. I do not know why Mother Nature is so cruel sometimes, nor can I understand why God would want to put such an innocent, little baby through that suffering. It makes no sense to me at all and it never will. I will never be able to repay Teen for what she has done for me and I count myself very lucky to have Teen and Tone as friends. I now feel that the time has come to actually put this diary online publicly, something I have not been able to do until now because I always pride myself in being "honest" in the kitten diaries and I don't believe in hiding anything, even when things go horribly wrong, but I have to say that I really did wonder whether or not I wanted to talk about this with the "world" so to speak. It's not be easy, in fact, it's been bloody difficult. This has been the hardest entry to write since July 2005 when we lost Tia Maria. I am glad though, I think, that I have found the courage to talk about it openly and I hope and pray no other little kitten, or their breeder, ever has to go through this. I will never forget that little child as long as I live and the image of him is imprinted in my heart and my mind. He is no longer suffering and is in Rainbow Bridge now and the time has now come to concentrate on the remaining babies and to get Heston to turn the corner. I can't say that the time has come to put this behind me, because that is impossible, this will remain with me always.

Day 2 - September 2, 2007

When I did the weigh in session this morning, I did get a bit of a surprise because 5 out of our 6 Chefs had all gained weight. This is most unusual for a litter of this size during the first 24 hours of their lives. Our baby who lost weight was Heston and I have now supplemented him with Nutri Drops and will be monitoring him very closely all day long. Sambuca is looking quite good considering what she has been through, and considering how many babies she is feeding and she absolutely dotes on her children. I don't know whether or not she and Amaretto will end up sharing the same box, but both ladies are more than happy to be in the same room together with their babies which I expected anyway as they are both such companionable girls. I did manage to take individual photos of our new children today, just a couple, but at least it will give you an idea of who is who.

Antony

Gordon

Heston

James

Gary

Jamie

Birth - August 31 - September 1, 2007

I am ecstatic that this litter has now been born but not for the reasons most of you think. I'm not thrilled because it's always exciting to have new babies, nor am I thrilled that another Oriental Tabby kitten has been born, nor am I thrilled that this "test" mating between mother and son appears to have worked out okay. What I am in fact ecstatic about is that this the LAST litter we will be having in 2007 and now that our last expected lady has given birth, it means that slowly and surely, we can start to get back to normal. We have no more matings planned at all now until 2008 at the earliest. It's been such a hectic year to date with babies, due to Ashanti being slightly more eager than he should have been and this litter is no exception! At some point, we would have done this mating as a "test" mating for pattern and health, but it was certainly not supposed to have taken place so soon. Sambuca had been upstairs with her daughter, her babies, and her sister, and at some point during the early hours of the morning on June 27, 2007, we heard the unmistakable cry of a girl being mated. I flew out of the bedroom only to discover Ashanti upstairs where he shouldn't be! The cause for him being there soon became apparent when I noticed the kitten block missing from the kitten/cat doorway in the stair barrier door. Only one person could have been responsible for this and that is Drambuie. Sure enough, at a later point in time, I saw her do exactly the same thing. So this is how we ended up with Sambuca being pregnant. Now onto the kitten birth itself..........................

Sambuca, being a typical Oriental Black, decided that the time to go into labour would be 9pm at night, just as we were about to have dinner. At 2101 she started to bear down, then at 2109, Baby number 1 popped out. Quite a small baby, but perfectly fine, thriving, incredibly noisy and quite feisty. This was very apparent as he started hunting for a nipple while still attached to his mum via the placenta which had yet to be delivered. Sambuca was a star, nothing new there, she cleaned her baby, delivered the placenta and ate it. I then took the baby from her, examined him, popped him on the scales and within minutes of me giving him back to Sambuca, she was already having contractions and was delivering Baby Number 2. Just like Baby Number 1, Number 2 was delivered with ease, again perfectly normally, although it took longer than usual for Sambuca to deliver the placenta but it did eventually come out. When Sami finished doing "her bits", I picked up Baby Number 2 to examine and weigh him. He was another Oriental Black, and weighed slightly more than the previous baby but he was still quite small. Sami then decided it was time for a snack so I offered some Natures Menu Kitten pouch to her, which she ate, and then settled back to relax with her babies. It was very obvious that she wasn't finished as we could still see movement inside and she was still quite large. At 2232, Sambuca decided it was time to pop out the next baby (I say pop out because that's pretty much exactly how it was) and to my absolute delight, out came a Chocolate Oriental Tabby. Of course, my delight was rather short lived because when I examined him, as he appeared to be male and not female. Never mind, he is still adorable and one day we will get our female Tabby, there is no rush :) Again Sambuca had something else to eat, and then at 2311, out came Baby Number 4 who was born tail/back feet first. Despite this, Sami was in no distress and carried on delivering him as she had done with the previous babies. All was going well until we got to the head because the entire body and the shoulders had come out but the head was still inside. Sambuca stood up, walked around for about 30 seconds, lay back down and then the baby was fully delivered. This baby appeared to have one of his back paws slightly bent in an abnormal shape so once Sambuca had finished with him, I examined and weighed him, and then gently massaged the paw and have continued to do this since birth. I do believe with this litter that as there were so many babies, they were fairly well cramped inside Sami because when each of these babies was born, the first thing they all wanted to do was stretch out their limbs, much more so than other litter we have had and I am wondering if Baby Number 4 was more "squashed" than the others, hence the paw. Obviously this is something we will be keeping a very close eye on throughout the next few days and as he matures. After delivering Baby Number 4, Sambuca was ready to settle down and have an incredibly long nap while her babies all tried to feed. We knew though that she was not finished because I could still feel movement and she was still quite large however, it was now time to play the waiting game. With labour, you can not make the girls go any faster than their body wants to, and it's not unusual at all for a queen to sleep once she has emptied one side. At 0748 the next morning, Sambuca decided she had certainly had enough rest and it was time to deliver kitten Number 5. This baby was another Oriental Black, and again, an extremely smooth delivery, and yet another Oriental Black kitten. We were desperately hoping that this was to be the last baby because in the past, Sambuca has struggled with large litters once they are born, but more particularly with the Siamese babies. We have lost Siamese babies of Sami's in the past which always breaks our heart so for Sami to yet again have another big litter with Siamese in it, worries us greatly and it is going to be touch and go during the next week or so. After Baby Number 5 was born, whilst I could not feel any more movement, Sambuca was still looking quite large on one side. So I came downstairs to start the first of the "birthing" washing (remember that throughout the birth process, particularly if it's going to be a long one, you really should change the bedding quite regularly in between deliveries. It's not nice for a queen to have to give birth on damp, soiled bedding, nor is it good for newborn kittens to be sleeping on damp bedding. I came back upstairs and then at around 0915 the time had come to deliver the final kitten. Another Siamese and again, this time Sambuca did everything herself. In actual fact, while she was delivering this baby, the other 5 babies were trying to feed from her, and Sami just carried on with the delivery whilst letting her other children battle at the milk bar. Sambuca is one of those girls who likes to keep her babies with her during labour and this was no exception at all. About half an hour after the last baby had been born, Sambuca got out of wardrobe, and had something to eat and I was able to examine her and feel for any other possible children. I was relieved that there were definitely no more and that it was all over so I set up the 2nd "posh box" in the kitten room where Amaretto and her new babies are, I put in fresh bedding, put the babies in there, took Sambuca in there. Sami was more than happy with being moved into a room where she has much more privacy and can just bond with her children and enjoy motherhood. I have been popping up into the room every hour throughout the day to check on Sami and her children and she is perfectly content and is certainly a very proud mum. This now brings us to names. Well, we have been waiting for a "Chefs" litter and as the entire litter seems to be male, (although that will change as this time around I really struggled to even hazard a guess), then we have named each baby after our favourite chefs so we would now like to introduce you to.................................................

Baby	Colour	Birth Time	Weight	Sex
Heston Blumenthal	Oriental Black	2109	74g	M
Gordon Ramsay	Oriental Black	2124	85g	M
Jamie Oliver	Chocolate Oriental Tabby	2232	76g	M
James Martin	Siamese (Seal or Chocolate)	2311	81g	M
Antony Worrall Thompson	Oriental Black	0748	78g	M
Gary Rhodes	Siamese (Seal or Chocolate)	0920	75g	M

Naturally, our babies will be collectively known as the "Chefs" which is a nice short name for me to have to type :) It has been a very long 24 hours because as well as the birth, we also had one of our older babies, Ice Maiden, who left us today to go and live with her new family, so it has been incredibly hectic as you can probably imagine. We would appreciate prayers for our tiny little babies as the next week is going to be an extremely anxious one, going off past history. At this point in time, I will not be advertising any of these babies on the web site as I want to see how they get on, or whether or not we have any problems prior to taking any inquiries from them. As this is a very close inbred mating, the closest we could have done as this is a mother/son mating, these babies have to be monitored very closely for possible problems, more so than any other litter we have ever had. Considering the closeness of the mating, so far everything appears to be quite normal as all the babies, whilst being so small (but as mentioned typical for a Sambuca litter with this many babies), are extremely feisty and we have already had some rather horrendous nipple battles. There is definitely milk coming through because I was expressing it throughout the labour to try and encourage those who had already been born to latch on. Right now, I still have mountains of washing to do to say nothing of the normal feline related chores. Since mating Sambuca, Ashanti has not mated any of our other females as we have kept him under incredibly close supervision as you can imagine. At this rate his next mating will not be until 2008.

Birth Photos