Well I'm happy to say that the Charmed Ones are no longer in the kitten crate. I don't personally believe in penning cats/dogs, however, when the babies first start moving around, it is safer for them to be in a large wire crate so that no harm can come to them. Anyway, our girls are now almost 5 weeks old so they are downstairs here in the same room as me. The crate is still set up though so the girls can retreat to it when they are tired or if they want security, however the crate door is now left permanently open so they can come and go as they please. So far, they have been making the most of being able to explore another entire room. Of course the problem is now that I am constantly counting them to make sure none have gone missing, not that there is anywhere they can even go! Piper was fascinated by a little ball with a bell in and spent quite a lot of time trying to figure it out. Tia is a nervous wreck as she is only used to her babes having the run of the kitten room. She's not particularly keen on them having the run of another room as well, but the girls are absolutely loving it. It's wonderful just watching them explore everything and play little games. We are still battling with weaning, however, as each day passes, we are getting more successful with it so that is a bonus. As they are not quite 5 weeks old yet though, we're not expecting 100% success however by the time they are 6 weeks of age, they should all be eating properly.

Now it will be case of waiting to see if they develop these colours true to form or whether or not they change completely and we have it all wrong. I don't know what the girls are going to think of their new room mates when the Oriental babes move in there tomorrow. Knowing the Orientals though, it won't be long before they are making their presence known and ruling the room!

A short diary entry today as I won't be here for most of the day. It's the first time I've spent more than 1 hour away from the kittens since they were born so I will be making the most of it. I wasn't going to take any photos today as I am very pushed for time, however, I couldn't resist taking a few of the girls wrestling so I hope you enjoy them. The girls were really very funny last night. Their play antics keep us amused for ages. Piper and Paige are definitely wrestling partners. Every time they are awake, Paige is lying on her back with her paws in the ear, biting Piper who is attacking her from above. Pru sits and watches them for a while and then eventually joins in, however she would much rather spend them time getting cuddles of us humans than wrestling. Phoebe will play fight with anyone who offers. She normally waits until her sisters have their back turned and then she will jump on them and bite them on the ear. Tia was a bit annoyed with them last night as they wouldn't leave her alone. Every time she got comfortable they were walking all over her head and chewing her ears. The little girls don't have much respect for their mum. Ice came into the kitten room last night and it was the first time that the girls have been awake when another cat has been in there. They thought he was wonderful. He wasn't sure what to make of the tiny little beings, however, he sniffed all of them and the girls thought Ice was another play toy for them. They started jumping up at him, nibbling on his legs and Ice just stood there watching them with amusement. I'm happy to say that our girls made really good weight gains last night as well.

Yaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy. Weaning success at long last :) Up until now, I had been trying milk based products to wean the babies on, and as you have probably read by now, we weren't very successful. Last night in desperation, I grabbed a tin of Iams Kitten pate, put a teaspoon on a saucer, and tried that. I took Tia out of the room first to see if perhaps I would have more success if it was just me and the girls. Mind you, the theory behind having Tia in the room when I was trying to wean was that the girls will learn far better from their mum than from me and if they saw Tia lapping from a saucer, it would in fact teach them what they were supposed to do. So anyway, I sat on the floor with the girls, put the saucer down, picked up each girl and brought her to the saucer to see what they thought of the smell, and next thing you know, both Paige and Phoebe, were standing in the saucer, eating as if it were their last meal. They finished that teaspoon and then polished off another teaspoon. Piper was interested, and had a few sniffs and a few licks but that was all. Pru wasn't really sure what to do so we will just have to persevere with her. It's wonderful to have finally made progress and to watch our little girls eat like real little people now. We are finding it much more difficult to keep them in the kitten pen now as all they want to do is to have more and more freedom. They now try and climb out of the pen (they're very good at it) and as quick as they climb up the barrier, I put them back in. In another week, I may have to give up the pen idea with them and let them roam around in the room that the pen is in as I can just close the door and they can't go anywhere. I went a bit overboard on the photos today as you can see however I managed to get some nice pics of the girls playing in the Kitten Room.

Poor Phoebe got in big trouble last night. I was in the kitten room and the babes were running round all over the place while Tia looked on, wondering how to control them I think. Anyway, Phoebe came bounding out of nowhere, ran straight up to her mum and smacked in the face as hard as she could! Tia was most unimpressed and growled at Phoebe, and gave her a right talking to. After that, Phoebe went and sat as far away from mum as possible for about 5 minutes before venturing out to play again. Now I know why Tia keeps stuffing them back in the wardrobe because as soon as they are out and playing, they turn into very active, very naughty, very crazy little babies. I also now know that it is Tia that puts them in there, they don't go in of their own accord because I caught her in the act last night. Phoebe is the little "bully" in the litter and she attacks her litter sisters from above whereas Piper is more cunning, she goes in from below, and attacks that way. Paige got in trouble from me last night because she bit my toe really hard. Her and Pru often have wrestling matches with each other now and it's very funny to watch. She didn't hear me come into the kitten room and as I went through the door, she had Paige in her mouth and was putting her in the wardrobe. She has the real problem with letting her girls become independent. We had some excellent progress with their development last night and this morning. I was weaning last night, and there was more interest than usual in the food. They all sat and watched mum lap from the saucer so then I picked up each girl individually and smeared some of the food on their mouths. They then sat there licking it all off and Piper actually lapped some up herself. Unfortunately, not from the saucer, she preferred to eat from the floor, however, at least she made the decision to have some herself so I was really pleased. Then this morning, as soon as I went in the room, the babies came bounding from the wardrobe, and Phoebe went straight to the litter box and went to the toilet. I am totally thrilled and came running out to tell hubby (who was very proud of our little girl), then when I went back up, she was lapping some water from the water bowl. It looks like we are finally starting to make progress with the weaning and the litter training so it's wonderful.

A fairly quiet day today as I had some housework to catch up on so the Charmed Ones didn't come downstairs until about 11.30am. Tia, as usual, spent the first hour trying to cart them back upstairs so we had quite a battle. I also now have realised that the babies don't go into the wardrobe upstairs by choice. I think that Tia forces them in there. The reason I've come to this conclusion is that whenever I go in the Kitten Room, the girls come hurtling out of the wardrobe to say hello and to have lots of play time. They are never running around playing as I open the door though, it's not until after I actually go in the room. I honestly don't think Tia lets them out of the wardrobe. Still no success with the weaning, however, the girls showed a lot more interest in the food today which was a good sign. After I smeared some on their little mouths and noses they were more than happy to lick it off so at least that is promising. Sooner or later they'll figure out that I'm not really trying to poison them and the food actually does taste good! As I write this, Tia is now curled up in the pen with her girls, some of whom are sleeping, and some are feeding so I'm really enjoying the peace and quiet! Today's photos are again of our girls at play. Tomorrow I'll be taking (or attempting) to take some decent photos of each girl individually.

I truly do not know where they time has gone. I can't believe our babies are a month old today! They gave me a bit of a scare last night as I went into the kitten room to check on them at 11.30pm only to find the kittens had vanished. I looked behind and all round their little sofa, in the cat bed, in the box, under the quilt that lives on the floor and they weren't there. After a few seconds of panic, I looked in the little wardrobe and they were all curled up in there playing with each other. I'm not sure if they went in the wardrobe of their own accord (they kept going into it yesterday) or if Tia decided it was a good place for them to be. After making sure they were all fine, I went and got some more bedding to put on the floor in the wardrobe as it's just floorboards in there and I was worried about a draught. Sure enough, when I checked on them first thing this morning, they will still in the wardrobe, fortunately on the bedding, rolling around, playing and chewing each other's ears. Their weight gains were rather surprising last night. 2 of our girls had gained 20 grams whereas the other 2 had gained 25 grams! Phoebe is now getting an interest in the bowls in the kitten room. I was pleasantly surprised when I went in there today to find her lapping water from the edge of the bowl. Tia has been an absolute nightmare today! Every time my back is turned she has picked up a kitten to take her out of the pen. For some reason she is happy to let them run around like lunatics in the kitten room, yet today, every time they moved in the pen she tried to pick them up. She gave the girls a stern talking to as well today because she was trying to sleep and they thought it was playtime and kept grabbing at her head and ears as well as walking all over her so she was most unimpressed and let them know about it in no uncertain terms. There's quite a few photos for today's entry, and they are mainly of the girls playing about in the pen. We still aren't getting anywhere with the weaning. I changed the diet today to evaporated milk and egg yolk but apart from the girls standing in the saucer and sniffing at it, there was no interest in tasting it, not from the bowl, nor from my finger. Still, I will just try again later this evening, and tomorrow, and the next day, and the next...........