Day 2 Kitten update

Well, it’s a mixed bag of news today...

I was awake ALL night. And as happened the night before, every time Pru moved position or had been out and returned to the nest, I needed to unearth kittens from beneath her. It’s a massive worry after losing one of Noodle’s kittens this way last year. My ears are on high alert & I’m constantly checking and head counting. As kittens get stronger and more mobile the risk will reduce but for now I am not moving from being on hand and high alert, hoping that’s enough.

Weigh in today saw the two black girls push the scales over the 100g mark, however the blue girl made a much smaller weight gain, while her brothers have lost weight again.

Preempting this, having watched them so closely, at 5:20am, Having constantly seem the black ladies muscling and bulldozing their siblings out of the way I decided it was time to step in and give them a hand and made up some kitten formula. I gave the blue’s 1.5ml each hoping this would be enough to give them a boost of energy they needed to hold their own a little better.

This lunchtime I’ve decided to help out on a timed basis, hoping that my doing this every 2 hours for,the rest of the day will make enough difference that they begin to hold their own and feed better from mum.

Ideally I’d like this to be a very short term measure so that the demand for milk is all on Pru so that she will increase her milk supply to sustain them all, but if necessary I will continue to supplement feed them as an ongoing thing. Alexa is tasked to remind at 2 hourly intervals in case I decide that I must sleep and zonk out.

Sexed and weighed.

The first night has gone well - I know I feel better for having some sleep even if I did wake several times to help out. The biggest issue is a kitten being underneath of Prune when she repositions herself. As they get stronger and more mobile and she gets more experienced this will resolve itself but for now I’m on ‘high alert’ 🚨.

So day zero I did sex them but felt a little blurry and bleary eyed however, after a re-examination today, I feel confident in announcing that Prune has birthed

• 2 solid black females
• 2 solid blue males 
• 1 solid blue female

Kittens are weighed daily as this allows a good gauge on their ongoing health status and to know that they are feeding well. A small loss on day 1 is not too worrying, the colostrum they get in these early days so vital similar really to we humans however, you should  expect to see a gain each day of approximately 5g+ once feeding is established. There has been gain in 3 of them but a small loss for two of them. If they do not gain overnight I will start to give formula to supplement Prunes milk. Ideally I’d want to give her time to supply enough for them but cannot allow any kitten to fade.

The first weigh in

First out blue 77g.
Second & fifth out blue’s both 88g.
Third and forth out black 90g & 92g

I have made an initial attempt at sexing them however, I have sandpaper eyes and they are so so small that I do not trust my judgement today. I will re-weigh and look at them again tomorrow to see if I make the same call with any more conviction. For now, I will say go on record as saying that each one is either a Male or a Female!

It’s been a really big day. I feel so privileged, proud & amazed.

I will certainly always remember it, especially no. 2 coming out breached and with its head stuck still unborn as Pru took a breather then seeing survival instinct kick in as each tiny limb braced itself against her in order to try to pull its head free!

❤❤🐾🐾 ❤❤🐾🐾 ❤❤🐾🐾❤❤🐾🐾❤❤🐾🐾❤❤