Pregnant Strays -sigh-

I recently moved into a new house and with the new house, came a cat.

Miss Twiggy, as I call her because she is VERY skinny, was a stray. I asked all my neighbours and none of them know of where she belongs. She has decided she belongs on my doorstep where she can scream at the top of her lungs for food and water (she looks and sounds to be part Siamese).

We live in Cebu, Philippines. The overpopulation of cats and dogs is amazing so this has not come to a surprise to me. But this lovely female is pregnant.

I assume that she is pregnant because she has very swollen pink nipples and a growing tummy, not from food.

How far along she is I am not sure. But I am not allowed to have her in the house. The parents and landlord scream NO and she is not a quiet cat so it's not like I can hide her in my room. She would let everyone know she was there pretty much.

So, what can I do to help her along? I am going grocery shopping today to look for some cat food ( I hear kitten food is good.). I have inspected her for fleas and she doesn't seem to have any. She gets a few scratches on her face from fights I assume but otherwise she is very friendly to me, very vocal, and seems to be very nice.

When can I put a flea collar or flea drops on her? I understand flea things and kittens are a big no-no, but how far along does she have to be? Until they are weaned?

Anything else that can help me with a pregnant stray would be SOOOOO helpful. She is staying in my enclosed enterance for now. She can come and go as she pleases and she is safe from rain and storm in there. I just don't know what else I can do for her since I can't bring her inside.

Please help!

Currently, there is very little danger to her from dogs. We live in a gated community so there are very few dogs. There are some but they are quite a ways away. And she tends to stick around our property.

She does allow me to handle her. It took me a little while to convince her of it. But she is very friendly with me now. She comes right to me, knows my voice, will let me pick her up, sit on my lap, etc. She has become quite used to me.
I inspected her for fleas and I found no visible eggs or fleas on her. She is partially black but I checked around her neck and chin and underbelly which are white and she was free of any signs or bite marks.
The only thing that worried me was a bare patch about the size of a quarter on her side. There was no rash, no redness, nothing. She just seemed to lick there A LOT. Now it has cleared up so I think she just had a nervous twitch and licked herself, ya know? But I will soon have her at the vet so she can get a full over vet check.

I do plan on taking her into the vet to get spayed, dewormed, rabies vaccine, etc once she has the kittens. I fear that the stress from getting in a car and going into the city to go to the vet will upset her too much while she is still pregnant. I am going to wait until the kittens are a bit older before I stress her out with that.


She is eating a lot of meat right now and I have put her on kitten food as well. She seems to LOVE wet food and of course is going for that before anything else, especially the ones that taste like fish. She seems to enjoy those the most but I think she just enjoys getting food in general. Tuna is her favourite!

Thank you so much for responding. And thank you for the welcome! I am happy to be here!
When she has the kittens (and If, because there is always an if as to if they will be alive. Especially with how skinny she is and her being young. She doesn't seem to be more than 6 months, she may reject the litter and if she doesn't have them in my enterance, I cannot guarentee I will find them in order to do handfeeding), I will post pictures of her and her little ones.



And do not worry, SHE WILL BE SPAYED! I hate the idea she is having these ones but there is little I can do right now since they do not seem to do abort/spay here. She will be spayed, if I have kittens that do not have homes for her kittens, I will at least be getting them neutered as well.

I called to make an appointment at the vet, and they cannot get me in for another 2 weeks.

However, Twiggy is becoming quite swollen and big. She seems to be getting closer to her due date because she is quite interested in lying down and she is getting pretty stiff. I told the vet and he gave me and the other vets cell numbers so we can call if we notice any problems when the clinic is not open which was soooo nice.

We are Canadians actually haha. The only thing is is anything sent in the mail cannot be guarenteed to get here. From what I was told, there is always a risk that someone may 'lose it' in the mail. I have been to the pet stores here and there are a lot of things that we have back in Canada.
I am planning on getting my dewormer and flea drops from the vet though.

Her birthing box is a big plastic container with a part cut out for her to get inside. Blankets and newspaper are in there because I read that birthing mothers like paper more. I have more blankets set aside for her for once she has birthed and I can clean it out. Am I allowed to touch the babies? I once heard that the mother's will kill or abandon the kittens if humans touch them?

Ahh, okay, thank you! I will test and see what she thinks about it when the time comes.

She is currently eating and being her big ol pregnant self. She has the funny waddle too which is adorable all the same.

Update:
Twiggy decided to bring me a gift today. A dead bird.
Although she is very big and she tends to be quite lazy lately, we know she is still healthy enough to bring back a bird as a present to me.
She looked rather insulted when I threw it in the trash

Update:

So my neighbour at the begining of the month decided he'd help me and take her in. So I said AMAZING! Because I thought she'd have a place to live to raise her kittens until I got her spayed.

Incorrect, he would leave Twiggy outside for 8-10 hours a day and her kittens were inside. No matter how often I told him he had to keep her inside or let her inside when he left for work so she wasn't locked out, he'd say he would, and then wouldn't do it again.
And technically, I cannot break into his house and steal kittens.

Well 36 hours ago we found Twiggy, she'd been hit by a car. We left a note in his mail box to tell him and told him to come tell me if he couldn't take care of them because I would.

He came home and didn't respond so I thought he was.

6am this morning I found the kittens in his backyard. I know there was 3 at one point but we could only find 2. They are EXTREMELY tiny but I know she gave birth about 3 weeks ago. They are about the same size as newborn kittens but they have the development of 3-4 week olds.

I have been feeding them, making them poop, and cuddling them but they are not taking to eating from an eyedropper at all. I pretty much have to force them to eat. I've tried everything! Dishes, straws (hold the one end closed hoping the liquid that is stuck inside the one end, they would try to lick at), syringes, bottles, soft eyedroppers, etc. They will not take to any of it! I have been using my smallest, softest eye dropper to feed them but I have to open their mouths and pretty much make them do it. They keep coming back to eat because they are hungry, but they won't take to the eyedropper at all, they just seem like they wait for me to open their mouths and do it. Any suggestions or warnings here? Any advice, PLEASE

As well, when making them poop, do I wipe them until they start pooping, or until they are finished? How much poop should I be looking for?

Any advice would be a bonus here, I am worried about them. They seem a lot more calm in the last 7 hours but I still feel like I'm doing horrible and I miss Twiggy so much.

The kittens seem to be getting better. I just finished feeding them again and the littlest one, once you put the eye dropper in his mouth, if you put it on his tongue, he will swallow instead of before where he would spit everything up. The bigger one is starting to get the idea but is a little slower.

The black one will go poop a little bit everytime, the tabby one went once today but doesn't go everytime it seems but it says not to worry about that so much. I was just worried really about how much he/she is supposed to be going. The bigger one is for sure a boy, I am almost sure, but the little one I am still on the fence about because it is so small.

Everytime they see me they meow all the time and then I feed them, wipe their bottoms, and they usually suckle the ground some more and fall asleep. I am not sure exactly how much to feed them because I do not have a scale yet but I don't want to overfeed them since they may have not eaten in awhile and it might make their tummies really sore to be overeating. Everytime they wake up, I try to feed them a little bit so it's usually every 3 hours give or take.Their poop is a kind of yellow colour and is kind of like... well it's jelly, is that normal for you guys?

I have a rug lining the box they are in, a couple blankets, and a stuffed cat with a ticking clock in there. Anything I should remove or add?

I am so worried right now just because they are so tiny. But they've made it this far so they are fighters and I am hoping they will put up with this new formula for a little bit longer until I can try them on wet food. Its strange because I read somewhere they can start as early as next week, I do not see them eating wet food in a week and I far from see them doing half of the things they are supposed to. But they really are 3 weeks. They have all the mental traits, but they are far from physically developed it seems. I feel so bad.

Thank you all for your replies and I appreciate the effort you take to give me all the information. I will try to rice in sock thing, they are sleeping quite fine now, but I am going to go buy a thing of rice tomorrow and make one for them.

I am going to find my camera and take some pictures of them, I should have them up by tomorrow. That way you guys can see how tiny they are, I am seriously scared about that. But like you said,StefanZ, they are small because they didn't get fed as often. It still surprised me they are alive at all, and even though there is still a high chance they can die, I am hoping they pull through and make it. A friend of the family lost their cat a few months ago from old age and they said they were thinking of getting another, so if these ones make it, they will see about taking one home. So that is amazing!

And thank you for your regards about Twiggy. I feel soooooo bad and I cried a lot today about it. It kills me because if I was allowed to keep her inside then none of this would have happened. But my landlord and parents prevent that. In fact, I am not even supposed to have the kittens in the house haha, but my parents said I could as long as a promised to find a home for them and remind me on an hourly bases I am not keeping them.

Thanks and I am not going to go by age on these guys to do the worming. I am going to go by weight. Even though it says they can be dewormed at 6 weeks or 8 weeks depending on the brand, I probably wont be doing it until 12 weeks because I fear they will get sick.

May be the dumbest question, but the two may have been peeing when I thought they were pooing lol, because I stimulated the black one just a minute ago and he pooped a big brown smelly poop. It was a little wet but it kept it's consistency and I may have thought it was wet because I was using a wet cloth. I stimulated the tabby, he didn't even pee. It worries me that he doesn't go as much but maybe it's because he's bigger? Maybe he holds more/longer? Is it normal for kittens to be having brown poops at 3 weeks? Should they be using the bathroom by themselves yet?

I am going to wait until the weekend is over before going to take them to the vet. Mostly because they are all closed on the weekends here but as well, to see if they even make it through the weekend. I am really hoping they do but I have to prepare myself that they don't.

These are the kittens, they are not good pictures but they will not stay still.

Haha, I'm sorry

I have more pictures to upload now, I am just getting them on photobucket so I can post them. They were playing and attempting to push eachother down, it was funny. Some of the pictures are overtly cute so I will post them up here soon

Little Black Kitten: (Kind of looks like ET don't ya think? haha)


Tabby Kitten:


Staring Contest:


Playfight after staring contest:




He fell over:


Still with a little milk on his chin:


And I have a favour to ask all of you if you could... what gender are they? I am think boys but I could be wrong :S They both have the same looking genitals so I took a picture of the larger one since the little one is barely there.

Yeah haha, thats what I'm told.


Oh and another update:

My neighbour just threw out 3 more kittens, these ones appear to be 3-4 months old. They told our househelper that he no longer wanted them and wanted them outside. They are currently screaming at his front door but he left for work. They are terrified of me so I don't know what more to do. I can't keep feeding them because I cannot afford to keep 3 more full grown cats who are going to need to be spayed or they will have more babies (who will again need to be vetted or hand reared) so I am not sure what to do. If they are still there tomorrow, I may bring them to our local shelter, which means they will probably be euthanized, but really, I am unsure of what to do. I have to save up now to get these two fixed and vetted, I can't do three more ones who will need it in a month or so. If they were the same age approx. it would be a bit different because I'd have the time to get the money together, but at 18, I cant even take out a loan and my parents will not have any of it because they said us taking care of his animals will only condone him to do it again. Seriously, if this guy ever gets another cat, I am taking it from him, I don't even care. This guy angers me to no end because now I feel like the bad guy for not helping these poor animals.

Little black one went poop and pee again this morning. Right when you start rubbing, he will push (his little legs shoot out straight, it's pretty cute) and he will coo and go.

Tabby cat still did not have a poop but I watched him go to the corner, strain, and pee by himself so I guess that is better than nothing at all. His tummy isn't any more swollen then the other one is and he still eats all the same if not more sometimes so I am not sure.

I bought wet cat food yesterday and I put some down thinking they'd walk through it like they usually do. Tabby cat took right to it and figured out how to eat the solids. The black one would watch him and try to mimic but he didn't get it quite yet but he seems to be a quick learner so he will probably get it soon enough. They are only 3-4 weeks but depending on the resource, some say you can start now some say not for another week or two. But I'm thinking, they are starting their teeth, they are walking and swatting, so if they take, they can at least have a little bit. Plus maybe the new food will make the tabby cat go (-crosses fingers-). There are yellow stains on the carpet but it never seems like poop and more like pee and I'm pretty sure it's the tabby peeing in there because the black one pees everytime I feed him and it doesn't come out a little bit, it comes out a lot, not like he's peed since the last time. The tabby, I could wipe until the cows come home, I swear, and he wouldn't go. I usually try everytime I feed, right before and a couple minutes after once they've calmed down, with a warm face cloth and the tabby doesn't even strain, just yells at me haha.

Well that is the update on them. They seem to be doing good. I have really good faith that the black one will make it. He hasen't given me any problems or worries yet. The tabby does all the kitten things, he just doesn't seem to poop yet. I am really hoping there is a magical poop hidden somewhere in the container that I haven't found yet haha even though I've cleaned it all.


UPDATE:
I went to feed them again and guess what I found? Two nice hard turds. I assume they are from tabby because the other one already pooped this morning before and after he ate haha. Hopefully it was, but it makes me feel good that one of them pooped

In Cebu, there is pretty much no law, so even if I did, they are not going to do much. Its a pretty corrupt society.

And Twiggy was black and white, there is one that is all black that reminds me of her (very skinny, very vocal) but the other is a tabby and the black one has faint tabby stripes.


Thank you everyone for your concerns

Oh, and I have a question

I went out for three hours today and when I came home, I went right in to feed the babies. They woke up and I found poop and pee in the container they stay in (it's a big blue storage container). I know the tabby can pee by himself and I am pretty sure he is pooping by himself too (I know he has twice now). The black one I am sure has pooped once by himself but still responds to my stimulating him while the other will scream at me and refuse (he peed once for me tonight when I tried but he wasn't impressed).

So my question is,
when do I know they are ready for me not to stimulate them anymore? Should I still keep doing it after they eat or should I stop and only do it if I notice them not going?

Thank you for the reply

I am going to go to the vet on Tuesday (I can't tomorrow because he could only get me an appointment for Tuesday) and I told him I wanted everything needed for kittens. Checkups and good kitten food for everyone hopefully!

I am going to look for good litter while I am out tomorrow though and if not I will ask the vet. Otherwise, I will be using stove pellets or something? I don't know if there is non-clumping. In all honesty, I've had a hard enough time finding good cat food, the only brand they supply here is Whiskas I think haha, and thats not really the best thing out there. Hopefully the vet has good quality food and litter.

I stimulated them last night around 10:30pm my time and it is not 8:00pm and no poops, only pees by themselves, so at their next feeding, I am going to be wiping the bottoms. I said I'd wait all day to see if they formed poop, they didn't, so I guess I am on poop patrol again haha.

I am finding myself extremely partial to the black kitten. He's not the 'cutest' of the two, by far, the tabby is down right adorable, but the black one is a sweetheart. I have nicknamed him/her Baby for now because he is so small. But the more I look at what I thought was boy parts, I am thinking we have a girl. Or a boy with really tiny man parts.

Hopefully the vet can tell me on Tuesday It's not really that important to me because either way they are getting altered, but it will probably be important to their new owners if I can't convince my parents to let me keep them (well, the landlord too, but too bad for her haha).

So almost three days again and no poopies. It seems like they only have to go number 2 if I feed them kitten kibble. 4 days ago I mixed kitten kibble and soft kitten food up and they ate a bit of it and then they seemed to go number two. They haven't touched solid food since and they have not went number 2. Lots of pees and lots of eating and they seem fine (bellies are not hard, I seen Tiger, the striped one who I have given a temporary name to, strain once but then he went into the corner and went pee a few minutes later so I think he's just testing his bladder out haha) but no poops. I keep reading everywhere that they are supposed to be pooping but it seems like no luck. I've called 4 veterinarians who have either

a) told me to keep stimulating them x2
b) some will not go poop when on formula because there is no solid food in it
c) bring them in to see me for a checkup.

Their checkup is tomorrow morning at 9am. I went looking for vets today and finally found ONE that I am comfortable with and the best time she could squeeze me in was tomorrow so off to the kitty doctor they go.

Goodness, no one told me how hard this will be haha.

Oh, and I brought the pictures in of their genital areas and guess what? I was told the tabby was indeed a male but the black one is looking more female haha. Ooops :S