- Joined
- Aug 29, 2015
- Messages
- 10
- Purraise
- 4
It all started with a knock on my bathroom door. I was drying off after a shower when I heard my fiance talking excitedly and telling me to hurry. That there were kittens in the parking lot. I've always been a cat person so I quickly dressed and followed him out, hair still dripping. I've heard tiny meows before and caught glimpses of a stray mama cat moving her babies around. I thought maybe she was moving them again. I get out to the parking lot of my apartment complex and in front of the maintenance building is a raccoon trap with 4 teeny black and white kittens. Two were moving around best they could on the wire of the cage, meowing. The other two were in the back, not moving much at all. After my roommates, fiance, another neighbor, and I all huddled around this cage we got the attention of the maintenance super. He and a few other workers informed us they were caught in the complex but didn't say how or if they saw the mama anywhere. They said they didn't want them and joked about giving them up for $5 each and let us take them for free, saving them a trip to the shelter. After convincing my roommates, I grabbed a large printer box with some towels and took the babies inside. Since they had been in that cage for who knows how long, my first priory was to get some fluids in them. They felt pretty skinny. Being completely unprepared, and them being so tiny, I fed them a mostly water/little cows milk mixture using a tiny syringe I had from when I owned rats. They all took to it pretty well. At the time all I had was my food stamps, no cash, so I found a kitten formula online using goats milk, egg yolks, and yogurt which I made due with for a couple days before switching them to some canned kitten formula and now they're on kitten weaning formula mixed with crushed kitten food my roommate picked up from petsmart.
After some research I estimated they were about 4 weeks old. After the first couple days I was concerned they weren't pooping. I thought they should be old enough to poop on their own but tried stimulating them anyway and they would pee but that's it. Then finally on day 3 they finally started. All except one who was clearly bloated to the touch. While playing with them, my fiance was laying on his back holding her over his chest and gave the baby an ultimatum. He said something to the effect of, "I wouldn't even be mad if you pooped on me. I'm worried about you. I'm not putting you down until you poop." He had only been holding her for all of 30 second before she stops wiggling, freezes up, then proceeds to take the biggest little poop on my fiance's shirt. After he gets cleaned up he admitted, "I never thought I'd be this happy about being **** on."
Since they were all being fed regularly, they had a lot more energy and the printer box wasn't cutting it anymore. So I cleared out the spare bedroom closet, lined it with cardboard and puppy pads, and cozied things up for them. 3 out of 4 were drinking from a dish but one insisted on being syringe fed for the longest time. They all have such different personalities, it's been adorable watching them grow so far. I've had them about 2 weeks now and their eyes are starting to change from their baby blues to a pretty greyish green.
Questions! Two of the kittens have tail issues. One has a tail half the size of the others with a little curve at the tip. He moves it fine but doesn't seem keen on having the tip messed with. I can't tell if it's uncomfortable or just annoying him though. The second has no tail at all. Just a little bump you can more feel than see. Could this be a genetic issue or might it have been caused by trauma? And will this be a problem for them in the future? I'm assuming it would mostly effect balance, but it's something I've been curious about and would like to know more.
Also, their teeth are coming in nicely and they're eating kitten food milk mush well. When will they be old enough to switch to just solid food? I got the blue buffalo kitten kibble so I think it's good stuff. At least the ingredients looked good.
Since they were so little and we couldn't tell gender, we called the loudest one with the white nose Squeaky, the one with the moustache and cranky sounding meow Grumpy, Half-tail and No-tail. I can now tell that Grumpy and Half-tail are boys, Squeaky and No-tail are girls. I thought two of each was perfect to keep them in pairs and my dad agreed to take the girls when they're older while I'll be keeping the boys.
I've started litter training using feline pine because it was the easiest non-clumping litter to find and I've used it before with success. I love the smell of it too. I thought the pellets might be too big for them to comfortably use but they seem to be using the litter box at least some of the time. I finally had to change some out since it was all sawdusty which I'd consider a success.
It's really surprising after never having kittens to see just how much they grow day to day. They've started climbing up pant legs with ease and are jumping around all over the place. They've seemed to have bonded with my chihuahua mix, Nezzie as well. They'll play together and she'll clean them up after they eat and she's letting them climb on her now. Grumpy loves her the most, always following her around. It'll be fun to see how their relationship grows once they're the same size. I almost wish they'd stay like this, they're so adorable ~ after they eat or play, they'll all pile up on someone and groom and tussle and sleep. When they're not in their closet or running around, they're cuddled up with someone, purring away.
Pictures soon to follow.
After some research I estimated they were about 4 weeks old. After the first couple days I was concerned they weren't pooping. I thought they should be old enough to poop on their own but tried stimulating them anyway and they would pee but that's it. Then finally on day 3 they finally started. All except one who was clearly bloated to the touch. While playing with them, my fiance was laying on his back holding her over his chest and gave the baby an ultimatum. He said something to the effect of, "I wouldn't even be mad if you pooped on me. I'm worried about you. I'm not putting you down until you poop." He had only been holding her for all of 30 second before she stops wiggling, freezes up, then proceeds to take the biggest little poop on my fiance's shirt. After he gets cleaned up he admitted, "I never thought I'd be this happy about being **** on."
Since they were all being fed regularly, they had a lot more energy and the printer box wasn't cutting it anymore. So I cleared out the spare bedroom closet, lined it with cardboard and puppy pads, and cozied things up for them. 3 out of 4 were drinking from a dish but one insisted on being syringe fed for the longest time. They all have such different personalities, it's been adorable watching them grow so far. I've had them about 2 weeks now and their eyes are starting to change from their baby blues to a pretty greyish green.
Questions! Two of the kittens have tail issues. One has a tail half the size of the others with a little curve at the tip. He moves it fine but doesn't seem keen on having the tip messed with. I can't tell if it's uncomfortable or just annoying him though. The second has no tail at all. Just a little bump you can more feel than see. Could this be a genetic issue or might it have been caused by trauma? And will this be a problem for them in the future? I'm assuming it would mostly effect balance, but it's something I've been curious about and would like to know more.
Also, their teeth are coming in nicely and they're eating kitten food milk mush well. When will they be old enough to switch to just solid food? I got the blue buffalo kitten kibble so I think it's good stuff. At least the ingredients looked good.
Since they were so little and we couldn't tell gender, we called the loudest one with the white nose Squeaky, the one with the moustache and cranky sounding meow Grumpy, Half-tail and No-tail. I can now tell that Grumpy and Half-tail are boys, Squeaky and No-tail are girls. I thought two of each was perfect to keep them in pairs and my dad agreed to take the girls when they're older while I'll be keeping the boys.
I've started litter training using feline pine because it was the easiest non-clumping litter to find and I've used it before with success. I love the smell of it too. I thought the pellets might be too big for them to comfortably use but they seem to be using the litter box at least some of the time. I finally had to change some out since it was all sawdusty which I'd consider a success.
It's really surprising after never having kittens to see just how much they grow day to day. They've started climbing up pant legs with ease and are jumping around all over the place. They've seemed to have bonded with my chihuahua mix, Nezzie as well. They'll play together and she'll clean them up after they eat and she's letting them climb on her now. Grumpy loves her the most, always following her around. It'll be fun to see how their relationship grows once they're the same size. I almost wish they'd stay like this, they're so adorable ~ after they eat or play, they'll all pile up on someone and groom and tussle and sleep. When they're not in their closet or running around, they're cuddled up with someone, purring away.
Pictures soon to follow.
