A small victory. I will take it!

I decided to try a new tack for this weaning lark, so today I went to buy some grain free kitten pouches. Opening one, I squeezed a small amount out and made it very loose with some formula.

I placed this in the pen, and Prune was immediately interested, and while watching her closely as I noticed one of the black kittens doing so often recently, she began to inch forward. Seconds later she was noisily eating/supping from the dish. She strayed there doing so even when mum moved away.

Her siblings however were far to busy and wrapped up in their games to notice and now the family are snuggled together for their siesta!

First baths

Since the kittens are now growing up a bit, I thought it time they had a first bath, as

a) I did not want them to grow up to be as terrified of bath time as their mum is and
b) they were grubby!

I made a shallow warm bath in a washing up bowl, and beside it a deeper bath in my little ‘half-sink’ in which to give them a final rinse.

As I put them into the water they were totally unafraid, immediately putting their heads down to smell it to see if they could identify by sniffing. There followed some little sneezes as they breathed some water into their noses. Some water was tasted too.

Very quickly though they became interested in the world that is outside of the washing up bowl and just as fast I rather regretted my decision to bath all four together as each began their bids for freedom from 4 different directions. Unperturbed I took each kitten in turn and with Dove baby bath wash (other brands are available!) gave them a quick sudsing on the draining board, back into the bowl for a rinse, then a final dip into the clean water before wrapping in a warm dry towel- all done while keeping the siblings safely in place!

Back on dry land, I took each kitten in turn to prize the toenail gunk away (baby-wipes) work best for this and clip their needle-sharp claws. With the adult cats I would make ear cleaning a part of bath time but I’ve decided I will not subject them to ear cleaning quite yet.

Weaning & litter tray use....

Well, as you can imagine, while I’ve not had time to post, things have been changing daily here at Kitten Towers (😂).

I’ve had to shuffle a few things around and move them into a new territory. The crate I usually use I decided was too small to allow them room to play and grow strong so I got out my soft play pen and placed this in my lounge where it fills the floor. Inside the pen is a food station for them and for mum so they can watch what she does, a sleeping and a playing area and a place for the litter tray.

Weaning is slow slow progress, despite my efforts over the last 6 days, they show zero interest in moving on to lap milk from a dish or to eat anything resembling food. I have however seen one of the black girls using the litter tray and so they are learning to be independent of mum.

I’m not happy with the new set up with them easily scaling the netting panels when they see me coming with their milk rations, nor Pru jumping onto the netting roof so that it all collapses in on them, so I have ordered a new metal play pen which arrives tomorrow. It doesn’t however have a floor like this fabric one does, but I’m sure I can find some way to manage until they are all using the tray.

Meanwhile I will continue to make up the solid food “gruel” and offer it everyday hoping that eventually they will decide it tastes nice!

As you can see in this photo Prune has no respect of a roof at all!