Platinum's bengal kitten thread

kai bengals

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Our silver black spotted girl Platinum was bred to our brown spotted boy, Loki.
She had her babies today, Nov 26th, the day before Thanksgiving.

She's a seasoned mom, so this was all a piece of cake for her. The only nervous beings, were us. She started giving birth around 6 am and by 9 am, when I had to leave for work, she already had 5 kittens.

By noon, she was done, having delivered 8 kittens total, with 7 alive and thriving. Unfortunately one was stillborn. Platinum has 8 nipples for feeding, so maybe having one left over for rotation is a good thing. She has successfully raised as many as nine kittens without incident, so we are confident she will do well.

Of course food for her will be piled high and be plentiful to keep her strength and milk supply up. Naturally it is of paramount importance to keep the queen fat and healthy during the nursing period. Platinum is a smart girl and eats like a pig while nursing, so she doesn't become rail thin like some queens do.

So anyway, I'm starting this thread to chronicle this litter. I know some of you may be interested in what it takes to raise a litter of pedigree'd cats.

What we know so far:

~7 viable kittens, all spotted, maybe 3 or more silvers, too early to tell. Hopefully all the kittens are still doing well by tomorrow.

~Haven't checked gender yet.

~Platinum looks content, clear eyed and calm. She has this "I've got this down, no worries" look on her face.

~I should have gotten a pic of her prior to delivery, she looked like she swallowed a lumpy sleeping bag.

~first baby pics coming soon.
 

goldenkitty45

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OHHH MYYYY Nial - EIGHT babies. What you are putting in the water???? Can't wait for pics of the little ones. Hoping Jack's breeder will have new pics in another week (when they are 2 months old). They are in the fuzzy stage and she's a little reluctent to take pics as you lose the spots for a few weeks till the coat drops back out.

I told her I didn't care - wanted to see more of the body and head/ear development - I know where the spots are.....
 

katkisses

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Awwwwww, I look forward to seeing their pics & read about them! It's neat to hear about 'behind the scenes' at a cattery, very interesting to me!

Is it sorta rare for the whole litter to be spotted? I bet momma is very, very content right now with her babies, awww.

Sorry to hear about the little one that didn't make it.
 

goldenkitty45

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If you breed spotted to spotted, the majority will be spotted. Depends on the background. With Ocicats you have spotted, classic, ticked and pointed because you have all them from the 3 cat combo. However, the more spotted you have in the background, the less likely you would get the other patterns.

Works same way with the Bengals.
 
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kai bengals

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Everything is looking good. Platinum and babies got fresh bedding, and the heat in her room has been adjusted up to around 80F. Just in case a kitten wanders off in the wrong direction and Platinum doesn't notice. Don't want any chilled kittens. In a week or so, they'll be able to regulate their own body temp much better.

I'm still thinking 3 silvers and 4 browns. I'm on the fence about 1 of the silvers. May be a brown as well.

Didn't handle the kittens much this morning, just checked them over to see that all was well, so don't know the genders yet.

Platinum was purring up a storm and making biscuits. She's a happy girl.

Here's a pic of the whole litter piled up on each other and momma.

 

abymummy

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Originally Posted by Kai Bengals

~I should have gotten a pic of her prior to delivery, she looked like she swallowed a lumpy sleeping bag.
She SO did not look like a lumpy sleeping bag...she looked like she swallowed a bowling ball whole! I was there remember???


Well done Platinum! (and Terri of course!)
 

gingersmom

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Oh, they are sooooooo sweet - I love me a pile of spotted baby bengals!!!


And look at Platinum in mid-biscuit, she looks so content with her babies nursing.


I sort of have to agree with Adilah on the pre-birth bowling ball look. Or maybe an entire sack of Idaho potatoes. But lumpy sleeping bag? Yeah...no.


Thanks for sharing the picture, Nial. Have a great Thanksgiving!
 

kittieshasme

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Beautiful babies and a beautiful mom.


I hope you post lots of pictures of them over the next few months.

As they grow up, would you also tell us why one kitten would be considered a better show prospect than another? I'm curious about how the standard is actually applied.
 

ferriscat

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Congrats on such a large litter!
I hope they all turn out to be Supreme material


My Sabre also recently had a huge liter of nine (11/19) How are you managing the milk situation? I've been up at all hours supplementing. . .
 

skewch

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Wow, those are absolutely beautiful kittens, and of course momma is gorgous too! I love the way they look, especially the brown ones...they are very impressive, stunning kittens. Have fun with them!!!
 

goldenkitty45

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Oh wow - they are all adorable Nial
Lots of spots....


But I want to do the guessing game as to which is better as they grow up. I had a lot of fun picking out which ones were good/better and learned a lot as to why Nial chose different.
 
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kai bengals

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Originally Posted by Abymummy

She SO did not look like a lumpy sleeping bag...she looked like she swallowed a bowling ball whole! I was there remember???


Well done Platinum! (and Terri of course!)
Yes, but you didn't see her the night before she delivered, those babies were sticking out all over.


Originally Posted by GingersMom

I sort of have to agree with Adilah on the pre-birth bowling ball look. Or maybe an entire sack of Idaho potatoes. But lumpy sleeping bag? Yeah...no.
Ok, I can go for the sack of potatoes.


Originally Posted by KittiesHasMe

Beautiful babies and a beautiful mom.


I hope you post lots of pictures of them over the next few months.

As they grow up, would you also tell us why one kitten would be considered a better show prospect than another? I'm curious about how the standard is actually applied.
Yup, sure will. There is brown spotted boy that has Loki's pattern. I imagine he'll be show quality.

Originally Posted by FerrisCat

Congrats on such a large litter!
I hope they all turn out to be Supreme material


My Sabre also recently had a huge liter of nine (11/19) How are you managing the milk situation? I've been up at all hours supplementing. . .
Thanks, that would be great, but I see a couple of kittens with some barring behind the front leg. Not show worthy in my opinion.
As for the milk, Platinum is a champ in that dept. She's excellent at keeping all the baies well fed. Our job is to give her as much food as she can eat.

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

Oh wow - they are all adorable Nial
Lots of spots....


But I want to do the guessing game as to which is better as they grow up. I had a lot of fun picking out which ones were good/better and learned a lot as to why Nial chose different.
Sure Martice, go for it!
 
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kai bengals

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The kits are all getting big now, with full bellys. Platinum is eating heartily to keep her milk supply going strong.
She jumps up and runs out of her kennel to greet us when we go into her room. Mostly to see if we've brought something more intresting to eat than her kibble.

Handled the kittens a bit more today. There are 3 that I'm sure are silvers. 2 boys and 1 girl. The other 4 are defintely browns. 2 boys and 2 girls.

Of course the one that looks to possibly be a great show prospect is a boy.

We certainly don't need another boy.


It's way too early to tell anything though, they'll change quite a bit in the next 3 weeks.
 
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kai bengals

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Here's my current favorite of the 7 kittens:

Brown rosetted boy, "Bogey" He's the biggest. Interesting pattern and I love the lack of congestion of pattern down his back (not pictured). This is a tell-tale Loki kitten.

 
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