Day 13 - July 21, 2007

I know, that by the time we reach middle to end of October, I am going to be looking at our Detectives, and looking back through the kitten diary and I'm going to wonder how the heck we made it through. We have had some tiring litters in the past where we have hand fed etc. but this is totally exhausting at the moment. Sherlock is my main concern as he is not putting on weight as well as his brothers or sisters, he really is struggling so we would appreciate some prayers for our little man please. We are now up to Day 13 which means we only have approximately 8 more days and then I can try to early wean our Detectives and hopefully by this time, all of our Nuts will be eating from a plate which will make life a little easier when it comes to weaning the Detectives. One thing I would like to say is........................I WAS RIGHT!!!!! :) :) :) When the Detectives were born, I did take a gamble and sex them straight away and I am delighted to say that I was spot on with the sexes..........first time for everything and I know that Julie will be very proud of me :) So just to clarify, we have:

Baby	Colour	Sex
Sherlock	Seal Tabby Point Siamese	Male
Miss Marple	Blue Tabby Point Siamese	Female
Nancy Drew	Blue Tabby Point Siamese	Female
Frost	Oriental Blue Spotted Tabby	Male
Morse	Oriental Black	Male

This does now mean that a couple of our Nuts & Detectives will be looking for new homes towards the end of October and they have now been advertised on our Oriental Kittens For Sale page. Having said that, we have such a very, very, long way yet to go with our Detectives so I'm not particularly bothered whether or not we find the "right" homes for them or not at the moment. They are really starting to mature now and are becoming such time wasters because when they aren't feeding, they are rolling around in the box, trying to catch their toes, and trying to smack each other and have little wrestling matches. They truly are the most adorable babies in the world.

Day 12 - July 20, 2007

I keep promising myself that I really must look at these babies of Tia Lusso's and actually determine colour and sex once and for all, yet I never seem to remember to do this. By the time I finish feeding all 9 babies, the thought of then examining them all is too depressing :) The only one that we really know for certain so far is Frost who is a definite male. The Detectives aren't doing too badly. They are continuing to gain, despite just having the one mum now, and some of the gains are small, but they are still gains. It's going to be really hard work getting them to the 3 week stage where I can start to try and wean them, but they are all definitely going in the right direction and that is all that matters for the time being.

Today, the Nuts and the Detectives' kitten diaries are exactly the same, apart from photos. The reason for this is that the changes we had to make yesterday affect all 9 our of children equally. As you know, we took Amarula to the vets yesterday as we are extremely concerned about her condition, or should I say, lack of condition. She had an extremely thorough examination by Jo and that was not easy as it took both Graham and I to hold her while Jo took her temperature etc. Amarula was extremely stressed, and while she's always been a difficult child when it comes to being examined or having medication administered, I've never seen her behave like this at all. Eventually though, Jo finished and we had a chat about the situation and Jo asked how old the babies were. I explained the situation about her and Lucy being together with the 9 kids and their ages, and said to Jo that if necessary we can start to early wean. Jo felt that the best thing for Amarula is get her away from the babies straight away and that early weaning is going to be the only option. This is something I hate doing and I'm going to have to be extremely careful because if I rush into early weaning with too many rich foods, then this can upset the Nuts' digestive system, so we'll be going along the lines of evaporated milk mixture, organic baby rice, and some mashed up, very soggy, very diluted James Wellbeloved kitten biscuits. The reason for the evap. milk mixture is because of the protein from the eggs, and the energy they will get from the honey, the baby rice is to help get a bit of weight on them without upsetting their tummies, and the JW biscuits are because these are extremely bland, and also high in protein. The Nuts will of course continue to feed from Lucy but it is imperative that I get them eating as quickly as possible to take as much pressure of Lucy as we can because it is also very important that the Detectives don't suffer weight losses due to the bigger babies hogging the milk bar. The only way to stop this happening is to keep the Nuts' tummies full with "proper" food so that they are less inclined to feed from Tia Lusso. When we came home from the vets, the first thing we had to do was set up somewhere for Amarula to be where she could be on her own to rest, and where she can see, smell, and hear some of our adult cats so that she doesn't feel alone, and where she also knows we are right there. She can not be anywhere near her babies because if she is, this will make her even more upset than she already is, nor can she feed them because she is now on Prednicare which is a steroid based drug. As you know, the Nuts and the Detectives are upstairs in the 2nd kitten room and their door is permanently closed for the time being. Our other babies still have their own kitten room but they also have the run on the house 24/7, so the only place for Amarula to be is in Graham's room. So we set up a huge pen in there although I would like to say here that we do not believe in penning or crating any of our fur family members unless very exceptional circumstances apply such as this one. The pen is massive, large enough for a fully grown GSD, so she has plenty of room, she has her own special diet, a raised bed off the floor, and the pen is half covered with a sheet so that she has privacy if she wants it, and she is not close enough to really see any of the other babies in the home as this would be so upsetting for her because she is such a very good mum and now we have taken her babies from her. I can't imagine what she must be thinking and I feel so incredibly sorry for her and we will both just be so very relieved when our little girl is her normal self again. We have another appointment for her on Saturday (yes, at the moment with what we are paying in vet fees between c-sections, babies, ultra sounds etc. all the staff can probably afford luxurious holidays) and Jo will have another look at Amarula and we will take it from there. One thing that I would like to say is that we are so incredibly lucky to have Jo, Clair, and all the fantastic staff at Brook Veterinary Surgery. We could not ask for a better team to care for our precious fur children and both Jo and Clair are extremely thorough, they are brilliant with our fur kids, and we are just so lucky to have great vets on hand the moment we need them, both during hours, and out of hours. If you breed, it is of paramount importance that your vet will always be there for you and that you have a vet who is calm with the fur kids, and who knows what they are doing, in short, your vet is your best friend and that is what we have. As you can imagine, between the early weaning, the syringe feeding, monitoring Amarula and keeping an eye on our older fur brats, I have very little time at the moment. One good thing about Amarula being downstairs and penned is that the washing will decrease dramatically which is such a bonus because since the Nuts were born, our washer and dryer are on the go from 7am until about 10m every single day. Having said that, we are aiming to get her back to normal and out of the pen as quickly as humanly possible. As for our Nuts and Detectives, I honestly don't know yet what they are thinking about having just the one mummy but I do feel so very grateful that Tia Lusso is one of the best mum's you could ever get and I know that if I had to make the Nuts "orphan children", then who better to see to their upbringing that Tia Lusso. She loves them as if they were her own children, well to be fair, she probably thinks they are her own children. Some people do think I am insane for mating more than one mother at the same time, but now you can see the reason why. If no one else in the home had babies at the moment, then those 4 Nuts would be totally on their own with no feline mum to look after them. At least this way, they are missing out on absolutely nothing and remember it is what they learn from their mum's that teaches them how to be social kittens, and teaches them right from wrong, and litter training, and playing. Their mum's teach them how to be kittens, a human can not do that. So yes, while it is bloody hard work having more than one litter at a time, I will not ever do it any other way. Now that Lucy has sole responsibility of all 9 children, her food intake has been increased dramatically. With the situation with Amarula as it was, she could only be fed on the JW biscuits, fish, chicken, and the sensitive prescription diets, but now that she is out of the room, Lucy is back to having all the very good, rich foods, such as Hills a/d, Natures Menu, Hi Life. Obviously she is still offered roast chicken and poached fish daily because that is what our adults and other kittens also get, but at least now she is getting more than enough to keep her in condition while she cares for the Nuts and the Detectives. Like Amarula, we will be monitoring Tia Lusso closely to make sure that the 9 children are not too taxing on her and we are desperately hoping when our other lady goes into labour (by the way, the ultrasound showed 3 healthy heartbeats so we are delighted and have come to the conclusion that they are just lazy babies who don't move around much) that our other new mummy will be happy to share the 2nd kitten room with Lucy in which case, she can also assist if need be and their babies can be raised together. On that note, it's now time to feed again..................................

Day 10 - July 18, 2007

Again today, all entries are not particularly long and there are not too many photos. The reason for this is that we have a vet appointment today for one of our due ladies to have an ultrasound as she is due in a couple of days' time and we can not feel any movement at all. So that will be a double appointment for the scan, then we are also taking Amarula to the vets with us as we are still not happy at all with her condition and we need something to be sorted out asap. So between, and a few bits and pieces of running around, then it's going to be a busy day.

Morse has been doing extremely well during the past few days, and has been making daily gains of 10 grams and more which I'm delighted with. Sherlock isn't doing quite so well at the moment and he only made a gain of a couple of grams during the past 24 hours so I'll be monitoring him extremely closely as you can imagine to try and get his gains back up to at least 10 grams a day. Our other 3 Detectives are all doing fine, however, I am rather sad to have to say that upon extremely close examination last night, Frost is definitely a male and not a female so he certainly won't be staying here. This is disappointing but at the end of the day, we will always be producing Oriental Blue Tabbies and sooner or later, a little blue girl will come along just for us :) At 10 days of age, Lucy's babies are becoming more active, and more alert every single day. They are so much more aware of their surroundings now and they are starting to groom each other, and themselves. I am happy with their progress for the time being but they are still so very young and it will be a little while yet before I fully relax about any of them.

Day 9 - July 17, 2007

Right, what are we up to with our Detectives? Well, Morse and Sherlock are both continuing to gain weight and one difference in the past couple of days is that both babies are feeding from mum's more and more. Up until a few days ago, they just never seemed to be interested in nipples, or they would try, get pushed off by the bigger kids, and just not bother, but now, when I go up into the kitten room, it's not unusual to see both of them latched on which really does surprise me. Sometimes, some fur children just need a little bit of a kick start, a helping hand, by way of supplementing and syringe feeding, and then they start to realise that they are big enough and strong enough to do what everyone else does and I'm really hoping this is the case now. Sherlock in particular, can be quite volatile if he wants a nipple that someone else is on and yet again, I am constantly being amazed by the fighting spirit of the smallest babies in the litter. With regards to Nancy Drew and Miss Marple, well they are doing just fine. Remember that last week I was also feeding Nancy Drew? Well now, when I go into the 2nd kitten room and peer into the box, I am hard pushed to tell her and Miss Marple apart due to their size. Not bad hey for a little girl that needed feeding 2 hourly. Miss Marple has never been a problem, just like Frost. Now as for Frost, there is some bone of contention here...........Teen from Maroochydore Siamese & Orientals and I spoke on the phone 2 days ago, we looked over and over at the photos of him in the kitten diary and we both feel, that there is a good chance, he will be a Blue Oriental Classic Tabby, rather than a Spotted, however...........Julie of Lorimnailie Siamese & Orientals looked at him when she was visiting and she feels he is a boy. Now Julie is pretty well spot on with kitten sexing, she's much better than I am at it (but in reality, someone with no eyes at all could probably sex kittens better than I can!). Graham looked at him a couple of nights ago and he says the same as Julie. I personally feel he is a girl, and not a boy. Don't ask me why, just a feeling I have and I have tipped him upside down on more than one occasion, I've held his tail up on more than one occasion and I am just not convinced he is male. Which means of course if, by some extremely small miracle, Frost were to turn out being a female Tabby, then she will not be going anywhere and will stay right here forever. If she turns out to be male, then we will have to advertise him at some point because we can't have any more males in our home now. Time will tell and it will be very interesting to see how he/she actually progresses :)

Day 8 - July 16, 2007

I had very good intentions of getting diary entries online yesterday, however, problems with my computer put paid to that! I had no connection so that was a nightmare, but if that wasn't bad enough, my monitor(s) also died. Today, genius husband solved the problem for me so I'm back on track for the time being.

Day 7 - July 15, 2007

Well our Detectives have now reached the 1 week of age mark and I honestly do not know how. There have been times when I honestly didn't think all 5 babies would get through the first week and while I am relieved that they have, we have such a very long, hard road to travel yet. It has been such an exhausting week, and today I am thinking to myself "just 2 more weeks of syringe feeding then early weaning". So let's start with our Detectives' weights..............................

Baby	Birth Weight	Week 1 Weight	Weight Gain
Sherlock	94 grams	133 grams	39 grams
Miss Marple	106 grams	183 grams	77 grams
Nancy Drew	100 grams	162 grams	62 grams
Frost	101 grams	171 grams	70 grams
Morse	108 grams	125 grams	17 grams

I am actually very happy with Miss Marple, Nancy Drew, and Frost's weekly weight gain but obviously the same can not be said for Sherlock or Morse, particularly Morse who is going through a rather bad patch at the moment and I do have my work cut out with him. Lucy continues to be an excellent mother, to her own children, and to the Nuts and she was most put out at the individual photo session this morning. I lost count of the times she tried to take the children from the top of the box where they were "posing" for me. But at least now, everyone can actually see which baby is which although the photos of poor Morse are just dreadful as per usual, which is always the case when I try to photograph the Black babies. He is such a cute little guy but in today's images he looks like a blob. This coming week will be a tough one as the syringe feeding must continue and my main aim this week is to try and get a weekly gain on Morse and Sherlock of minimum 50 grams. Now whether or not this is possible, I really do not know but my one advantage is that both babies will happily drink from the syringe and don't fight it at all and after each feed, they have gained a few grams so that is definitely a positive sign.