The waiting game

Congratulations on your six new additions! How is mom acting? Do you have a scale for babies and KMR on hand? Can't wait to see pictures!

Omg look at all of the orange babies!

Awesome!

You really need to weigh them. With 6 there is bound to be a runt or two.

Glad it went well. Make sure all are latched and nursing well.

I did weigh them... all are over 100 g with the smallest at 106 and the largest at 134! they all seem healthy and i have no idea how to tell gender lol so there are pics

I have KMR but hoping not to need it...

Mom is not a first time mom, and she is doing great. She never made a sound the whole time, not during labor or anything. I'm a light sleeper and was counting on her making noise to wake me up if it really was time, but no. Her first litter was 2 orange kittens too, her orange genes must be really strong! I have never seen an orange tom around here and my other cat that was fixed in april is black, so clearly he's not the dad! I'm not sure where she found herself an orange boy but she clearly did.

I'm going to give her a couple of hours before I go in and change out her bedding to clean stuff. But other than that she really did great. She must have eaten all the placentas cuz there's nothing left on the nest. She's such a good mama. I felt her tummy and I'm pretty sure there's nothing left in there. With as big as she was I was expecting more kittens, actually. I had bet 7 and my boyfriend bet 8... She was huge! but no, she just had some good sized kittens

They are excellent birth weights. You want it to stay that way, so daily weighing is imperative. That way, if one is not gaining the required 6-10 gram minimum, you can supplement right away.

It can be easier to tell when they grow some.

Give mom a dish of KMR a day to drink. She needs the calcium for nursing.

You can put a different color sharpie or nail polish on the tail tips to tell the kittens apart.

Wow!  I've never seen so many orange kittens before.  Beautiful!  Most if not all should be boys. 

You can go ahead and book mom's spay for eight weeks from now! [emoji]128522[/emoji]

Actually there's a place nearby that does mom and all kittens for $40 for mom and $20 per kitten. I'm going to book the whole batch for as soon as they're old enough. I'd rather charge for the kittens to pay for first shots and neuter/spay than give them away free (even to friends) and have them reproduce. I'm definitely going to keep at least one, and I need this to not happen again, as the purpose of cats at my house is to be mousers in my chicken coop. They may be snuggly but they earn their keep and they love hunting!

I have a list of all of their weights this morning and I will weigh every morning to make sure everyone is growing. I'm already seeing that the two smaller are getting pushed around and if they're not gaining they will get the KMR. I don't have any runts per se, but with that many kittens it's always a struggle for them all to get enough, right?

They can all be spayed/neutered at 8 weeks.

The 2 smaller kittens would be your runts. And yes, it gets crowded with 6. You'll probably be supplementing.

You'll need to use a syringe. Do you know how to feed?

They all look like her

How are things going with mom and 6 kittens? Are they all gaining nicely, or are you supplementing?

suliah14 said:

Actually there's a place nearby that does mom and all kittens for $40 for mom and $20 per kitten. I'm going to book the whole batch for as soon as they're old enough. I'd rather charge for the kittens to pay for first shots and neuter/spay than give them away free (even to friends) and have them reproduce. I'm definitely going to keep at least one, and I need this to not happen again, as the purpose of cats at my house is to be mousers in my chicken coop. They may be snuggly but they earn their keep and they love hunting!

I have a list of all of their weights this morning and I will weigh every morning to make sure everyone is growing. I'm already seeing that the two smaller are getting pushed around and if they're not gaining they will get the KMR. I don't have any runts per se, but with that many kittens it's always a struggle for them all to get enough, right?

Click to expand...

It's great that you'll be getting them all spayed and neutered. Good for you!

Just wanted to update-- all kittens and mom are doing great! all gaining, not supplementing at all! So cute! She's such a good mama, I couldn't hope for better!

That's so good to hear! [emoji]128522[/emoji]