Day 3, a restful Sunday

What lovely boys these are. Here they are in footage taken during the Euro 2020 final coverage on TV.

As I supplement feed them I’m able to get a few moments close up with them & marvel that, though very tiny, they have such different faces. I’ll no doubt get to recognise them one from the other as we get better aquatinted & their little individual personalities make themselves known. 

All 4 are very accepting of the Miracle Nipple and I’ve continued today, as yesterday by feeding each kitten. I am giving each one 5ml of Royal Canin kitten milk replacer at each feed opportunity. The feeding guide says in the first week each feed should be 1-4ml & given 7 x daily (which works out to every 3 hours & 40 minutes), but I’m not their soul food source & the kittens are feeding from mum on and off throughout the day & night.  When allowing them a fill of 5ml each time, and they definitely would take more, I’m being careful to stop so to leave them wanting more. As I put them back with their mothers they’ll continue to make demands on her milk supply before nodding off milk-drunk. They then settle like contented little kittens with their round ball-like full tummies. 

I’ll weigh them tomorrow & will keep an eye on their bellies to make sure that they are always getting a good fill of mother’s milk & be ready to step up the quota I give as & when they need it. 

Prune is much more settled now that I’m keeping her closed in and, consequently Floozy out. The little monkey is just as relentless and will cunningly try to creep in while I’m taking kittens in & out to feed them Mind you, she’s just started to cotton on that by staying out and “helping” me rather than Prune she can also surreptitiously lick the kittens at the head as I feed and that since my hands are so occupied she might even benefit from an occasional cheeky taste of the milk too. She gets right in the way though ! 

I caught up on lost sleep today (finally) but it’s now 5:51 am & I’m still awake listening to suckling and snuffling with my alarm set for 8am. This is because this week & next I’m going to help by acting as chauffeur to collect & drop my grandson off at his nursery and return his heavily pregnant mum home to get on with the work day. She’s about to do the last 4 days before beginning her maternity leave, something she never got to last time since H came early. 

I reckon this baby will come early too, but for now with COVID numbers rising it’s important to protect them as much as is possible without H missing out on Nursety and childminding, since he has missed so much education & social time throughout lockdowns while his mum worked from home while attempting to mother him! 

I took a couple of videos today as well as uploading the birthing footage to my You Tube Channel.

My current YouTube Channel is  “Sphynx Cat Cam” though I have another with Pregnancy & kitten footage under Naked Sphynx Cat Hampshire too.

The footage I’m taking is still unfortunately not able to be well lit or set up due to the placement of the crate/nest and the coverings over it to keep them snug. It’s also awkward and moves a bit as I try not to let Floozy get in or block the view, but hopefully my efforts do at least allow you early viewers to see & enjoy the tiny little chaps for a few moments! Videos will get much better as they get bigger & stronger & don’t need the amount of protection they currently do. 

It’s now the beginning of day 4 - I’ll be back later with their weights & today’s storytelling! Thank you for spending time with us, don’t forget to contact me if you’d like to ask questions or have interest in these kittens! 

Day 2 Saturday July 10th

 Help, my eyes are throbbing. I’m so tired! 

It’s my 55th birthday today & I spent the night supporting Prune. She wants to keep her babies for herself, & whilst she is being kind to Floozy, Floozy is such a determined little so&so & will not stop trying to be centre stage.

I’m continuing to supplement feed, and the kittens are certainly very happy to receive milk from the Miracle Nipple (the best but ohh-so expensive!). It’s just soooo cute when they are sucking the treat so eagerly and their muscles are moving their still turned down ears back & forth. With some syringes the plunger will glide down by itself moved by the force of the vacuum. 

I’m making 20mls of milk replacer & then, pulling the entire 20mls into a syringe, then divide this evenly between each kitten. 5 ml each already is awesome l, they’re going to grow big & strong with appetites like this. 

In fact, they would happily take more but I’m not filling them right up, gently removing the teat so that they will continue to seek sustenance from their mum thus encouraging her milk flow. 

I’ve managed a couple of short videos today. Not great camera work but given that Im one handed while trying to keep Floozy from muscling in. She is absolutely relentless & determined.

Interestingly Prune grumbled at one of them earlier. I’m thinking likely in response to overzealous feeding or claw scrambling. 

I’m laying here just listening to the dolphin sounding chatter that kittens often make - honestly if you heard it you’d totally get the dolphins sound reference! It seems to be a contended conversation and I wonder if they found this pitch perfect for communicating and I wonder if they conversed this way while in the womb? It’s always before they settle.… 

I last topped them up at about 4:40pm & do I’ll give them a feed a bit later on to give them milk in their tummies so that hopefully I can get a few hours of sleep in. That’s if Prune will stay settled with them tonight rather than wanting to go in and out constantly. 

Day 1 so far so good

Well I’d say that it’s been eventful rather than restful today but the kittens look all contented sleeping soundly & cosy now they’ve been relocated AGAIN. I’ll tell you all about this in just a second, but first to confirm that they are all four most definitely boys! Ok … the nesting box saga… 

The lovely sturdy deep box that I’d readied for them with a half covered closed in roof has been a flipping nightmare! At first Prune was happy to remain with her litter, purring away and blissed out but then later she got the fidgets - which meant if she wanted to change position or even get out & go back in, the kittens started moving & snuffling which meant that Prune now had to try to insert herself around them somehow. I was up & down every time making sure that all kittens were at her tummy, not behind or underneath her. 

Then, Floozy could resist it no more & decided she too must be in the box to lick these new comers. I’m delighted that she is so keen to learn the art of mothering but less happy at the thought that a kitten would get squashed. I had that occur with another cat & kitten & it’s so very sad to find & lose one that way. Next, because I kept yanking Floozy out she would grasp the vet bedding on the bottom and as it lifted with her the kittens would tumble. Also then in her hurry to get back in the box was being toppled over. Poor kittens, it must feel like an earthquake! Evidently, the box idea needed to be shelved and kittens moved. 

I had already set up the smaller of my pet crates as a snug with cot bumpers around the sides for insulation and softness, and a heavy throw on top to keep it warm and draught free, so this was put into action.

First though I needed to insert one of the heat mats with its triple double layer covers, then over this I have placed the vet bed bedding they’ve been on already. There is room for them to move away from the area where the heat at is if they need to but with so many layers the heat will be very gentle. Next, in went the kittens followed by mum! Now there is more room. Floozy is in there now with them licking them away and Prune is happy to let her. Noodle has shown less interest in kittens this time, I wonder if she is maybe giving way to Floozy? She is still delivering mice! (Toy ones!) I still can’t get over this instinct to provide and to know that a mouse is what is needed. Some of these toy mice are pink with yellow tails- but recognised even so! 

Though they seem reasonably content, I’m concerned about them being well fed and established so earlier on I mixed a small amount of formula & gave each kitten about 1ml each. One of the blue boys took to it with ease but the others are less sure. I want them to keep feeding from mum, which at this stage is about every two hours day & night. 

The next job I need to do today I dislike doing but it is necessary as they are born with these long pristine white sharp needlelike claws… very soon they’ll be blackened with dried blood and poor Prune is already unhappy with the pain. I need to try to shorten & blunt them so that she & the litter mates don’t get quite so scratched up. Their instinct in their blindness is to snuffle their nose instinctively seeking & recognising the teat, but the searching and scrabbling is relentless- and why they get so scratched up. This is a big downside for the breed not having fur protection! They are so very tiny, and delicate and very very wriggly, plus they yell like hell which  activates mummy to worry. I really wish she knew I was helping!  

As I write, having licked for a good 30 minutes, Floozy is asleep with Prune & the kittens! Anyway, here’s the new location with Aunty Floozy (constantly) helping out & lastly with wonderful Mum!