Day 9: a-MEW-sing

Today the kittens are still doing well, altho Trouble has a little bit of runny stool. I am slightly concerned because the vet said diarhea could kill a kitten in two days. However, the reason for the loose stool is that we had to change kitten replacer brands. We have been using Hartz which is very thick like condensed milk, but Wal-Mart was out and we had to get KMR from the vet and it is think like milk. I am hoping tomorrow Wally World will be restocked and I can get them back on Hartz. Also he is only having the stool after he eats when he gets stimulated, not on a constant basis. Sooo I am hoping this is nothing serious.

The kittens are adorable as always. Today after a feeding the little black on was sucking his thumb (well a digit on it's fromt paw, not sure they actually have thumbs)

Another cute kitty thing today was my 3 yr old son Lil Bit. I was feeding the one with the tail and he said "That's my kitten, that's the one I'm keeping." I asked him what his kitten's name was and he said "I don't know" I told him he would have to give his kitty a name and he said "I don't know who he is yet"...well I guess that makes sense lol.

Just now I heard a kitten mewing from the bedroom and the little black on was out of the nest and mewing around the box. I picked him up and he seemed to be hungry, even tho he just ate an hour ago. I fed him another two droppers full. Since a couple of the other kittens have done this, I am suspecting that perhaps like human babies they are having growth spurts and when they do, they get hungrier.

Day 8: Midnight Snack

Early this morning, I gave the kittens their 1am feeding and tucked them away until their 4am feeding...or so I thought.

I settled myself into bed to get a couple hours of sleep when I heard the sound of a kitten meowing angrily from the box. I checked on them and found the one with a tail on top of the cover towel, not tucked away in the nest beneath it curled into a ball of fur with his siblings. I tucked him back into said nest of fur, and got back into my own cozy bed. Only to hear the same distinct kitten mew from the box yet again.

I got up and there again is the one with the tail, on the top of the cover towel. So I picked him up and thought maybe he just wanted to crawl around a bit. I put him in the bed abd he began to sniff around and try to suck the covers. Dewayne said "He acts hungry". I had already given him two droppers full of formula, but he did act hungry, so I heated another dropper of formula and he sucked it all down and then I put him back into his bed and he settled down to sleep until the next feeding.

This afternoon at the 1pm feding it was Trouble that decided he had not had enough to eat and had to be given an exta dropper full. So I have upped their foumula to a bigger syringe.

Also the race is on to see who will be the first to open their eyes. Right now it looks like either Trouble or the one with the tail wil be first.

Oh and the little black one lost his umbilical cord, so only the one with the tail has a cord left.

Day 7: Discord

I didn't post an update yesterday because I was at the hospital with my 4 yr old daughter Allison. She had a bad stomach bug and had to be hospitalized with dehydration and a blood sugar of 47.

So Dewayne had kitten duty. He took over and did an awesome job! (Also thanks to Amber for stepping up and taking a feeding when Dewayne came to the hospital)

Yesterday, Trouble and the timid gray one lost their umbilical cords (or as my son Hunter called it their uterus cords lol)

We have upped them to two dropper fulls of formula and speaced the feedings rom every two hours to every three hours. They seem to be tolerating the changes well.

Their eyes are beginning to look less sealed, so I expect them to opn sometime this week. I still cannot tell the sex. But if I had to guess I'd say the thre gray ones are boys and the black one is a girl. Altho they might all be boys. Or girls. The black one is the only one that looks a little different. Tho honestly it looks the same only smaller...oh well time will tell what they are and then they can get real names.

Day 5 (pt 2) Meet the Kittens

Hot of the press pictures of the kittens...Daniel is a great photographer. Here are some pix he just took of the kittens.

The bottom picture is "Trouble" (amber's kitten). This is the one we suspect was the one who kicked so hard before he was born. Poor Avalon would lay on her side while this kitten would kick and roll. On the way home from the vet, right after they were born, I had to pull over because this one was trying to crawl out of the box.

Next up from the botom is "The timid gray one". I call this kitten that because it is the most docile. It almost never tries to crawl out of the box and is the quietest.

Next up from the bottom is the little black one.(Dawn's Kitten) It's obvious why he is called that. S/he is as black as a raven's wing with not a speck of white. He is always wanting to crawl out of the box and is quite vocal.

Last but not least, at the top is the one with the tail. The only one of the litter with a tail, yet the one who looks most like Avalon. If this kitten didn't have a tail, it would be Avalon's twin. This one is the most vocal. It is also the fastest. When put on the bed, this outcrawls all the rest.

Day 5: Some things just suck

Another day and the kittens are all doing great!! Last night we had them on the bed so they could crawl around a bit as I fed them. Dewayne was laying on his side so he could corral anyone who wandered too far away. The little black one nuzzled up against him and then went for gold (white gold that is). Let's just say Dewayne will never lay down with the kitens without a shirt on again lmao!! (poor kitty knew a nipple was what he needed,he just found the wrong one)

While that was going on, I held the timid gray one in the palm of my hand cleaning it's bum when it grabbed it's bottom foot with it's front paws and put it's back foot in it's mouth and begin to suck. It was just like a baby grabbing it's foot and sucking it's toes lol. I wish I had had my camera close enough to get a picture of that.

What sucks for the poor kittens (pun intended) is that they have the same sucking reflex and infant have and they don't get to satisfy that. Too bad they don't make itty bitty kitty binkies. When they are grown these guys will probably lick people like a dog.

I am so happy that they are doing as well as they are, and growing and hopefully on the road to becoming awesome adult cats.

I have gotten used ot have my life revolve around "Time to feed the kittens" every two hours. About the time I get to the point where it is second nature, they will be big enough to eat on their own....well I suppose that's what any mother does..she does her job so well that eventually she is out of a job because she has raised independant, well adjusted individuals :)

Day 4: Thinking outside the box

The kittens are still doing well. So well in fact that they have been crawling out of their box. The small box we used to hold them in while we feed them was their first escape trick. In fact last night, Amber was here and had to catch escapees. As I was feeding one kitten, the other scale the sides of the box.

They were also crawling out of their main box. So we had to fix both boxes so the sides were higher. Now we have the flaps taped up on the feeding box and we had to put the sleeping box right side up instead of on it's side.

If these guys are already escaping at 4 days old, what asre they going to be like at 4 week or 6 weeks??

Day 3: Getting into the routine

We are all getting into a routine. The kittens need to be fed every 2 to 3 hours. I am feeding them every 2 hours during the dayand every 3 hours at night.

I start by warming their formula by placing the kitten bottle in a coffe cup of HOT water. After the formula is warm, I bring the box of kittens to my chair. I feed the two gray bob-tail ones first so I don't accidently feed one twice and one not at all. Then I feed the gray one with a tail, then the black one. (the black one does not like the arrangement and frequently crawls out of the box when the others are being fed)

Since they are so small the vet gave me some little droppers to feed them with saying that the bottle nursers make it too easy to over feed or aspirate them. It's very easy to aspirate a small kitten and drown them or cause them to get pnuemonia.

The best thing about these droppers is that the bul is about the same size as the kittens stomachs.So one dropper full is all they need per feeding.

After I feed a kitten, I dip a coton ball into the cup of warm water, check that it isn't too hot, and rub their bottoms. This stimulates them to eliminate. Sometimes they barely go, other times they go so much I get soaked lol.

When a kitten has been fed and wiped it goes back into the box and the next one is taken out and gets his turn. At this time I am calling them all him since I cannot tell who is male or female. At this time, no one has a name. Amber and Dawn need to name their kittens, and I am waiting until I know if ours are male or female. So for now we have "Trouble" (Amber's kitten); "The Black one" (Dawn's Kitten); "The one with the tail" and "The timid gray one" (both ours)

After everyone has been fed and cleaned up, they are all taken back to the bedroom where I have a bigger box for them with an electric blanket to help them keep their body temerature. They cannot keep their own body temp, and they MUST be kept warm. If they get cold they cannot digest their food, and or keep their internal organs warm and they will die.

When the babies are settled, I clean up. From start o finnish, a feding takes between 20 and 30 minutes, depending on how long it takes them to latch on and eat, and how many times I have to stop and put one (usually the black one) back in the box.

The kittens are doing well so far. They are strong and active and are eating and eliminating well. Things can go downhill fast with such small kittens and we will not be out of the woods for a few weeks, but we are hoping for the best.

The kittens are getting used to eating out of the dropper and Dewayne and I are getting used to feeding them every two hours. I will be glad when they are old enough to go all night without a feeding lol.