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Me and my bf adopted a bonded pair 2 months ago. They're about 10 months old. They aren't spayed yet. They've been indoors only, but there was a male that wasn't yet neutered at the rescue we got them from, so I knew there was a risk one or both would give us kittens. Still, I was uncomfortable with the idea of a spay-abort, when we can afford to take care of the kittens too, so we figured we'd either keep them, or spay/neuter them + vaccines etc and find them a good home, depending on how many we end up with. Thankfully only one is pregnant!
We took the girls in for a vet visit, but they were basically climbing up the walls, terrified for their lives. We were supposed to come back with a sedative, but the vet said it's best to wait until she's had her kittens, instead of stressing her too much while pregnant.
I don't know for sure when the due date is, just that we've had them for 61 days, so the mating took place sometime before then. She hasn't really shown any interest in any of the nesting options we set out for her. She seems to prefer sitting on the cold wood floor most of the time.
One thing I'm still in doubt about is whether I should separate her from her sister or not. They seem to get along really well, only disagreement they ever had was sis wanting to play but momma not wanting to, so she hissed and sis left her alone. But they never showed any aggression towards each other, and we've been distracting sis with lotsa play. I'm also considering when to spay sis. We had an appointment last week, but got covid so we postponed. I worry that separating them in general will cause them a lot of stress. So my plan was to wait until the kittens are a few weeks old, and only separate them if momma seems to want her gone, or if sis shows any signs of aggression towards the kittens.
So we're planning on taking turns to stay up and check up on her, rush her to the ER if anything goes wrong. Once she picks a nest, we'll set a security camera on it and just watch for another room, unless she somehow indicates she wants us there.
So far, she weighs 4.05kg and her sister is just 3.03kg. She just waddles along from one favorite sleeping spot to another throughout the day, eating a lot and drinking a lot of water. We've been making great progress at socializing them, with daily play-and-treats sessions, so they went from bolting whenever they saw us, to being willing to hang out in the open with us, eat treats from our hands and be petted a little bit.
I keep obsessively reading about things that might go wrong and what to keep an eye out for. I still feel completely unprepared.
I attached some pics of her and the nesting options we set up.
Let me know if you have any ideas on what I can do to make skittish momma more comfy, and what I should do with sis, or anything really. It's my first (and hopefully only) time when witnessing a cat birth.
We took the girls in for a vet visit, but they were basically climbing up the walls, terrified for their lives. We were supposed to come back with a sedative, but the vet said it's best to wait until she's had her kittens, instead of stressing her too much while pregnant.
I don't know for sure when the due date is, just that we've had them for 61 days, so the mating took place sometime before then. She hasn't really shown any interest in any of the nesting options we set out for her. She seems to prefer sitting on the cold wood floor most of the time.
One thing I'm still in doubt about is whether I should separate her from her sister or not. They seem to get along really well, only disagreement they ever had was sis wanting to play but momma not wanting to, so she hissed and sis left her alone. But they never showed any aggression towards each other, and we've been distracting sis with lotsa play. I'm also considering when to spay sis. We had an appointment last week, but got covid so we postponed. I worry that separating them in general will cause them a lot of stress. So my plan was to wait until the kittens are a few weeks old, and only separate them if momma seems to want her gone, or if sis shows any signs of aggression towards the kittens.
So we're planning on taking turns to stay up and check up on her, rush her to the ER if anything goes wrong. Once she picks a nest, we'll set a security camera on it and just watch for another room, unless she somehow indicates she wants us there.
So far, she weighs 4.05kg and her sister is just 3.03kg. She just waddles along from one favorite sleeping spot to another throughout the day, eating a lot and drinking a lot of water. We've been making great progress at socializing them, with daily play-and-treats sessions, so they went from bolting whenever they saw us, to being willing to hang out in the open with us, eat treats from our hands and be petted a little bit.
I keep obsessively reading about things that might go wrong and what to keep an eye out for. I still feel completely unprepared.
I attached some pics of her and the nesting options we set up.
Let me know if you have any ideas on what I can do to make skittish momma more comfy, and what I should do with sis, or anything really. It's my first (and hopefully only) time when witnessing a cat birth.
