10 teeny weeny kittens

teamcarp33 said:

  
I have been stimulationg the littles after feeding, and all 10 once or twice a day. Mostly they just pee. I am somewhat concerned about one of the biggest kittens though. When I was cleaning them yesterday he had some poo stuck on his bum, which I soaked off with warm water. Today though, I can see some poo that looks a little dry and is "right there" but he didnt push it out when I was cleaning him this morning. He is still eating well and doesnt seem distressed. I did give him about 2 drops of olive oil. Any other suggestions?

Also, I have chickens and an endless supply of egg yolks. I've heard that is good for mama. Yay or nay?

Thanks so much  everyone for the support and help!

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If you dont have problems with salomonella in eggs, raw egg yolk is excellent!!!  But raw egg white less so.  Boiled or scrambled egg white is OK, thought. Much proteins in egg white!

Egg shells crushed into fine powder is a good calcium source for momma.  Egg shells are made essencially of pure calcium.

Be sure the one with hardish poo gets enough fluids - and yes, olive or rapeseed oils is good, as you are giving, at each meal.  Its best if it is coldpressed. More healthy this way.  Although alomst any oil will do for the poo-purpose.  When he begins to produce softer poo, diminish the oil dose.

Sugar water as you gave is good when they are weak or lethargic.  Still better if the sugar is glucose sugar. Works quicker. Glucose sugar goes directly into blood, already in the mouth, doesnt need to be digested.  The commercial name on glucose sugar may be dextropur or dextrose.   If you have difficult to find it, you can use common honey and make honey-water.   Honey does contain much glucose sugar.

Weirdly, I have a giant unopened bag of dextrose from some unfinished project. I didn't even think of it in the moment, but that's good to know. I'm not sure how I feel about the raw egg yolks. I just have 8 backyard chickens and they are kept pretty clean, so I've never really thought salmonella was at all likely, but if mama got sick we'd all be in big trouble. I wonder if she would eat a cooked yolk mixed into the homemade food I've been giving her...

Today's weights ended up good for the most part. Everyone had gained, but not as much as would be ideal for just a couple.

5) 47-53 +5
3) 49-54 +5
1) 63-66 +3
6) 60-73 +13
8) 62-75 +13
4) 75-81 +6
2) 81-91 +10
7) 85-96 +11
10) 87-97 +10
9) 95-101 +6

Some of these guys are looking almost the tiniest bit plump! The littles seem stronger but now they are really fighting me on the syringe. One more day in the books!

The picture is of the littles little of all in my Fitbit, which is closed on the smallest setting.

The weight gains are good! Keep it up! Stay focused on kittens 3 and 5. They are still tiny. They may fight the syringe, but they need the milk.

teamcarp33 said:

Weirdly, I have a giant unopened bag of dextrose from some unfinished project. I didn't even think of it in the moment, but that's good to know. I'm not sure how I feel about the raw egg yolks. I just have 8 backyard chickens and they are kept pretty clean, so I've never really thought salmonella was at all likely, but if mama got sick we'd all be in big trouble. I wonder if she would eat a cooked yolk mixed into the homemade food I've been giving her...

Today's weights ended up good for the most part. Everyone had gained, but not as much as would be ideal for just a couple.

5) 47-53 +5
3) 49-54 +5
1) 63-66 +3
6) 60-73 +13
8) 62-75 +13
4) 75-81 +6
2) 81-91 +10
7) 85-96 +11
10) 87-97 +10
9) 95-101 +6

Some of these guys are looking almost the tiniest bit plump! The littles seem stronger but now they are really fighting me on the syringe. One more day in the books!

The picture is of the littles little of all in my Fitbit, which is closed on the smallest setting.

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• teamcarp33
• Jan 31, 2017

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Are these gains for 24 hours or 12? You're doing a great job!

Those were for the whole day.

This little buffy-cat is starting to get to me already...

Awww!

Do you know what sex they all are? I mean, obviously the calicos are girls. If the black one or any of the red/buff ones are girls I can tell you what color the daddy was .

They may be too tiny to tell sexes yet. It's not important right now. You'll fall in love with the tinies that you help the most! Let's get them through the first 3 weeks healthy, and eyes opened.

Really, your goal needs to be to get them all above 100 grams. Anything below 90 grams is considered premature birth weight.

It's clear that mom mated multiple times to have 10 kittens, perhaps with different males. Some were conceived later, and may have been squeezed, which accounts for the low birth weights. They all sound feisty, and if they continue gaining, they will make it.

teamcarp33 said:

. I'm not sure how I feel about the raw egg yolks

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Raw egg yolks are super-nutritious and perfectly safe to give to momma. I would never give her an uncooked egg white. Like Stefan says, don't waste the eggshells. Also very nutritious.

It's amazing what you're doing.

teamcarp33 said:

image.jpeg

• teamcarp33
• Jan 30, 2017

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teamcarp33 said:

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• teamcarp33
• Jan 31, 2017

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OMG!

Willowy said:

Awww!

Do you know what sex they all are? I mean, obviously the calicos are girls. If the black one or any of the red/buff ones are girls I can tell you what color the daddy was .

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Pretty sure there are 5 and 5, but could be wrong on a couple. Definitely paying more attention to the other end But yes, two tabico/calico girls, and I think buff little and white/buff little and the bigger of the two orange littles are female. The littler orange little and four of the bigs- big orange, orange swirl, white/black spots, and the one that looks black (but I think is a really dark tabby) I think are male.

sarthur2 said:

They may be too tiny to tell sexes yet. It's not important right now. You'll fall in love with the tinies that you help the most! Let's get them through the first 3 weeks healthy, and eyes opened.

Really, your goal needs to be to get them all above 100 grams. Anything below 90 grams is considered premature birth weight.

It's clear that mom mated multiple times to have 10 kittens, perhaps with different males. Some were conceived later, and may have been squeezed, which accounts for the low birth weights. They all sound feisty, and if they continue gaining, they will make it.

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They are feisty for sure, especially the orange crew. All have gained at least a little this AM, but little orange guy (was second littlest) hasn't gained as much as I wanted. Took a day off work to try to get a leg up with him today.

Primula said:

Raw egg yolks are super-nutritious and perfectly safe to give to momma. I would never give her an uncooked egg white. Like Stefan says, don't waste the eggshells. Also very nutritious.

It's amazing what you're doing.

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She had a cooked yolk in her food this morning and ate it. I'll try a raw and see. How many a day sounds reasonable?

FYI, orange cats are usually male.

I wouldn't give more than 2 egg yolks per day.

2 yolks a day since she's feeding 10 kids. I hope the tiny orange grows today. Can you post all their weights and gains later today?

The orange kittens will all be male unless mom mated with an orange male. Female orange kittens must inherit an orange gene from both parents, and the father MUST be orange for the kittens to be orange females. A greater percentage of orange cats are male than female.

Primula said:

FYI, orange cats are usually male.

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It's about 75% male/25% female, and it's only because things have to be a certain way for the females to be orange.

If there are orange/buff females and the black ones are males, this means the daddy cat was orange. Probably had a lot of white, too. There's no indication there was more than one daddy (if one of the black ones were female that would prove 2 different dads) but maybe they mated a few times over several days so some are younger.

sarthur2 said:

2 yolks a day since she's feeding 10 kids. I hope the tiny orange grows today. Can you post all their weights and gains later today?

The orange kittens will all be male unless mom mated with an orange male. Female orange kittens must inherit an orange gene from both parents, and the father MUST be orange for the kittens to be orange females. A greater percentage of orange cats are male than female.

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She ate her 2nd yolk (first raw one) like a champ today. On a side note, what causes egg whites to explode in the microwave? :/

I'm happy with the weights today! Little orange boy didn't gain as many grams as the others but I crunched the numbers (because I'm one of this annoying people who always has to do that), and his percentage gained was 15%, which was on par or above with most of the others. Buffy had a stellar day seems like they just have a day where they suddenly gain a big chunk. Now little orange boy is the smallest, so I changed the order on my list.

3) 54-62 +8 or 15%
5) 52-64 +12 or 23%
1) 66-77 +11 or 17%
6) 73-84 + 11 or 15%
8) 75-84 +9 or 12%
4) 81-95 +14 or 17%
2) 91-101 + 10 or 11%
7) 96-106 +10 or 10%
10) 97-115 + 18 or 18.5%
9) 101-117 + 16 or 16%

So 4 kittens have joined the 100 gram club so far...only 6 more to go.

Willowy said:

It's about 75% male/25% female, and it's only because things have to be a certain way for the females to be orange.

If there are orange/buff females and the black ones are males, this means the daddy cat was orange. Probably had a lot of white, too. There's no indication there was more than one daddy (if one of the black ones were female that would prove 2 different dads) but maybe they mated a few times over several days so some are younger.

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Very interesting! I love genetics. I had always heard orange cats were 80-20 or 75-25 male but never knew exactly why. Cool. Took another look when weighing today and I still think the same as I did that first day with the 5 male and 5 female. And also I know it's too early to really know, but I'm going to guess they all are long haired, with the possible exception of the black and black and white boy. But I'm guessing all 10.

The mama is longhaired isn't she? If the daddy was also longhaired they'll all be longhaired, because longhair is a recessive gene. If he was shorthaired it would be odd for more than half to be longhaired, and that only if he carried the longhair mutation.

Can you imagine a litter of 10 little floofs? Eeeee!

Willowy said:

The mama is longhaired isn't she? If the daddy was also longhaired they'll all be longhaired, because longhair is a recessive gene. If he was shorthaired it would be odd for more than half to be longhaired, and that only if he carried the longhair mutation.

Can you imagine a litter of 10 little floofs? Eeeee!

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N

Mama (Guppy) is long haired, she's just not very fluffy right now, I'm sure from not great food, being pregnant, shelter and not sure f she was a stray before that or not, plus I trimmed her skirt and belly pretty short. She's I think you would call it torti with white. She's mostly black though, just a little orange here and there and then white feet chest and snoot.

The cuteness of 10 floofs would be dangerous. It's occurring to me that if all 10 do indeed survive it's going to be so crazy in my house.

The weight gains are terrific. It tells me that the kittens are nursing well, and that the supplementing is making all the difference. Keep up the hard work!

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