Elsa's babies

[irishmammy]

How often should I supplement?

They are all trying to feed and started giving out loudly when mama moved !!

She looks like she's been in the wars, her white fur is bloody.

I'll see how the feeding goes over the next while. I'm exhausted lol it's after 2am here.
At least Elsa had the decency to have hers at 10 in the morning!

 

[Sarthur2]

I know you are exhausted. I think they should each get 1mL every 2 hours plus nurse mom, who must also be exhausted.

 

[irishmammy]

Ok, so I collapsed into bed at 3am as they were all feeding and got up at 8am to check on them. All are settled nicely.

I just realised my weights might have been off esp for the smaller ones as my scales was on carpet.

Weighed them again this morning and weights are:

#1 - 93g (+12)
#2 - 97g (+47)?
#3 - 109g (+24)
#4 - 69g (+27)
#5 - 112g (+50)?
#6 - 92g (+11)

There's also a possibility I mixed up which kitten is which, but those weights are looking way better. The little tiny baby is a real fighter for the food! Pushes the others out of the way!

I'm gonna let mom keep feeding them as she's doing such a good job and I'll check on them again later.

 

[ashade1]

Oh wow! I definitely think that your scale was messed up from being on the carpet... one of my mommas- Sabrina had 5 babies all around 60 grams and sadly none of them made it... they didn't even try to drink when syringe fed. A couple didn't even have fur. Great news for you though! I was so worried when I read their initial weights! Glad everyone is doing fine now!

 

[irishmammy]

Yeah it looks that way about the scales. At least I know what they were this morning so can go from there.

 

[Sarthur2]

I hope your scale was wrong, and wondered about that last night. The extra feeding still helped them out regardless. A scale must always be on a flat surface to weigh correctly.

These weights are much healthier! I do not think they gained what you are showing, but we'll use today's weights for reference.

Are they all 6 nursing at the same time?

I'm really relieved that all are doing well!

 

[irishmammy]

Mostly they try to nurse at the same time, so there's a bit of jostling for position and the teeniest one has been doing what I call "the bulldozer" move...pushing in perpendicular and knocking the others off!

There's one nipple in the middle they all fight over so when I can, I line her up at that one and swap the bigger babies to the other nipples if they try to push her off. She's not giving in though. Tough cookie!

I have also seen her feeding maybe 4 and 2 sleeping together a bit away from them.

I need to get to know which is which and who are boys and who are girls so we can start naming them.

I'm so so glad Silky came to me when she did. She would have been alone in the rescue centre last night if not and I dread to think how that would have gone.

 

[Sarthur2]

They tend to jostle for nipples for a couple of days.

I'm glad she was in your home too!

You can mark their tail tips with a colored Sharpie to tell them apart.

 

[irishmammy]

Oh I might try that. Or if I can get photos of each, and stick them to the wall lol. They are all different, it's just more to remember which is which. Like with Elsa's kittens they were quite different with Timmy and Bandit being the most similar and they are easy to tell apart if you remember Timmy has a black nose, Bandit has a black chin.

Speaking of which, Elsa's babies look HUGE now! Bandit ran over to greet me this morning while his siblings slept. Very cute.

 

[Sarthur2]

Kind of like thinking your two-year-old is a baby until a newborn appears!

 

[irishmammy]

Kind of like thinking your two-year-old is a baby until a newborn appears!

Exactly!! I was thinking the same!

 

[irishmammy]

 

[Sarthur2]

Very sweet!

 

[irishmammy]

I'm trying to give some of the kittens krm as their weight gains are a bit low. My teeny girl is great, drank from the bottle and took 3ml.

The next guy I tried roared so much Silky got upset and snatched him away from me.
I kept him near to Silky so she wouldn't stress out. Should I have taken him away?

Also I noticed Silky is breathing very fast when she's feeding. Is this normal or a sign she's under pressure?

The weights 11 hours after last weigh-in were:


#1 - 100g (+7)
#2 - 100g (+3)
#3 - 116g (+7)
#4 - 70g (+1) **3ML KRM given**
#5 - 110g (-2) **attempted krm***
#6 - 96g (+4)

 

[Sarthur2]

The weights are good! Don't panic over #5 yet unless he loses more. He's the biggest so he's obviously gained.

Nursing 6 babies is hard work, so while mom's body adjusts, she pants. She needs extra calcium, so this is where the dish a day of KMR comes in. It really helps! Has she had any?

 

[irishmammy]

No, I'll make her some now.

I'll keep going with krm for our teeny girl and just monitor the others.

Thanks for all the advice...its keeping me sane!

 

[irishmammy]

There's my teeny girl (blacker of the two at the back) and one of her siblings #1...not even the biggest one lol.

 

[foxden]

With 6 kittens, you might want to separate "big" kittens from the littles and have them feed in two shifts. That way, the little ones don't have to fight for the better nipples. I think people typically split 3 and 3. Set up an extra nest with a heating pad for the 3 not currently feeding.

I didn't need to separate Kiki's 6 kittens while she was feeding them. I brought them home from the shelter when they were about 4 days old, and she did a great job keeping them all healthy and growing. I returned the kittens to the adoption center and kept Kiki

 

[irishmammy]

Thanks, that's a good idea. I'll see how the weight gains are going. Hard to believe they are not 24 hours old yet! Feels like a week!

 

[Sarthur2]

Yes, i agree that rotating every couple of hours may solve some problems.