Incoming Kittens!

Mom seems to be leaving the box and going to lie down far from the kittens more frequently now - I have been coaxing her back to the box and giving her a bellyrub to encourage her to lie down and let them nurse, but on her own she doesn't seem to respond when they start to cry. Is it normal for Mom to take a break now and then and go sleep elsewhere? Should she be coming back when the babies cry?

Its normal for a first time mom, but not necessarily good. My girl did this with her first litter (they were premature and all died but she still showed signs of leaving the nest constantly and wanting to sleep with me instead of babies). The second time around nothing but food will part her from her nest. The babies can get cold quickly. I would look into putting her in a small place, a bathroom or carrier for a while until she figures out her job as mom is most important.

I was worried about cold but it's about 78 degrees or a little warmer in the room they're in (AC is off), on a towel and they all pile together when they sleep - would they still get cold enough to be in danger? I am reluctant to lock her in with them since when she's locked in she just stands at the door of the cage ignoring them and cries to be let out - or finally gives up and flops down, sometimes on top of them.

Originally Posted by sapling

Can kittens hiss this young? I picked one up to hold for a second while Mom was off eating and I got something like a yawn, a hiccup, or a really cute attempt at a hiss.

What is the proper method for holding the tiny guys? I've been cupping them in my two hands and stroking them a bit with a finger

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When I was in high school my cat had babies and when we peeked in the box to check them out one of the orange ones hissed at us if we touched him, we named him Sir Hiss(from the Robin Hood cartoon) I got to keep him and he turned out to be the sweetest guy

My mom too, is leaving the kittens for short periods, usually to eat. She goes back in right after for the most part but this morning she came out of the room for a few minutes. It is very warm in here so I am not worried about them getting cold, but do I need to close her back in if she leaves for long periods? This hasn't happened yet but asking just in case...

Well, since I last posted I have gone in to check on them several times and Mom has been coming over of her own accord and flopping down to let them nurse. Last time she fell asleep for about an hour and they just hung on the whole time so I am not as concerned as I was.

Also, I got a foodscale today and weighed them. This is about 40 hours after their birth (and give or take .5 oz.. the scale is slightly annoying and doesn't seem to be perfectly exact. )

They vary in size from a little black guy at 3 oz. to a feisty 4.5 oz. Is that about normal? I guess the most important thing is that they all consistently gain weight. The mother is a small cat, and with a larger litter it makes sense they would be small as well.

Also I got the ingredients for "kitten glop" just in case anybody isn't gaining weight appropriately at tomorrow's weigh-in. In the meantime, would it be ok to feed some of it to Mama?

It is great for Momma too and my guess is that she will enjoy it.

I'm a little concerned about adding a raw egg yolk to the mix due to the risk of salmonella - I'm probably going to boil it with the water and gelatin. It may be a little less nutritious, but I don't think I could take the guilt if they all got sick.

Well mom is really enjoying the glop! She slurped up half a bowl of it right away, then walked over to her kittens and promptly fell asleep purring. I am quite happy. I would really rather feed her and let her feed the babies so I'm hoping her milk holds out!

Sounds like things are going well!

Wow, what a wonderful thread!

Good luck with your girl and her brood.

so pleased alll is going well you seem to have a happy little family

At tonight's weigh-in everybody appears to be gaining weight, except for one that was at the same weight (4.5 oz). However I am not very happy with the scale. I'm having to weigh them 3 times and then average out the weights I get. Tomorrow I am going to get a better, electronic version (I didn't get the cheapest one, but it's clearly not good enough.) In the meantime I've been hovering over Momma every couple of hours and making sure everyone is getting something to eat. The one that (hypothetically) didn't gain any weight is sucking away and giving as good as he gets in any 'teat fights' so I'm not too worried since I suspect the scale is wrong. The runt who is about .5 oz. behind everyone else seems less feisty fighting, but he does still get a spot to nurse after a little nosing around.

Also, I mixed up some goat's milk with some canned kitten food, and a little acidophilus and Mom loooved that. She was sitting up propped in a corner letting them nurse and I held it for her so she could drink it - half of it disappeared pretty fast, and I left the rest with her. She seems to not like the milk after it's been sitting out more than an hour, so I am trying to work out the proper 'serving size'.

I'm about halfway through my first roll of film - I'll probably finish it up in the next couple days and then get it developed on CD! I just love the huge pile they make when they sleep, with legs and arms sticking out every which way and little pink bellies.

Congrats. Quite a lot of progress since I last read your post. Sounds like the birthing and NOW the feeding is going well. BRAVO! Mommy cat BRAVO!

Oooh, I'm getting broody! Just hearing about all those newborns makes me want another foster litter! Congrats on the healthy babies. Mom really shouldn't ignore them when they cry, but it sounds like she is doing better now.

It seems like if one cries, she doesn't come.. if 2 or 3 cry, she hops on over. Doesn't bode well if one got separated, but I'm here to make sure that's not going to happen. Also she has been good about not moving them out of the box, so I am not too worried they will get spread out.

Ok, I got a new scale today and I am MUCH happier with it. It settles almost instantly on a weight and is accurate to +-.05 ounces. The new weights are:

5.6, 4.6, 5.3, 5.8, 4.0, 5.7, 4.6

The runt is still pretty small at 4.0, but since two days ago he was 3.0 and was 3.5 yesterday I think he's doing ok. I will really be able to tell tomorrow when I have confidence in my measurements for two days in a row!

I finally have managed to tell the 3 black ones apart a tiny bit - one is the runt, and another of them has the funniest meow.

First of all, congratulations on your new brood! It sounds like it's going quite well!

I'm so glad you're giving momma kitten glop. She's going to be ravenous from nursing so many kittens. Keep feeding her all the food she wants to eat. You can also feed her canned kitten food. Because of all of the extra food, and some weird nursing mom thing, expect the litterbox to stink. A lot! Other people report, and I found the same thing, that nursing queens will have large soft orangey stools that are rank. One of those little "downsides" of having kittens they don't tell ya about!

I'm curious, and maybe you've spoken about this in an earlier thread. How was it that a shelter adopted out a pregnant cat? I would have assumed they would have spayed her prior to adoption...at least that's what every shelter I've ever heard of does. Like Katie (TNR1) said, I would contact the shelter & let them know. If it were me, I'd be angling for them to not only help get them adopted, but also absorb some, if not all, of the vet costs for these guys.

I am not sure how shelters are other places, but ours are not that great. When you get a cat, you pay the cost of the spay/neuter and they give you a certificate that you have 30 days to take to a vet for a 'free' spay/neuter.

Also, most of the shelters are not 'no-kill'. If they had known she was pregnant, they would have euthanized her, and the best I expect from them if I notified them of the kittens is an offer to take some of them and put them up for adoption (but if they weren't picked up quickly enough, they would be euthanized). Needless to say, I'm not too thrilled with that idea. I will probably keep the little guys for a while and adopt them out to friends/family/neighbors. And if I can't adopt them all out, so be it.. we have a good-sized piece of land with a 'cat proof' fence and a pet door so our current cats can come in to part of the house, but also safely go outside, and it's large enough so it wouldn't be crowded. And I have to admit, I'm getting attached to the little guys.

We tend to take in stray cats, get them fixed up, and then adopt them out if possible, or keep them if not.. our record was 18 cats a few years back so this will be interesting with so many new arrivals at once, but we'll make sure they're taken care of.

I admit I tend to be slightly paranoid about who I give a cat to - it's always either someone I know pretty well, or the friend of someone I know pretty well. And we always send them with a '100% guarantee' ie if for whatever reason the person gets sick of the cat/can't afford the cat/finds out they're allergic to cats/cat gets sick and they don't want to deal with it, they will bring them back to us and NOT take them to the shelter.

Oh, and I definitely noticed the stool! Hers isn't orange so much but it did seem extra smelly, and especially since she's in the enclosed space of the bathroom it seems even worse. I cleaned the box and turned on the fan.