Well, it's about honkin' time! (Emry's kittens are here!)

SO spazzness I am right now, I WAS going to go to sleep, then I decided I had to pee

she had them in the downstairs bathroom, in a little cubby that I had prepared for her just in case.

I missed the births, and only knew they were there because I heard the squeaks O3O, they're all still kinda moist, so they were probably born within the last hour or two, there are atleast 4, but there might be 5, there's a HUGE tortie/torbie that I saw, 1 black (possible tortie) and the others are ginger/cream colored so I wonder if that means Big red ended up being the father of those, but ofcourse with Emry being a tortie herself there's no way to know

for those of you who don't know who big red is, he is a HUGE longhaired ginger (not tabby, just solid ginger) tom that I feed on occasion, Broken tail, a black tom, as far as I know is the only other option for daddy number two since those two are the only two toms I've seen around here.

pictures will come tomorrow, but they'll have to be taken on my webcam, hopefully I'll have a better camera in a few days

Congratulations! So glad it all went off OK, though it is a shame you missed the births. Like everyone, I look forward to pictures.

Well, everyone is nice and dry now, I don't think I've slept..if I have,it's been very little and I don't remember it xD

upon a casual attempt at re-counting I THINK there is actually 7! =O I know for sure there are three ginger tabbies, the torbie, I THINK there's a black one, and it looks like she's had a dilute tortie (double luff <3) gonna be hard not to keep that one(don't need another cat, always wanted a dilute though), because I've always loved dilutes!, and also I think there may be a brown tabby, making seven O3O which was WAY off my original guess of 2-3 xD

I havn't poked them yet but I SO want to D=. but she currently looks at me like >=( , so it makes me nervious, because she's a spazz when it comes to certain things, and she is, from what I can tell so far, going to be a very attentive mother

she happily ate some food (which I had to hold the plate for her u_u

but all the towls are covered in blood, should it be ok here in a bit when I'm more awake if I can pull her away to pull the kittens out and change the towls, or should I wait until tomorrow?

I change the bed soon as she's done with the birth, and then change twice daily following that.

It's also a good time to weigh and sex everyone. 

Keep an eye on her for after bleeding, and I hope she delivered all the placentas since you weren't there to count and make sure. 

I'm no good at sexing newborns, so that'll probably have to wait a few weeks cause I have no idea what to look for, except for the tortie and the torbie, those are obviously 95% most likely  females.

I'll have to see if I can't coax her out once I'm more awake, I'll have to also see if i can find the old meat scale (which goes up to two pounds) to wiegh the little sausages lol

pictures will come very shortly as my impatience to poke them and see how many is driivng me insane

missymotus said:

I change the bed soon as she's done with the birth, and then change twice daily following that.

It's also a good time to weigh and sex everyone. 

Keep an eye on her for after bleeding, and I hope she delivered all the placentas since you weren't there to count and make sure. 

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Agreed you need to change the bedding now so that no one gets chilled. Put a towel on the floor and start moving them- Emry will follow them out. Switch it real fast, give each a quick look over, weigh each and put them right back in. If she gets panicky just change the bedding and in a few hours come back for weights. Try to weigh them all at the same time everyday to get the best representation of if they are gaining/losing. Any weight loss means a trip to the vet is necessary ASAP. Weight loss is the first sign something is wrong and kittens crash quick. 

Since you know 2 are females you can compare them to the others. Females have a shorter distance between their anus and vulva and it is shaped like an upside down exclamation point. Males have a much wider distance (so there is room for the testes to grow) and it is shaped like a colon ( two dots : ). Knowing two are female should make it pretty easy to sex the rest. 

Come on girl, if your awake enough to post of TCS your awake enough to change bedding! 

Awww, that is so cute!!!

l'd love to see the others.

Are they as heavy as you thought they were?

Andrya said:

Awww, that is so cute!!!

l'd love to see the others.

Are they as heavy as you thought they were?

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I took that picture with my lap tops web cam x_x I had taken pics of the other ones but the pics made them look like black blobs and there are no black kittens xD.

I should be able to buy a new camera either today or sometime in the next few days, so I will be able to get new better pics then, Momma was started to get a little irritated with me bugging her so I backed off a bit (one warning bite was enough xD)

they are deffinately heavier than I thought they'd be, havn't had a chance to look for the scale yet, may have to buy a new one of those as well u_u, but I expected them to be smaller, they're actually all about the same size, the kitten in the picture is the biggest of the three ginger tabbies, but is heavier than the brown torbie kitten, who is the biggest in the litter

Gibbly said:

Thanks, for the information, I'll see if I can give it a go later with sexing them, Emry has already been out and wanted some loving, I've already had the kittens out to check them, everybody looks good, they're BIG for newborns, I didn't expect them to be that big.

there are 6 kittens, 3 ginger tabbies, 1 brown mackeral tabby, 1 brown mackeral torbie, and 1 gray torbie (she's got a tan spot on her chest and tan on her feet but she's got stripes.

and who you callin' a girl!? xD I am a male O3O

honest mistake lol, everybody thinks I'm a girl because of the "guys can't like cats" sterotype I guess *shrug*

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OOPS! My mistake Gibbly I'm sorry. I think there are a lot of men who love cats, just not as many involved in the whole L&D thing. BigPerm can sympathize- I think I have referred to him as her on more than one occasion! 

Have you gotten weights on them yet? I'm curious to see what they weigh. Weighing them is hands down the most important thing you do over these next few weeks so get a scale ASAP! 

I havn't wieghed them yet, as a matter of fact I'm about to run down to walmart and see if I can find a little scale, they're all deffinately heavier than they were at birth, the little gray torbie is the smallest though, but then she always was, in another day or two I'll start pulling the larger kittens so the gray and her momma and her tabby sibling can have some time together.

I've decided to try and get over my feeling bad about handling the kittens, Emry has proven a much better mother than I could have hoped (honestly I had my doubts) anyone who says animals only feel "an instinctive urge to protect their young" is dead wrong, because it's not "instinct" I see on her face when I take the kittens, it's worry..and it's not "instinct" when she takes the kitten out of my hand and growls at me O3O it's "GIMME BACK MY FREAKIN BABEH! >=("

BUT she's gotta get used to it, it's not like I can just not handle them o3o, I want these little dudes to be well rounded, so once they're a bit stronger, I've gonna start messing with their feet.ears,heads ect. to get them used to being messed with.

One thing though, as far as I know Emry hasn't been to use the litter box, is that normal? she did leave earlier when I took all the kittens to take the pictures I'm bout to put xD, but I'm not sure if she went to use the litterbox or not.




I'm going to try and take individual pics later, and I wanna take a cute kitten nursing picture, but the lighting in the bathroom sucks, and the little camera I bought sucks, because the flash washes everything out e3e (that's what I get for getting the cheaper camera to save money) plus it sucks the power from the batteries like a danged vampire!

You want an electonic digital scale that weighs in grams.  Ounces means dealing with decimal points.  In the UK I can get something suitable for under £20 - well under $30.  They should put on 10g or more most days.  The odd day of less happens, maybe to do with the input / output cycle, but that tends to be just with one kitten.  If they all don't put weight on that suggests a problem with the mother.

Well, I tried my hand at sexing them a bit ago, it looks like the two girls (torbies) and the other four are boys.

Yes, you do need to move them to change the bedding and get weights but for this first week or two I don't handle them much more than that. If Emry get's stressed she's more likely to den move, which is irritating for you and dangerous for them. Trust me you will have plenty of time for socializing them!

I also wouldn't recommend moving some kittens out so that she can nurse one. Moving the others will just stress her out and not give you the results you want. Once you weigh them you may be surprised- sometimes they feel lighter/heavier than they actually are. And, the little Grey baby needs to learn how to get in there and right for his nipple- unless he starts losing weight let it play out how it's supposed to. If he starts losing and the others are gaining then it may be time to intervene. 

Gibbly said:

I see on her face when I take the kittens, it's worry..and it's not "instinct" when she takes the kitten out of my hand and growls at me O3O it's "GIMME BACK MY FREAKIN BABEH! >=("

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Very normal, I handle the babies several times a day but my girls fully trust me and I handle them within an inch or so of mum so she's not stressed by me taking a baby out of the box or from her view. 

Weighing I do in front of their bed, so again mum can see them. It also only takes a moment.

If Emry is growling at you she's very stressed, back off a bit and let her settle with her babies. As EB said you'll have plenty of time to handle them. 

Gibbly said:

One thing though, as far as I know Emry hasn't been to use the litter box, is that normal? she did leave earlier when I took all the kittens to take the pictures I'm bout to put xD, but I'm not sure if she went to use the litterbox or not.

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Sorry I forgot about this question. It is normal for Mom's not to go to the bathroom for a few days after delivery. Make sure she has food and water, as well as a box, close to the nest so she doesn't have to stray too far to take care of her needs. Otherwise, she won't eat or drink and may find somewhere more convenient for her (but less so for you) to relieve herself. 

And MM makes a good point worth elaborating on- any of the handling you do make sure it is right in front of Emry. Don't take her babies somewhere that she can't see them! As they grow she will relax a bit more about them and you will be able to handle/move them around a lot more but these first 2-3 weeks are all about Emry. Do whatever you need to to keep her happy and comfortable so she can do her job. Later on you will be more focused on the kittens but for now that is all her, unless you want to be bottle feeding 6 kittens every 2 hours! 

missymotus said:

If Emry is growling at you she's very stressed, back off a bit and let her settle with her babies. As EB said you'll have plenty of time to handle them. 

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I don't think she's stressed, just being protective, but at anyrate she's been a bit better, I never take them out or mess with them when they're all settled in sleeping or nursing, I always wait until I feed her, so when she comes out I bug them for a bit, she's ok with it for a few minutes, but is more than happy to tell me when she wants them back, but it's not like she doesn't trust me, she's realized that I'll bring them back, and waits in the cubby until I do.

she used the litterbox today, and actually came out of the bathroom for about 20 minutes, she demanded some loving layed down, took a quick nap, then headed back to her babies.

Gibbly said:

I don't think she's stressed, just being protective

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Same thing, feeling unsettled and needing to protect your babies is stress.  One should never 'mess with' or 'bug' kittens either, it's fine to hold them gently and stoke them. 

Glad she's used the litterbox now, mine always go within an hour of finishing up but it wouldn't be unusual for a cat to wait, the first movement can also be loose due to eating placentas

Did you manage to get a scale? Really is important to weigh them daily

missymotus said:

  One should never 'mess with' or 'bug' kittens either, it's fine to hold them gently and stoke them. 

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*facepalm* I figured it was ok to chew on them and bounce them off the walls and use them as snapping turtle bait  like I have been u_u oops

that's what I mean, I don't "pester" them, I havn't really bothered them at all today, though I do like to pull them out occasionally and look at them.

havn't gotten a scale yet, honestly havn't had the money, been too concentrated on having enough food to last a while, hopefully should have the money to pick up a scale next week

Gibbly said:

*facepalm* I figured it was ok to chew on them and bounce them off the walls and use them as snapping turtle bait  like I have been u_u oops

that's what I mean, I don't "pester" them,

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I just used your words, perhaps it's an age thing and you're just a teenager so think that words like mess with or bug are appropriate when talking about kittens.