Advice for a large litter - 9 kittens!

[laceyloowho]

Just a quick check in. Mama continues to do well and her milk is back to normal. She has been super hungry which seems to be a good sign I am back to supplementing 2-3 times a day. Babies are gaining well again. Overall I think we are over that bump in the road.

They are adorable! This is such a cute age... it is a little bit like watching a bunch of drunk toddlers

I decided to set up a dome tent in my living room for them. It is quite large and they were excited to begin exploring. It seems to be working well and we keep the door partially unzipped at the top so mom can get in and out. It was something I already had here so I did not have to buy anything. I turned their nesting box on its side and put that and their toys in there too. I will set up litter boxes tomorrow and start trying to get them to use them.

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• laceyloowho
• Aug 20, 2016

Here is a short vid I made of the kittens this morning before we moved them

 

[Sarthur2]

They are too cute! I loved the video!

Glad mama is all better, and babies are gaining again. I'll bet they enjoy having more room to play and explore. Exciting times ahead!

 

[Primula]

OMG. Wrigglers & wigglers!

 

[DreamerRose]

My goodness! That's a passel o' cats!

 

[laceyloowho]

Checking in... the big news of the day is that I introduced the kittens to plain chicken baby food and they went right after it! This excites me as I think they will grow nicely with the addition of solids and it reduces the need for me to supplement so much. This will help a lot as I am working more and school starts next week. They are a couple of days shy of 4 weeks now. Are solids ok at this point? I am going to try some kmr in a dish later today and see if they will drink that as well. They have a short litter pan in their tent. So far they just dig or mouth the litter but I am hoping it will click as they eat more solids
Mama looks so good after her illness. Very full mammaries and she is eating voraciously! It has taken a few days but her poop is completely solid again. We seem to be on track!

Now for the fun part... pictures!

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• laceyloowho
• Aug 22, 2016

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• laceyloowho
• Aug 22, 2016

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• laceyloowho
• Aug 22, 2016

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• laceyloowho
• Aug 22, 2016

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• laceyloowho
• Aug 22, 2016

 

[Sarthur2]

Aww, love the pictures!

I'm so glad the kittens like the Gerber chicken baby food. Soft solids like this and KMR are fine. Are they lapping it from a dish? Stock up!

It will help them grow! And they will learn the litter pan soon. They are a little young right now.

So glad to hear that Mama is 100% again now! [emoji]128522[/emoji]

 

[laceyloowho]

Ya... they are just licking it off a shallow plate. Can I thin down soft cat food or should I only feed the baby food?

 

[hellomisskitty]

Just a quick check in. Mama continues to do well and her milk is back to normal. She has been super hungry which seems to be a good sign I am back to supplementing 2-3 times a day. Babies are gaining well again. Overall I think we are over that bump in the road.

They are adorable! This is such a cute age... it is a little bit like watching a bunch of drunk toddlers

I decided to set up a dome tent in my living room for them. It is quite large and they were excited to begin exploring. It seems to be working well and we keep the door partially unzipped at the top so mom can get in and out. It was something I already had here so I did not have to buy anything. I turned their nesting box on its side and put that and their toys in there too. I will set up litter boxes tomorrow and start trying to get them to use them.

20160818_235413.jpg

• laceyloowho
• Aug 20, 2016

Here is a short vid I made of the kittens this morning before we moved them

Any words I would use to describe how adorable your kittens are would just fall short in capturing how sweet they are and how warm and gooey they made my heart. My vocabulary is just not sufficient.
That made my rocky Monday all better!! Thank you for sharing then. I think I'd like to come over and just hang out in the tent with your babies [emoji]10084[/emoji]️ Would that be ok?? [emoji]128540[/emoji]
Mamanyt1953 this video is a MUST see[emoji]128571[/emoji][emoji]128571[/emoji][emoji]128571[/emoji]

 

[Mamanyt1953]

I ​came, I saw, I SWOOOOOOOOOOONED!

 

[Sarthur2]

laceyloowho

Do the kittens have their baby teeth yet? If so, you can thin Fancy Feast chicken pate for them using KMR. Fancy Feast makes a kitten pate. You just want to be sure there are no chunks at all. They can easily choke. That's why the Gerber is a nice transition because it's so smooth.

 

[laceyloowho]

They do have their sharp little teeth

I will look for some of that and get some more baby food!

 

[laceyloowho]

Another quick question... can I make my own chicken baby food by boiling the chicken and then putting that and the plain broth from boiling it into a food processor? That would be a lot cheaper for me to do myself

 

[Sarthur2]

Yes m'am, you sure can! And with 9 little hungry mouths to feed, I would do the same thing. Add KMR to make it creamier. [emoji]128077[/emoji]

 

[Mamanyt1953]

~sits in the corner, softly babbling about wodgy little kitten tails~

 

[hellomisskitty]

~sits in the corner, softly babbling about wodgy little kitten tails~

[emoji]128569[/emoji][emoji]128569[/emoji][emoji]128569[/emoji][emoji]128569[/emoji]I'm dying I'm laughing so hard[emoji]128569[/emoji][emoji]128569[/emoji][emoji]128569[/emoji][emoji]128569[/emoji]

 

[Primula]

~sits in the corner, softly babbling about wodgy little kitten tails~

You've lost me.

 

[DreamerRose]

@Primula  - Mamanyt1953 loves kitten tails and gloms on any pictures of them. 

 

[Primula]

Gotcha. Thanks.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

 
@Primula  - Mamanyt1953 loves kitten tails and gloms on any pictures of them. 

There are no 12-step programs for it...I've looked.  Their little tails are just so silly, and cute, and WODGY!  Short and fat, compared to the elegant appendage of the adult feline...I'm addicted to the kitten tails.  And that bit of video had NINE OF THEM!

 

[laceyloowho]

Time for an update. All continue to do well and gain weight. They turned 4 weeks old on wednesday and all but my smallest 3 were over 400 grams. I am only really weighing them every couple of days now. They are so active and wiggly that getting a weight is difficult and probably not as accurate as it used to be. They walk off the scale or out of bowls etc. before I can get the weight, little rascals
I am just watching them close and feeding them homemade chicken baby food 3-4 times a day. Also supplementing with kmr 1-2 times a day.

They are balls of energy! The tent has worked well. We also got a pet fence and attached it to the tent. When we need them to be in the tent we just zip it mostly closed but leave an opening where mom can jump in and out. When I want to let them out, I just unzip the tent and they have an enclosed space to explore. I let them out a few times a day but only when I am right there to supervise them They are already little escape artists so I watch them like a hawk. Mom is the only one upset by this bigger world. I think it just overwhelmes her to have all of them running around. She comes to me for reassurance that they are fine. I think she will be comfortable with it in a few days. It is hilarious when she tries to corral them all back to the tent... herding cats does not work well, haha!

They love their toys and scratching thingy. We got them a kitty tunnel and they adore that thing! Tissue paper is also a big hit! All of them are using the litter box to pee at least some of the time.

Some pics and another video of them playing

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• laceyloowho
• Aug 27, 2016

Creative nursing! They stayed like this for 15 mins

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• laceyloowho
• Aug 27, 2016

Food!

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• laceyloowho
• Aug 27, 2016