First litter tips?

My momma cat is a special case and very lucky. She was born spring of 2013 and was born outside. Winter of 2013 she was struck by a snow plow and suffered a broken leg. She survived and has a very mild limp from her leg being a bit stiff now. I was finally able to convince my parents to let me bring her in. Earlyer this summer she escaped and was gone for 3 weeks! I was moving and convinced is lost her forever. But she reappeared 2 days before I moved out. She was very skinny compared to wen she left so I was giving her kitten food to get her back to a healthy weight. She's settled into our new home nicely. Now it appears that she had more of an adventure than I thought because she is obviously expecting lol. We have been at the new place 6 or 7 weeks. I've always had barn cats living in the country so I'm not positive on the indoor cat birthing routine. Any advice for her first litter and mine? Also I should add I fully intend on having her spayed when possible, and have also found potential homes for the kittens with family and friends.

Welcome!

We have a good collection of articles in the Cat Health section which you can access by scrolling up to the brown bar, clicking on Articles,and then choosing the Cat Health section and scrolling through the choices.  To make this super easy for you, I am copying the links regarding birth, delivery and newborns for you here.  After reading this information, let us know if you have any more questions.  And good luck with your approaching new arrivals.

Birth, Delivery and Newborns

View media item 212113How to Tell if My Cat is Pregnant?

Cat Pregnancy

How Do I Know When My Cat Will Give Birth?

Pregnant Cat? What to Prepare For the Birth

Help! My Cat is Having Kittens!

Premature Kittens

Post-Birth Complications in Cats

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Tubby had her kittens Friday night while every1 slept. She had 3 but the largest 1 was not born alive. The other 2 seem very small but active. Saturday evening she had another kitten also larger and it was stillborn as well. She's is a very small cat so is it possible the 2 that were stillborn were just too big for her to birth? The 2 left are active and nursing well. Tubby is a great mom for her first litter. But they seem soooooo small. The smallest face almost looks skeleton like. Is that normal? I've decided to call them Teeny and Tiny for now till I kno genders lol

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do you know how much do they weight?  preferably in grammes?

Anyways, if they are active and nurse well, and mom is taking good care of them, warming up,  washing, cleaning, purring, they should do OK even if below average.

On the pic sthey dont look hairless,  and scrawny like a typical premature does.

Its of course  good you are observant.   If you do worry, be sure you have gears, like dropper, goat milk - preferably fresh goat milk, glucose sugar,  fleece for them to lay on.

And as mentioned, a electronical kitchen scale to mease their development every day, in grammes.

(fleece or flannel IS good for them to lay on)

Good luck!

have you weighed the babies? using a kitchen type scale that weighs in grams. it's many times suggested to weigh newborn kittens once each day (around the same time each day) to make sure they're gaining weight (ideally 8-10 grams each day). keep track of their weights on paper. kittens can become ill and "go downhill" extremely quickly, so if you notice that a kitten hasn't gained the ideal amount of weight each day for 2 or 3 days you can then look for symptoms (like gunky crusted eyes, lethargy, etc) and can also start supplemental feedings (using either kitten milk replacement, KMR, or goats milk).

make sure the kittens are keeping warm. make sure they're nursing well and often.

@StefanZ, @catwoman707 -- may i ask for your experience for the OP (original poster)?

They do have a fleece blanket in the box however I have a large extremely fluffy towel on top for now( I put it in there anticipating tubby giving birth soon) I also have a heating pad on the lowest setting under the box as well. I do have a kitchen scale I will trying using that and see if it works. It's been a while since I've used it. But they r crawling, meowing, and nursing rather loudly. Tubby does leave but to eat and use her litter box so she adjusted to her first litter amazing.

Ok just took weights. Tiny is coming up 78 g and teeny is coming up as 68 g. I do have glucose already if needed. But r those weights normal? Is that much of a difference normal between the 2?

frenchkitten said:

Ok just took weights. Tiny is coming up 78 g and teeny is coming up as 68 g. I do have glucose already if needed. But r those weights normal? Is that much of a difference normal between the 2?

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They are below the average, especielly the 68  is low, yes.  And was perhaps even lower at birth.  so the margins are thin.  But it is just to fight on.  As long as they seems healthy etc, the betting chances are on your /theirs side.

both watchful Momma and their biological mom taking good care.  Also the fact they are just two is a plus here - they dont need to fight and push with bigger siblings to get to teh best nipples.  (the nipples  down on the tummy are usually most popular, the nipples up the breast less).

Good luck!

78 grams is 2 3/4 ounces, 68 grams is 2.4 ounces.

Yes, they are quite small. This happens often when the mom is small herself, and some of her babies took more of the nutrients, etc for growth, while the other 2 were a bit depleted of them.

I would suspect that sadly the 2 larger kittens she was unable to pass easily, and delays in birthing can cause suffocation

There is no real way around this, it happens.

It is to the small babies benefits that there are no sibs to control which nipples they get, so they should do well as long as mom attends to them 95% of the time.

It's wise to monitor how long she is away for.

Thank u. I Thought they seemed small. I I have glucose and replacement milk and bottle on hand in case anything changes I can b prepared. I watch them extra close the first couple of weeks and I'll report back if any changes . Thanks for ur help every1. All suggestions and opinions are welcome!

The very best thing you can provide for them right now would def. be a scale.

Weigh them daily. VERY important.

Once you see (in a week or so) that mom is supplying them with what they need and are growing well, then it's not needed everyday anymore.

Just for now in case they are lagging on nursing, etc.

Yes I do have a kitchen scale so I'm going to weigh them around 330 everyday which is as soon as I get home from work. Tubby is only out of her box for 2 minutes at a time and every time I check on them they r nursing. So I think she's got the basics down. Currently as I sit here I hear little suckling noises and mama purring. So I'll just b vigilant and let tubby do her job until it seems I'm needed.

Perfect

It's really all we can do, and if she is caring for them the way she has been so far, likely things will go smoothly.

Update: tiny is today 98 g and teeny is 84 g. It's been about 28hrs since I last weighed them. Tiny has gained 20 g and teeny has gained 16 g. So far seems like tubby is nursing them well. Is this the correct amount or weight gain? I remember some1 mentioning it to be only 10 g in 24 hrs.

frenchkitten said:

Update: tiny is today 98 g and teeny is 84 g. It's been about 28hrs since I last weighed them. Tiny has gained 20 g and teeny has gained 16 g. So far seems like tubby is nursing them well. Is this the correct amount or weight gain? I remember some1 mentioning it to be only 10 g in 24 hrs.

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That's really good ! The more they put on the better Lets hope they keep gaining like this :nod:
10g is the minimum they should be putting on.

The skeleton faces you described is quite normal in low birth weight kittens. Give them a few more days and you will see that the nursing sucking action, creates the muscles in their checks and face giving them that more round teddy bear face look.

That's excellent weight gain!!!!

I'm still going to check weights all this week, but I believe they r on the right track

Teeny 100g and tiny 116g. Still doing well

frenchkitten said:

Teeny 100g and tiny 116g. Still doing well

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That great !!!

Teeny is 119g and tiny is 131g. Yay!