Let's see your preggers!

cookandcompany

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Oh My!! Meeka is big!!you may be having 7-10 kittens as well...lol. It looks like we are due around the same time. It will be nice having someone on here who is waiting as well.
 

solaritybengals

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Hehe good idea! I was thinking of doing this but I think I actually will.. Ok lets see if I can figure out how polls work...
 

familytimerags

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Look at that belly, she is already trying to excersise...

She is beautiful!! Do we get to see the pretty babies when they are born?
 

familytimerags

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Kiara is now at the end of day 64. I think most of my fingernails are gone due to the anticipation!!
She has been nesting all day, and making sure I stay very near. She woke us up early this morning, and I really thought she would have begun delivery already. I think she is teasing me, and decided to keep me alert all day, so that she can have them around 3 am.

If you can't tell I am really excited. My 5 year old, says she is going to have 5. My husband says 7. I think 6. My mentor thinks 5 as well. I hope for healthy babies!!
 

celestialrags

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Originally Posted by FamilytimeRags

Kiara is now at the end of day 64. I think most of my fingernails are gone due to the anticipation!!
She has been nesting all day, and making sure I stay very near. She woke us up early this morning, and I really thought she would have begun delivery already. I think she is teasing me, and decided to keep me alert all day, so that she can have them around 3 am.

If you can't tell I am really excited. My 5 year old, says she is going to have 5. My husband says 7. I think 6. My mentor thinks 5 as well. I hope for healthy babies!!
I think 5 or mabey 6 too, but 5 was my first thought and I always heard go with your first thought so 5 it is, LOL! I think Icey is going to have 6, I think 5 would be better, but I just think 6 for some reason, so who knows. I wish I knew when she was due, it's hard enough when you got an idea, but not even haveing any idea is so terrible. I remember when she came into heat and I just can't even remember when it was now, aweful isn't it? It was just before or just after my sergery, which was the begining of feb, so if I have that right at least it should be around the 4th -5th of april, so I still have a little while, I think.
 

minxie

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This is Tinkerbelle..due any day now. The vet says there 2-3, but she is starting to look a big big and I'm wondering if there's more!


 

minxie

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I think I didnt put Tink's pic up properly - here it is..... she is due this week!! (argghhh)
 

familytimerags

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Tinkerbelle is adorable, and as a Disney fan, I just love her name!!

It is hard waiting isn't!!
We look forward to seeing her babies!!
 

poohandwendy

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Fun thread!

Here are a few of Shenzi (also a Disney name, LOL), about one week before she delivered 8 kittens, last august. She was a stray and it's hard to see this in the pictures, but she has a small build and other than her belly, she was very thin (underfed) when she showed up on our doorstep. We took care of that, though. She is now very healthy. We were absolutely stunned when she delivered 8 kittens, totally unexpected.:






 

minxie

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Shenzi looks beautiful and glowing! How are the babies? Did they all do ok and find good homes?

(hey pooh and wendy - we have the same colour cat....and carpet!)
 

poohandwendy

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Originally Posted by minxie

Shenzi looks beautiful and glowing! How are the babies? Did they all do ok and find good homes?

(hey pooh and wendy - we have the same colour cat....and carpet!)
LOl, we do! Thank you, she is a beautiiful girl (as is your Tink!)

The kittens are awesome! They are now 8 months old. 2 went to a very close friend, 1 went to my aunt and 1 went to a friend of my sister in law. The remaining 4 and Shenzi, we decided to keep them here forever.

It's really nice having them born and raised here, they are a blast.
 

minxie

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Poohandwendy...you mentioned that you kept 4 with Shenzi. How has this been for you? I've never had more than 2 cats at a time before and I am so falling in love with Tinkerbelle's 4. We discussed it yesterday and depending on how our oldest Gizmo finds it all, we may indeed keep all of the babies.

Having raised the kittens from birth (again first time for me..Gizmo was a 3 year old rescue cat and Tinkerbelle - we got her at 3 months), are they more sociable (with humans)?
 

poohandwendy

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It has been a blessing and a joy.

As far as their social habits, they are like most cats and will scatter when strangers come over. However, it does not take long for them to come back out to see what is going on.

They also each have totally different personalities and one of the females, in particular, still balks at being picked up without warning....she is one of the "I will come to you...until then, let me be" We call her the 'scaredy cat', even though she has had the same experiences as the others, she is definitely more easily spooked. But, when she wants attention or affection...you can't get her away from you. It's just on her terms.

The 2 males and other female are extremely social with all of us. But they do have favorites amongst each other. Of course, because I was the main human caregiver, they all trust me and come to me for attention all of the time. But they are not afraid of anyone or anything in our home (including our dog and other cat).

What I think is the best part of raising a litter, and keeping them, is watching their interaction with each other and with their mother. While she is not ultra protective of them anymore, she definitely looks out for them.

If their fighting gets out of hand (in her mind...they really only play fight)....she just merely gets between them and they stop. It's sort of comical to watch because she doesn't do anything but literally get in between them, No choosing sides, no hissing...just a gentle reminder of 'enough is enough kids'. None of them has the guts to go up against her....I don't think they ever will. No matter how big they get.

And she has a special bond with one of the females, in particular (the one that looks the most like her)...and is found sleeping, cuddling with her all of the time. She is also close to the other female, but that one likes to sleep alone on the back of the couch. I think because she is the only long haired one (scaredy cat), she prefers cooler sleeping arrangements. But she does come to her mother for a cleaning every now and again.

She loves the 2 males too, but they do not sleep with her. It's obvious to me that the male relationship with mom is different than the female relationship with mom. It's fascinating.

Also, amongst the male and female siblings, they all will play together...but they do choose specific partners regularly.

Another interesting thing is that our very, very shy cat from before the litter came along, has become much more of a presence in the house now. She used to sort of stay in my DDs room. Now she is always out and about and very social with the kittens. There is only one (male) that she will sleep with and groom (on occasion). But every now and again, she will play for a short time with one of the other kittens. I wonder, over time, how that will play out...because she has made huge changes just in the 8 months the kittens have been here. We had her for 3 years before taking the pregnant mother in and she was not very social with anyone, until now. It's interesting.

The funny thing is how much the kittens love the dog. He is an elderly cocker spaniel and while I do not think he is very thrilled by them, he puts up with everything they do...even when they curl up next to him, he just sighs and goes back to sleep.

I am not sure how well I answered your questions...let me know if you have any other more specific ones.

Funny thing is, 6 cats isn't much different than 2 as far as that goes. They are not like puppies who are constantly at your feet. They do their own thing, they come to you for affection every now and again. The kittens go crazy 2 times per day...I mean CRAZY playing....once very early in the morning and once in the evening. The rest of the day is relatively uneventful...lots of snoozing and some individual play time.

I think the only thing that would stop me from doing it again would be if I could not afford their care (especially vet bills)...it is not cheap to keep 6 cats. I did get a discount on spaying/neutering, because of the number of cats.

Good luck to you, it is a very rewarding thing. I never in a million years thought my husband would go for keeping 4...but they grew on him and he couldn't let them go any more than I could. It was hard enough watching the other 4 leave. But 8 kittens growing into adulthood (plus 2 adult cats) would have been a wee bit overwhelming, LOL. And they did have great homes to go to.

(Just wanted to add, as long as the mother cat is ok with it...handle them each alot to get them used to human contact. Take the time with each one, individually. Not as necessary right now...when she may not like it, but as they grow and defiitely when their eyes open and are starting to explore the world.)
 

minxie

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wow - thanks for all that poohandwendy! Very insightful!

Is there any aggressiveness between the cats? I suppose neutering helps with that...

And how do your curtains survive with 4 kittens? toys/cat tree?
 

poohandwendy

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The females were all spayed first (at about 4 months)...the males did become sexually mature right around 6 months and yes, they became more aggressive. That changed almost immediately after having them neutered.

They play fight all of the time, but nothing serious and none of them has ever been hurt. If one gets too rough, the mother usually intervenes. And it stops immediately. But, it rarely ever gets that far, the other one will just run away and the aggressor finds something else to play with.

My curtains did suffer damage...no doubt. I mean, there were times I found 3 hanging from them at once. Arrrrggghhh. They outgrew the curtain preoccupation after the last 2 were neutered and don't even try anything like that anymore.

We have TONS of cat toys that I keep in a basket (I am constantly gathering them)..a tall carpeted cat tree and a few small carpeted scratching posts. They use them regularly.

We also have 4 litter boxes that I scoop at least 2 times per day and completely wash out every week. I know I am 'supposed' to have more boxes with 6 cats (from what I have read) and I did add another one, but they never used it. So I am sticking with the 4 and none of the cats have ever had any accidents.

I guess they do not mind sharing.
 

familytimerags

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Shenzi is just as pretty as Tink!! That is really neat that you kept Shenzi's babies. I agree 6 isn't any more work than 2, just more litterboxes...LOL, but lots more joy!! Shenzi's tummy got big, but I would have been so surprised at 8 babies!! How exciting!!
We have all Disney names here. Kiara, Nala, Marie, Lucy, Ariel, and Boo is our girls. Berlioz, Toulouse, and O'Malley is our boys.
We have had a few families choose Disney names with the kittens, our kids love when they find out that someone else chose a Disney name.
Some of the names chose of Disney, were Sully, Percy, Tinkerbelle, and Sarabi!!
Do you have pictures of your kittens?
 

silvermoonmyst

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My family has always named our pets after disney as well. I had a TinkerBell. There is Shadow now, And Nala, there is also Buddy. there was sassy and chance and Binx and Stitch at one point in time. It was just always our thing growing up.
Its neat that other people do that as well
 

poohandwendy

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I am always willing to share my pictures, LOL! The kittens were all named after Disney characters: Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo, Owl and Rabbit. Of course, when 4 went to their forever homes, they recived forever names and we also ended up changing the remaining 4 kitten's names...they just ended up with nicknames that stuck.

The mother got her name form one fo the laughing hyenas from The Lion King (the character played by Whoopi Goldberg, Shenzi) With her wild fur and the way it is marked, and her skinny body and round tummy, I just thought she looked like one of them.

This is one of the first pictures of the incredible 8:



Here are a few pictures, as they grew:





This picture is of the 4 we kept:



And what they look like now:

Jack, formerly 'Eeyore":



Freckles, formerly 'Owl':


Figaro, formerly 'Rabbit':



and Fluffy, formerly 'Piglet':



this one is an older one of Fluffy, but a better one of her face:

 

familytimerags

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Pooh and Wendy, All the pictures are wonderful! They are all adorable. You gave Figaro, AKA Rabbit, another Disney name, that is another of my favorites. My daughter is hoping for a Duchess..LOL My son wants Kovu, which is after The Lion King 2. All 3 of the Lion King movies were watched so many times, I think I can quote the movie as it goes along....LOL
My favorite is The Aristocats, I can watch that one over and over!!
Beautiful pictures and thank you for sharing them!!
 
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