8 new babies born yesterday

gizzysgrandma · Apr 19, 2006

Hi, I have a few questions regarding newborn and mom care. My daughter left her pregnant kitty, Gizmo, with me. She's a young mom, a year old, and this is her first litter. I set up a nest for her in the back of my bedroom closet and blocked it in, leaving a small opening for her to get in and out, laid down old sheets. She went into labor yesterday and did very well! (She tried to have them on my lap but I just kept putting her in her nest), then I watched from a few feet away.

Over 3 hours she gave birth to eight seemingly healthy kittens. She was exhausted by the last one though, so I helped her along and broke its sac and rubbed it til it started breathing, also cut the cords for 4 of them. She is being a great mom and doesn't seem to mind me touching the kittens. I put her food and water dishes in the nest area, off at the end away from the kitties and I put her litter box in another part of the room.

I'm a little worried, with such a large litter, if they'll all get enough nursing. I read about weighing them everyday but I don't think I can keep track of which one is which! Some are black and some are different shades of gray. There are one or 2 that seem a bit small and not very aggressive so I keep putting them on nipples to make sure they nurse.

Also, the mom has been eating well but she hasn't used the litter box yet. How soon should she be going to the bathroom after giving birth?

Thanks for your help,
gizzysgrandma

silvermoonmyst · Apr 19, 2006

i had 7 last week, my cousin who breeds told me to tie different colored yarn or ribbons around their neaks, loose enough not to bother them, but tight enough not to loose them. I never could get it tied right, but it did work

They ended up with yarn strings around their bellys

Congradulations on your new babies.
Feed mama some special treats, ive been giving my foster animal fat ( raw), ham and turkey. Once choice a day, with a bowl of milk. So that she keeps up her strength for her babies.

kluchetta · Apr 19, 2006

My kitty had 8 kittens last year, and they did just great. Cats have 8 nipples, so sometimes the piggiest ones hog the "best" nipples, but there should be enough, you might have to help some of the smaller ones find an "empty" space. Free feed good quality kitten food, and KMR if she likes it. Or you can make "Kitten Glop" - there is a link at the top of this forum. Gizmo will likely have a big BM sometime soon, and if she ate all 8 placentas, it might be a little loose. Of course if she has horrible diarrhea, that's something different. Oh, and I only weighed mine every week, but I didn't have this excellent site for all the advice. If they are falling asleep on the nipple, and not crying during or after feeding, they should be getting enough. They should also have fat tight little tummies after feeding. Hope this helps!

missymotus · Apr 19, 2006

Congrats on the new babies!
I wouldn't tie anything around their necks, you can use sharpie markers instead to mark which is which. It really is important to weigh them everyday.

gizzysgrandma · Apr 19, 2006

Thanks much to all for the advice!

Missymotus, when you say use sharpie markers, I heard something once about painting one claw on each kitten a different color. Is this okay to do?

They all just had a good nap but woke up a few minutes ago and sure enough, that little runt one was just laying around off to the side, not even trying to get in there. I put it up near the top area of the mom and boy did he howl at me! But he looks like he's searching for a nipple now.

momof3rugratz · Apr 19, 2006

Originally Posted by Gizzysgrandma

Hi, I have a few questions regarding newborn and mom care. My daughter left her pregnant kitty, Gizmo, with me. She's a young mom, a year old, and this is her first litter. I set up a nest for her in the back of my bedroom closet and blocked it in, leaving a small opening for her to get in and out, laid down old sheets. She went into labor yesterday and did very well! (She tried to have them on my lap but I just kept putting her in her nest), then I watched from a few feet away.

Over 3 hours she gave birth to eight seemingly healthy kittens. She was exhausted by the last one though, so I helped her along and broke its sac and rubbed it til it started breathing, also cut the cords for 4 of them. She is being a great mom and doesn't seem to mind me touching the kittens. I put her food and water dishes in the nest area, off at the end away from the kitties and I put her litter box in another part of the room.

I'm a little worried, with such a large litter, if they'll all get enough nursing. I read about weighing them everyday but I don't think I can keep track of which one is which! Some are black and some are different shades of gray. There are one or 2 that seem a bit small and not very aggressive so I keep putting them on nipples to make sure they nurse.

Also, the mom has been eating well but she hasn't used the litter box yet. How soon should she be going to the bathroom after giving birth?

Thanks for your help,
gizzysgrandma

When you get a chance please send pictures.

gizzysgrandma · Apr 19, 2006

When you get a chance please send pictures

I certainly will! I have to buy batteries for my camera.

gizzysgrandma · Apr 19, 2006

How do you insert jpegs here? I don't have a website so I can't copy from a URL.

momof3rugratz · Apr 19, 2006

go to photobucket.com open a free account

gizzysgrandma · Apr 19, 2006

okay, I hope I've done this right.....

gizzysgrandma · Apr 19, 2006

oops, I don't think I'm doing it right. I opened the photobucket acct and downloaded 3 pics into it but can't figure out how to paste it here. There are 3 choices--URL, Tag & IMG. Do do I do?

kluchetta · Apr 19, 2006

Originally Posted by Gizzysgrandma

oops, I don't think I'm doing it right. I opened the photobucket acct and downloaded 3 pics into it but can't figure out how to paste it here. There are 3 choices--URL, Tag & IMG. Do do I do?

Use the IMG choice

gizzysgrandma · Apr 19, 2006

okay, here goes.....

[/IMG]

gizzysgrandma · Apr 19, 2006

It worked! Thanks kluchetta

back to mom now....

Gizzy nursing....

momof3rugratz · Apr 19, 2006

I love them. Grey and beautiful. In photobuckit you will need to hit edit and resize. I am sure a Mod will tell you they are to big sorry

kluchetta · Apr 19, 2006

Waaa, I can't see them at work. I'll have to look tonight at home.

charmed654321 · Apr 19, 2006

Hi and good luck with your kittens!

This may not be the most popular opinion around here, but I would strongly suggest being very careful and frugal about taking pictures.

The reason kittens are born with their eyes closed and their ears down are because kittens are not fully developed in the womb, and they continue developing after they are born. Even though their eyes are closed, the flash, the strong lights can do damage to their developing retinas.

Also, handling them too much away from the mother at that age can cause stress and many problems for the babies and the mom too. I've always felt that petting, talking to them, touching them is fine at the beginning, in fact a good thing, but doing it while they're with Mom until they are a bit older and stronger.

I would strongly recommend, until they begin open their eyes at aboiut 2 weeks or so, you take maybe a couple of pictures of them in with their Mom at a time their sleeping or nursing, so they are away from the lights.

Once their eyes open, then you can have a field day

I know it's difficut when they're so cute, but they are so vulnerable at the beginning, and in our enthusiasm sometimes we forget that.

Good luck with them.

gizzysgrandma · Apr 19, 2006

Thanks for the tip on edit & resize. I just opened photobucket today so I don't know what to do with it yet

I understand what you mean, Charmed, about handling them too much. Where I am holding one of the kitties in my hand, I have it right under its mother's nose and she was fine with this. I had first tried to pull it away from the litter to take its picture and that's when mom said NO WAY. oops! She's fine if I only handle them right up next to her body.

How do you go about changing the bedding without upsetting them? I changed the bedding earlier today and it seemed so traumatic for all of them. Is there an easy way of doing this?

kluchetta · Apr 19, 2006

I would place the new bedding next to where they are laying, and then feed mom to get her out of the nest, and then transfer the kits to the new bedding and then just slide it over to where the old bedding was. Later, I used a couple of those circular cat beds and they loved to pile up in those.

gizzysgrandma · Apr 19, 2006

I put mom's food in the nest last night, which makes mom very happy because she doesn't need to leave her nest! I fed her some ground turkey today and she dove into it, ravenous. So tomorrow I'll move her food out to another part of the room, give her some more turkey and while she's eating I'll clean the nest.

Thanks!

8 new babies born yesterday

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