Raising Kittens Together

Hi! 

I have three kittens, between 4.5-5 months old. They aren't littermates (long story), but we've had them since they were all about 8 weeks old, and aside from a brief initial adjustment period, I have never seen any indication that they do not view each other as siblings. They do everything together - eating, sleeping, grooming, playing - they basically just move about in a small furry flock. 

My problem is this: one of the kittens is much smaller than the others. I'm not sure how much of this is due to her age (she's the youngest by a week), genetics, or the fact that she was ill when we first got her and didn't grow much in the first month. Anyway, despite her small stature, she is the biggest trouble maker of the bunch, and not only participates in, but also initiates most of the roughhousing between the kittens. However, I'm assuming due to her size, she takes more of a beating than the other kittens.

I've noticed lately that she has several small scabs on her ears, which I imagine were caused by bitten. I never observe the other kittens doing this. Because she's white, I can also see bruising inside her ears where the damage didn't break the skin, but still broke some blood vessels. 

I haven't taken her to the vet for this, because it's not really a medical issue. The scabs are tiny, and I've cleaned them and put antibiotic ointment on them. That said, I have to admit I'm a bit vain, and would prefer that my cat not have raggedy ears. It's not the end of the world if she gets a few battle scars, but since her ears are still whole, I'd like to see if there's any preventative measures I can take.

I figured if anyone would know how to keep kittens from ripping up each other's ears, it would be breeders. I'm guessing that people who are willing to pay the price of a purebred cat probably care somewhat about looks too  

I look forward to your suggestions! 

moonshain said:

I figured if anyone would know how to keep kittens from ripping up each other's ears, it would be breeders. I'm guessing that people who are willing to pay the price of a purebred cat probably care somewhat about looks too  

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Nay, the breeders usually sell their kittens at 12-14 weeks of age. So they seldom do have herds of wild young cats of 5 months age, gnaging and gashing in each others ears!  

I suspect this is mostly an adolescence problem, when they do behave like wild and crazy.  In your case they are a whole herd. Most people do have them in different ages, so you experience it more sharply than most.  

Although I must cofess. A memory arises.  So we took our younger resident, a russian blue kitten, to his first show (and as we saw it later, also his only show). The vet exam, excellent health - but the vet discovers something quite embarrasing for us: in his left ear there is a deep traces of teeth.  Apparently his father and best friend, the massive stud left some visite card after one of their wrestling matches...

Suggestions?  Perhaps if you find more for them to do. So the matches wont be the only merry things to do.  Climbing, looking for birds outside the window...  Look at a video with fishes or birds on...  Do you have a balcony you can wrap in a net??

Are your two other kittens boys?

I mean, many female cats are surprising small.

Welcome to our site and forums!

Good luck!

Ah, that does make sense. 

I like your balcony idea. I'd really like to get them a climbing tree, but everything I've seen is either too small, or out of our price range. My husband got some power tools for Christmas, so I've been trying to see if we could build something ourselves. In the meantime, though, the little demons certainly need something to entertain themselves (although usually the way it goes is we spend a lot of money on awesome cat toys/furniture, and they decide they'd rather play with trash, but what can you do?)

Two of the kittens are girls, and one is a boy. Like I mentioned, the one girl is tiny, but the other is gigantic. I was tracking their weights very carefully when the little one was sick, and the big girl was always much larger than the boy (even taking into account the fact that she's a week older.) Now they look to be the exact same size, but I think the boy is heavier, because he's a pig, and he's been stealing the egg yolks I set aside for the dog (don't worry, once I caught on to what he was doing I stopped letting him). 

I thought my cats were fighting but the scabs on my boy's ears ended up being self inflicted due to food allergies. Does she scratch/groom herself a lot?

moonshain said:

 he's a pig, and he's been stealing the egg yolks I set aside for the dog (don't worry, once I caught on to what he was doing I stopped letting him). 

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Why should I worry?  egg yolks are verry healthsome.  So it is even a standard advice for extra nourishment for nursing queens and recovalescents in some coutries.

The problem is, In many countries there is danger on salomonella on eggs. That is they should always be hard boiled in these coutries.

There are tricks to lessen the risks, but as there ARE still some risk - we cant officially got out with an overall recommendation for raw egg yolks.

although, healthy cats do manage salomonella bacterias much better than humans.  Dogs probably too... 

I like your idea to yourselves make some sort of climbing tree.  Most easiest make it from planks.   /

I'm haven't seen her grooming herself much. Actually she usually gets groomed by one of the other kittens, or my older cat. Are there any indicators which would help figure out if it's self inflicted or from the other kitties?

I said don't worry about the egg yolks because the little demon was gobbling down 6 yolks a day before I stopped him, which I read could give him high cholesterol, or at the very least, make him obese. I still give him a nibble now and then.

I would check to make sure she is not scratching her ears, which indicates ear mites or an ear infection.

If they are minor/small scabs inflicted by the other cats I would not worry too much about the other kittens damaging her ears. It's not likely that they would get rough enough to actually cause scarring or tatter the ears unless they are actually fighting rather than playing. I have four cats who are littermates, I rescued the litter when they were 3 week old feral kittens and I ended up keeping 4 out of the 7 cats in the litter. Even now that they're 3 years old they still sometimes play rough and end up with tiny cuts or scabs but never any real or lasting damage.

Two of them started out very tiny (runts) but one ended up catching up to the rest of the litter. The other one Harley is still much smaller than the others at 7 pounds, she's also the only girl I kept from the litter but she can hold her own with the boys... Two of the boys are about 9-10 pounds  (one of those was the one that was a runt) and the other is 14 pounds.

Yes, right, I second Neko-chan.  Tx Neko-chan for reminding.   

If you dont see clearly traces of all the teeth, small wounds on ears are more probably her self scratching.

Easy happen if they do scratch too vigorously at the ears or near the ears. It can even bleed some.

Cats are natural scratchers, so it doesnt always need to be mites or infections.  But if the least unsure, you must of course check out extra thoroughly.

Here I / we would recommend a check, yes.

Even a vet visit although not necessarily ASAP, but soon enough.