So we've recently taken in a cat from a friend of a friend who were looking to give her up. To make a long story short, the former owner was left with her after a breakup and no longer wanted her, we'd been looking for a cat, and in the end she seems happy at a home where she is, indeed, wanted. We'd been told that she was about nine months old at the time we got her, she wasn't fixed, but she'd never gotten out or been exposed to a male. When we received her, she was young, healthy, and overall happy. We took a little too long shopping for a vet to get her fixed, as we didn't really like our last vet's bedside manner, and five weeks later, she woke me up in the middle night crying, and I found her in my closet, giving birth.
Naturally, I'm more than a little concerned. We hadn't realized she was pregnant, and when we got her she was a little chubby, and we were told she was just a little overweight. We intended to talk to the new vet about trying low calorie food or something, but for now were feeding her about a cup a day of dry food, which we now realize we should have been feeding her a lot more. As soon as she finished labor, we put down a large plate and we're now free feeding, and so far she'd been gobbling it up, along with a can of wet food a day (split up in half by morning and half at night), and plenty of water of course.
My parents took care of the neighborhood strays when I was a kid and took in plenty of them, and I have a pretty decent amount of experience with new mother cats, and the delivery process, but it's also been about six years since I've gone through this. As soon as I realized she was in labor, I put on some gloves to help her with whatever she needed. She's a new cat, but I've spent the last few weeks at home recovering from surgery and we've gotten very close, and she seemed grateful for the help (moving kittens up to her, bringing them to the nipples, little things). In the end, there were fifth, and by the sixth she was falling asleep while trying to clean them, but she got through it alright. I was shocked that there were six, considering how young and small she is, but they for the most part seemed pretty healthy. One was a little small, and as she went into labor at midnight, I couldn't get to a store right away.
The next day I went to the store and got some kitten chow to feed her, some wet food, a scale, KMR, and a kitten bottle. I tried to find something online that would tell me how much they should weigh, but from what I gathered, they should have been somewhere around 110 grams by the point I was weighing them (about 4pm the next day), which they all were, except for two: one, which I've been calling the "Big Boy", weighed 169g. He's visibly much larger than the other kittens, and easily twice the size of the runt of the litter, who I've been calling "Pip" (short for Pipsqueak), who only weighed 68g when I first weighed him.
I was immediately alarmed, and I put some KMR in a bottle and tried to feed him, but he just wasn't having the bottle, so eventually I gave up on the endeavor. I've instead opted for making sure whenever he's with mom, he always has a nipple. Big Boy is a major shover, and when he's on a nipple, his paws flail around and I've sometimes been putting a finger up to block his hits when he's near Pip, to keep him from shoving Pip off of the nipple. Because none of them seem willing to touch the baby bottles, I've opted to following the KMR's recommendation for giving their mother, Chaplin, a bit every afternoon, to get her out of the room for the weigh in for the kittens, and with the door mostly closed and the TV playing low in the background, she doesn't hear them shouting at the disturbance.
I spent pretty much half of the night worrying about Pip and sitting with them, making sure he's eating, and this morning, at 11am, he weighed in at 82g, which relieved me; a 14g gain. I weighed him again at 4pm, just to keep a steady weigh in time, and he was up to 84g, marking 16g in a 24 hour period. I read somewhere that they should be gaining at least 10g a day, and all of the others were at at least 120g; I haven't been writing them down yet, but I'm thinking I should start? Just to make sure no one lags behind.
Chaplin doesn't seem to mind me touching the kittens, which was a relief. If I touch them a lot and disrupt them, making them meow, she does give me a "You're bothering them" look, but she's never growled or smacked at me or anything. She gives me a look, I back off for a minute, and all has been well so far. Yesterday, during my shopping trip, I bought her a larger bed that fit perfectly into the cubby hole she'd been laying in with them, and she was also perfectly fine with me moving them into the softer, more comfortable bed under her supervision.
There was a point yesterday where she came up to me, wide eyed and scared looking, meowing and being just all over me, and she just seemed kind of exhausted and overwhelmed. At first I was worried about her, but she was fine; then I checked the kittens, and they were fine. She sat with me for a few minutes, but minutes turned into an hour, the kittens started meowing, and she just ignored them. Finally I had to walk her over, she sat in the nest and sort of ignored them, but I moved them over to her. When I tried to walk away, she tried to get up, and finally we settled on me sitting beside her and petting her in order for her to sit with them. She fell asleep after a few minutes, but every time I tried to get up she'd wake up and try to follow me, so I settled for bringing in a laptop and headphones and hang out with her and the kittens for about two hours total, watching Netflix and protecting Pip from the wrath of Big Boy's tiny claws. When I did escape, she seemed a little less panicky, and I'm just chalking her mood up to the hormones she's probably dealing with?
But over the period of this afternoon, she's been kind of avoiding them. She laid with them for almost the entirety of when I woke up until about 7pm, leaving briefly for breakfast, litter, and water and snacks, but she left them for about a half an hour at 7pm at they began to cry, so I had to goad her back into going to them; she stayed until 9, then left them again. I put down her dinner, she ate, littered, and since then hasn't returned. About an hour ago she walked over, looked at them, then climbed onto my bed and took a nap. They haven't cried and are all weighing good, but part of me feels like she should be laying with them to keep them warm or at least checking them more often? I put a heating pad under the bed, but it's pretty thick, and even on the highest setting, the fluff is only lukewarm. I'm someone who prefers to keep my room at a chilly 50F, but I've been keeping the window closed and the heat on for their sake, but we can only really turn the heat up to 75 without everyone in the house getting too hot.
Overall, this post is more or less just to seek advice, and hopefully a bit of reassurance that I'm not completely screwing anything up? They're about two days old right now (born 9pm-11pm 3/5 and it's 11:30pm on 3/7 right now), most seem to be good on weight, except for Big Boy who's a big boy, and Pip, who's tiny but gaining fast. Should I be wary of Pip gaining too fast? And in all the time I've spent with Chaplin and the kittens, I haven't with my own two eyes seen her stimulate them to use the bathroom (which has been about a third of the time in total); at what point should I be concerned, and how would I know if she wasn't?
I've been very gentle with handling them since they're so small and delicate, and Chaplin doesn't seem to mind me touching them so long as they're not distressed, but should I limit doing so while they're still so small? We have no other pets and I'm mindful to wash my hands often, and while I don't sit there cuddling them, I also don't really hesitate to pick someone up while they're searching for a nipple and move them to one, since she hasn't made much of an effort to do so. What is the maximum amount of time she should be spending away from them right now, and is there anything I can do to make her want to stay more, since bottle feeding doesn't really work for them?
We're still in the process of finding a vet we like (there aren't a lot in the area, so we're currently looking for ones an hour or two away), and we'll be getting them checked and Chaplin fixed soon. The nickname's I've been using for them are temporarily, and obviously so are the pronouns.
I've seen plenty of kittens growing up, and if I'm remembering, petting and cuddling around 2 weeks, weaning starts around 4-5 weeks, litter training around 3-4, start looking for homes 10-12? We live in a fairly cozy condo, so we're certainly not keeping them all (maybe one at best, and if it's anyone, it'll probably be Pip, because we're getting pretty close), but does anyone have any tips regarding seven kittens versus a small place? We have a few cat trees already for Chaplin, and I've stocked up on some toy mice and balls for them to play with once they're a few weeks older, is there anything else I should be considering?
I know this post is very long, but I'm a little overwhelmed and overall shocked at this entire situation, and I just want to make sure I'm able to do right by the kittens. Any advice would be helpful, or resources that might help us out.
Naturally, I'm more than a little concerned. We hadn't realized she was pregnant, and when we got her she was a little chubby, and we were told she was just a little overweight. We intended to talk to the new vet about trying low calorie food or something, but for now were feeding her about a cup a day of dry food, which we now realize we should have been feeding her a lot more. As soon as she finished labor, we put down a large plate and we're now free feeding, and so far she'd been gobbling it up, along with a can of wet food a day (split up in half by morning and half at night), and plenty of water of course.
My parents took care of the neighborhood strays when I was a kid and took in plenty of them, and I have a pretty decent amount of experience with new mother cats, and the delivery process, but it's also been about six years since I've gone through this. As soon as I realized she was in labor, I put on some gloves to help her with whatever she needed. She's a new cat, but I've spent the last few weeks at home recovering from surgery and we've gotten very close, and she seemed grateful for the help (moving kittens up to her, bringing them to the nipples, little things). In the end, there were fifth, and by the sixth she was falling asleep while trying to clean them, but she got through it alright. I was shocked that there were six, considering how young and small she is, but they for the most part seemed pretty healthy. One was a little small, and as she went into labor at midnight, I couldn't get to a store right away.
The next day I went to the store and got some kitten chow to feed her, some wet food, a scale, KMR, and a kitten bottle. I tried to find something online that would tell me how much they should weigh, but from what I gathered, they should have been somewhere around 110 grams by the point I was weighing them (about 4pm the next day), which they all were, except for two: one, which I've been calling the "Big Boy", weighed 169g. He's visibly much larger than the other kittens, and easily twice the size of the runt of the litter, who I've been calling "Pip" (short for Pipsqueak), who only weighed 68g when I first weighed him.
I was immediately alarmed, and I put some KMR in a bottle and tried to feed him, but he just wasn't having the bottle, so eventually I gave up on the endeavor. I've instead opted for making sure whenever he's with mom, he always has a nipple. Big Boy is a major shover, and when he's on a nipple, his paws flail around and I've sometimes been putting a finger up to block his hits when he's near Pip, to keep him from shoving Pip off of the nipple. Because none of them seem willing to touch the baby bottles, I've opted to following the KMR's recommendation for giving their mother, Chaplin, a bit every afternoon, to get her out of the room for the weigh in for the kittens, and with the door mostly closed and the TV playing low in the background, she doesn't hear them shouting at the disturbance.
I spent pretty much half of the night worrying about Pip and sitting with them, making sure he's eating, and this morning, at 11am, he weighed in at 82g, which relieved me; a 14g gain. I weighed him again at 4pm, just to keep a steady weigh in time, and he was up to 84g, marking 16g in a 24 hour period. I read somewhere that they should be gaining at least 10g a day, and all of the others were at at least 120g; I haven't been writing them down yet, but I'm thinking I should start? Just to make sure no one lags behind.
Chaplin doesn't seem to mind me touching the kittens, which was a relief. If I touch them a lot and disrupt them, making them meow, she does give me a "You're bothering them" look, but she's never growled or smacked at me or anything. She gives me a look, I back off for a minute, and all has been well so far. Yesterday, during my shopping trip, I bought her a larger bed that fit perfectly into the cubby hole she'd been laying in with them, and she was also perfectly fine with me moving them into the softer, more comfortable bed under her supervision.
There was a point yesterday where she came up to me, wide eyed and scared looking, meowing and being just all over me, and she just seemed kind of exhausted and overwhelmed. At first I was worried about her, but she was fine; then I checked the kittens, and they were fine. She sat with me for a few minutes, but minutes turned into an hour, the kittens started meowing, and she just ignored them. Finally I had to walk her over, she sat in the nest and sort of ignored them, but I moved them over to her. When I tried to walk away, she tried to get up, and finally we settled on me sitting beside her and petting her in order for her to sit with them. She fell asleep after a few minutes, but every time I tried to get up she'd wake up and try to follow me, so I settled for bringing in a laptop and headphones and hang out with her and the kittens for about two hours total, watching Netflix and protecting Pip from the wrath of Big Boy's tiny claws. When I did escape, she seemed a little less panicky, and I'm just chalking her mood up to the hormones she's probably dealing with?
But over the period of this afternoon, she's been kind of avoiding them. She laid with them for almost the entirety of when I woke up until about 7pm, leaving briefly for breakfast, litter, and water and snacks, but she left them for about a half an hour at 7pm at they began to cry, so I had to goad her back into going to them; she stayed until 9, then left them again. I put down her dinner, she ate, littered, and since then hasn't returned. About an hour ago she walked over, looked at them, then climbed onto my bed and took a nap. They haven't cried and are all weighing good, but part of me feels like she should be laying with them to keep them warm or at least checking them more often? I put a heating pad under the bed, but it's pretty thick, and even on the highest setting, the fluff is only lukewarm. I'm someone who prefers to keep my room at a chilly 50F, but I've been keeping the window closed and the heat on for their sake, but we can only really turn the heat up to 75 without everyone in the house getting too hot.
Overall, this post is more or less just to seek advice, and hopefully a bit of reassurance that I'm not completely screwing anything up? They're about two days old right now (born 9pm-11pm 3/5 and it's 11:30pm on 3/7 right now), most seem to be good on weight, except for Big Boy who's a big boy, and Pip, who's tiny but gaining fast. Should I be wary of Pip gaining too fast? And in all the time I've spent with Chaplin and the kittens, I haven't with my own two eyes seen her stimulate them to use the bathroom (which has been about a third of the time in total); at what point should I be concerned, and how would I know if she wasn't?
I've been very gentle with handling them since they're so small and delicate, and Chaplin doesn't seem to mind me touching them so long as they're not distressed, but should I limit doing so while they're still so small? We have no other pets and I'm mindful to wash my hands often, and while I don't sit there cuddling them, I also don't really hesitate to pick someone up while they're searching for a nipple and move them to one, since she hasn't made much of an effort to do so. What is the maximum amount of time she should be spending away from them right now, and is there anything I can do to make her want to stay more, since bottle feeding doesn't really work for them?
We're still in the process of finding a vet we like (there aren't a lot in the area, so we're currently looking for ones an hour or two away), and we'll be getting them checked and Chaplin fixed soon. The nickname's I've been using for them are temporarily, and obviously so are the pronouns.
I've seen plenty of kittens growing up, and if I'm remembering, petting and cuddling around 2 weeks, weaning starts around 4-5 weeks, litter training around 3-4, start looking for homes 10-12? We live in a fairly cozy condo, so we're certainly not keeping them all (maybe one at best, and if it's anyone, it'll probably be Pip, because we're getting pretty close), but does anyone have any tips regarding seven kittens versus a small place? We have a few cat trees already for Chaplin, and I've stocked up on some toy mice and balls for them to play with once they're a few weeks older, is there anything else I should be considering?
I know this post is very long, but I'm a little overwhelmed and overall shocked at this entire situation, and I just want to make sure I'm able to do right by the kittens. Any advice would be helpful, or resources that might help us out.
