Rosie's in labor!

She's already had 2 kittens but, unfortunately, we lost the first one. She gave birth under my bed, I didn't even know till my dog was trying to get under there The 2nd one we got her into her area on time. Took her a bit to get used to it, at first she kept growling at it and trying to bite it's head. It's currently trying to nurse (keeps missing the nipple even though I've tried to help) and is relaxing. I feel one more in there, hopefully that'll be all. I'll update when the next kitty shows up.

Baby 3 is here!

How exciting! Can't wait to see pictures.

She just had baby 4!

Originally Posted by P&R

She just had baby 4!

Click to expand...

oh my goodness

Ok, so she had 4 (the first passed) a girl and 2 boys. We do have an issue, though. She wont stop growling at them, is refusing to feed them and has bit a few of them, hard, and wont stop. I don't know what to do. I'm worried for the kittens safety but I know they need to eat

you may need to feed them. If you are unable to get KMR there are recipes for formula in the kitten care forum. I have never seen a Mom biting her babies. Hopefully someone here has some advice for you

Ok, things are looking better. She's feeding the kittens now and taking a nap herself, but only as long as I'm here. I had to kinda force her to do it because, while I got the last kitten to feed from the bottle, the other two refused and would NOT do it. So I rubbed her chin till she layed down then positioned the kittens closer to her and they went for it and she let them!

In other news, I think she may have one more in there! IF there is I'm really hoping that's all, we shall see. It's been, about, 2 hrs since baby 4 was born and I know they can go a day inbetween births, lets home not!

babies 2 & 3 (I think the left is the boy, he was #3, and the right is the girl)


again


all 3 babies (each one is darker than the one before!)


baby 4, I think it's another boy.

Carly growled at her kittens the first day whenever they cried but she never bit them. I think in first time moms they aren't clear what these little things are so they protect themselves. The momma hormones should kick in in about 24 hours and she should be okay. The more they nurse the faster she will take to them as long as they are healthy.

If I hadn't had Baby Girl since she was 5 weeks old I would have swore this was not her first litter. I guess she was born to be a mama. Lol. Thank God. I really expected to have some problems at first because it was her first litter. I think it's pretty normal.

Update:

Got her to nurse for 35 mins, but, again, I had to sit there and pet her the entire time, but whatever it takes! She got a hold of one of the kittens and bit his foot He's got a pretty good gash (basically she almost took off his "pinky" toe) and now that she's done nursing she's back to growling at them, but she's loving on EVERYONE else (even the dogs, which is HIGHLY unlike her!) She's letting the dogs go by the kennel and sniff with no problems, and she'll sit and watch them from a distance, but she will not go anywhere near them. She picked up one of the kittens and moved him twice (the youngest and biggest) once she moved him to a corner by himself (out of the kennel) then went to another corner, the 2nd time she moved him from a corner to behind the bathroom door and sat there with him, but that was it. She hasn't "attacked" him, just the other two (and the first one, that she killed ). I really hope that her maternal-ness kicks in soon, it's gonna be a long night, though. Been 7 hrs since the last kitten was born and I'm still sure that there's another in there. If nothing happens come the morning I'll give the vet a ring and see what he wants to do. In all honesty, at this point in time, my ABPT, Sasha, (who was used as a breeder dog and had at least 4 litters) is more interested in the kittens than Rosalie, Zoey is hiding somewhere and refuses to come out, Scarlett (my mini bull terrier) looks totally lost. I'm thinking maybe I'll get lucky and have one of those dogs who spontaniously starts lactating, I'm sure she'd take in the kittens with no issues (I had a dog who did this for a rabbit we had!). We shall see.

Maybe for now you should take the kittens away from mama and put them in a warm nest. Then take them to her for the feedings. The problem is that they should feed almost constant the first 36 hours. I wouldn't leave her alone with them. I know it sounds bad but there might be something wrong with all the kittens except the one she isn't attacking. You may lose them anyway. I hope not, and I'm not saying you shouldn't do everything you can to keep them alive (I know I would). But you might be hand raising these babies. If she'll care for the one then you should probably let her. If she's still got a kitten inside then maybe she's in pain and that's why she is acting this way?? Baby Girl was my first and hopefully my last pregnant cat. It has been exciting and great but I don't want any more of my babies having babies.

So far it's been rough. I've been sitting with her for feedings every 2 hrs and get about 30 mins out of her, but this last time I tried and she sort of refused. I have them in a box, with blankets, in the kennel, with a heat lamp over it, and she's in the bathroom with them (the kennels in the bathroom). Though I'm worried she somehow managed to get one of the kittens (the main one she's "going after") out, but she didn't kill it (thank goodness) she just seperated him from the others and left him on the floor by himself. I just got done bottle feeding them and he's the only one refusing the bottle feed, yet he feeds like a champ off of mama. They're going to the bathroom really well, not seeing any signs that they're not getting enough fluids. Lets just hope things go well and they all make it.

There's a reason she's separating that one. There's probably something wrong with it that you cannot see. Cats have innate abilities to detect defects in their young and they do the humane thing and kill them right away instead of letting them suffer. In the wild they wouldn't be able to make it if they had birth defects so it's nature's way of survival of the fittest. I'd probably just remove that one and feed it 100% of the time if you want to risk it and keep it.

So somewhere between the 4Am feeding, and when I woke up at 630, she had 2 more kittens, unfortunately we lost one. She didn't do anything bad to them, but rather she didn't do anything at all. She cleaned them up then just left them there, didn't feed them or anything. The remaining kitty (another girl) is doing really well, eating like a champ and being with her siblings deff helped keep her alive. I guess she was born second, the other kitten must've just been left alone too long. I tried everything to warm him up and feed him, but there was only so much I could do I'll post some pics later.

So she had a total of 6 but only 4 survived. I am so sorry you lost the 2 little ones. I take it mama still is not accepting them.

I swear up and down that Carly would have been exactly like that if I hadn't been there to help her. She was very obviously a first time mother and had NO idea what to do with her kittens. I had to remove all sacs because she wouldn't, I had to stimulate breathing because she didn't, and I had to hand her the kitten so she'd chew the cord off. One of them she just wouldn't so I had to cut it. Is this Rosie's first litter? It sounds like she's probably really young and has no idea what to do and her instinct to protect and care for them hasn't kicked in for whatever reason. I hope they all make it.

Wow, how rough all of this must be for you hun! Sending vibes to Rosie and her remaining babies. Here's hoping the motherly instinct kicks in soon.

Thanks guys. Yes, this is her first, and LAST litter, she'll be spayed ASAP. She'll be a year old July 26 (so she's nearly 11 months). So far, no. She's stopped growling at the kittens, and she's more curious, but when I let her get near one of them (without me holding her down) she grabbed him and tried to run off with him. I'm sure she would've just put him down somewhere and left him rather than hurt him, but I'd prefer not to let that happen either. So far the remaining kittens (yes, she had 6, babies 1 and, I'm guessing, 5, didn't make it) are doing very well. They're eating 4-8ML each feeding and get fed about every 3 hours.