Labour soon?

My cat is 61 days pregnant as of today. Last night we saw a little clump of gunk sticking to her fur around her vagina - part of it was quite firm (like blu tac) and medium brown in colour and part was a sort of greenish, creamy consistency liquid. I thought it might be part of her mucus plug so we've been keeping an eye on her. This afternoon I found another lump just like it. They've both been about the size of my fingernail. Apart form this she's not showing any signs of nesting or labour, although it's possible her belly has dropped overnight as her lower back seems more prominent today. Pretty much all she is doing is eating, drinking, purring and sleeping. Does this sound fairly normal?

Any bets on when she might go into labour? She's a fairly small cat but her belly is huge, so I hope for her sake it won't be too much longer! This is her looking rather fed up with it all, haha.

That picture is awesome! She is a beautiful kitty.

Towards the end plenty of sleep is normal. Cats can lose their plug right before labor or days ahead of time. Average gestation is 65 days, but not a fool proof estimation.

Any idea how many kittens are expected?

She is pretty! What kind of cat is she? Are you a breeder?

I'm hoping she holds out until tomorrow or the weekend so my husband can be at home with me. I've bred small animals in the past but this is my first litter of kittens so I'm nervous. I've done plenty of reading and video watching but I imagine experiencing the real thing is very different! 

She's a Scottish Fold. Our vet wouldn't give us an estimate on how many kittens she's having from palpitations, it's their policy, and I don't fancy having her x-rayed unless necessary, so it's going to be a surprise! I'm not a breeder, not properly anyway. It's something I've always fancied doing but I think this experience will swing it for me, one way or the other.

One question I have - It's likely that Skye will have her kittens in our bedroom, which isn't the warmest room in the house. I have this heat mat ready for her -  - but I'm not sure if I should leave it on constantly under bedding once the kittens are here. Any thoughts? I don't want them to overheat.

A heating pad under a blanket is fine, just make sure it's on a lower setting.

The pad I have is one designed for whelping and pets by Pet Remedy. It doesn't have a choice of settings, just on and off. It does say it maintains a temperature of 30-35 degrees though, which I think is ok?

If you put a heating pad under the box you'll want to be sure it's only under half so mom and kittens can move away if they get too hot.

You'll also want to buy kmr, a needleless syringe, and a small scale to weigh them every day.

Mom needs to stay 100% inside and away from intact males until she can be spayed when the kittens are 8 weeks old.

Turn it on for a bit and see how warm it gets. You can then put 1 or 2 layers on top if its too warm?

Hmm, she just got up and went into my other cats cat cave, started digging a little bit and made a few teeny tiny mews, which is odd for her. Now she's lying down and looking at me like 'what?'

I really hope she doesn't choose to have her kittens there! Yuna will not be pleased, haha.

They don't always nest in the exact spot they'll deliver. For Yuna's sake I hope that's true here lol.

I'm thinking I might put it under the sleeping pad she has inside the cage we're hoping to use for the kittening. The heating mat is a smallish square while the sleeping pad is twice the length of it, so hopefully that will work out.

I've got my milk replacement, syringes, piles of towels, bags of those pads you can use for a kid that wets the bed (ideal find!) and a very nice scale which will be pride of place in my kitchen after some post-kitten sterilisation, haha. 

Ahh, I'm so nervous! She's just flopping from one spot to another now and I'm panic-googling ways of cutting the cords if she needs help, lol.

Any thoughts on what sort of colours we might see in the litter? Skye is a sort of cream (with a pink tint) and blue (a dilute maybe) with ticked fur (I think) and gold eyes with a green ring around the pupils. She has darker grey fur running down her back, stripes on her paws and tail, and spots on her belly. She's hard to pin down in terms of colour and pattern, haha. Please feel free to correct me if you think she might be something else, I've never had a straight answer on her actual colouring. Dad is easier, he's a blue eyed, seal point, bi-coloured fellow, very handsome. 

Daddy


Skye

You did breed her on purpose, yes? Mom should not have more than one litter per year, and really no more than three in her lifetime. Do you own the dad? Do you plan to keep the babies?

You can cut the cord with your finger nail if needed. That part is easy!

It was a deliberate mating. We don't own the dad, he is a stud who lives a few hours away from us. 

We only plan on having one or two litters from Skye, depending on how this one goes, and intend to keep at least one of the kittens. We have friends and family and strangers beating our doors down for kittens from her so I doubt we will have trouble finding homes for them, though we are fully prepared to keep all of them if it comes to it. I'll probably refuse to part with any of them anyway, lol. We're getting the keys to a large house next month with all the space a horde of kitties could want!

redbowlingball said:

It was a deliberate mating. We don't own the dad, he is a stud who lives a few hours away from us. 

We only plan on having one or two litters from Skye, depending on how this one goes, and intend to keep at least one of the kittens. We have friends and family and strangers beating our doors down for kittens from her so I doubt we will have trouble finding homes for them, though we are fully prepared to keep all of them if it comes to it. I'll probably refuse to part with any of them anyway, lol. We're getting the keys to a large house next month with all the space a horde of kitties could want!

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Do you have close contact with a vet you trust?

I live in very close proximity to an excellent vet (who adores Skye) with fantastic opening hours and have the number of an emergency vet (also an excellent one) stuck to fridge, just in case. I've done so much research and have bred other small animals in the past, but this is my first kitten litter so I'm naturally going to be nervous. 

Well, Yuna has unceremoniously evicted Skye from her cat cave. She has definitely dropped, her spine and hips are really obvious now compared to yesterday. Anyone know if there's an indicated timeframe from dropping? This wait is torture, I'm scared to leave the house.

I think they say up to 48 hours?

Once they drop it's usually about 48 hours until labor.