Motherly Love - it’s a fickle thing!

Well here we are at the 3 weeks old mark already. The boys are doing so so well. Have you seen their latest video uploaded to my YouTube - channels Sphynx CatCam and Naked Sphynx Cat Hampshire ? I try to have them here  (it is shown above?) Please message me if you don’t see videos where they should be and I’ll point you towards them. 

The video was taken today when after an evening feed & weigh in I had left the room to wash up and sterilise the teats & syringes. I came back to see Prune busy licking the remnants of any milk from their faces. Motherly love or a craving for their kitten milk? In the video I made it seems that once satisfied that nobody had milk left for her to clean away she lost interest and just left. I carried on filming, as I wanted to show the first signs of play interaction between the brothers. One  on his back was eager to engage in some “rough n tumble” or perhaps he had had so much milk his tummy and was so full that he was like a turtle trying to flip himself back over, but was making out it was play he wanted in order to save face? 

Weights this evening are: Pudding 264g/Blue 267g/Blue 197g/Blue 238g. 

It’s hard to keep them still to get a good reading but they are decent weights though we are slow to get over the 200g mark with the dinkiest lad. I reckon he have cracked it by next weigh in. Milk is being guzzled with gusto and I’m greeted with the sewing machine like kitten purrs now that they know to anticipate full tummies when I open the door.

I had planned a move this weekend for them, but I had a brain wave and have ordered some EVA interlocking squares for insulated flooring since it’s laminate floor in the room i want to relocate them too. They are starting slowly to show that they need a little less sleep and a little more activity so it’s time to set up a more open pen which I’ll do once the floor arrives next week. I’ll create a sheltered area to snuggle in (with a heat mat just as they have now, safely under a with its triple layered cover on - they have that and vet bed at the moment as well as mum when she is there. The more open area will allow them to exercise and indulge in toy play. I know a certain someone who will be overjoyed to have more access to them!!

With that in mind, I may leave the nest intact and place them back there overnight, depending on how mum feels as once in the play pen there is no way to keep Floozy out. It might be that they all decide to snuggle together as a family overnight in the pen or it might be that Prune allows Floozy to babysit and she will snooze away from them as she has been doing more and more this week. 

This taking time away is all part of the process… obliviously, when she is with them they want to suckle and as demand for food is higher  every day she is unable to meet demand plus she gets sore so moves away but she also goes back to check on them often. Overnight she rattles the nest crate door to wake me to let her in, and again to let her out. Often!

I can’t leave it open as the kittens can get out and as they are commando crawling can get under furniture where I’d find it hard to reach them. If it was open I think Floozy would sleep in there and I’m not sure that they are ready for that just yet.

Prune leaving her kittens for periods of time allows them to rest, to stretch, to move around l, deal with time without her involvement. They learn to be a little self sufficient in the company of their siblings and, to begin to play. They do call if they need anything but honestly she checks and nurses often in short bursts so they rarely get over hungry, I’ve not seen an empty belly yet! 

When Prune was an adolescent, Noodle had her last litter. A single kitten survivor. Like Floozy is, she was eager to be involved, and Noodle was happy to allow it. I love that my beautiful girls are all so happy to work together and I don’t have to keep them apart because of jealousy or kitten theft as others have to. Anyway, Pru and this kitten (Nebula) were stuck together like glue for everything from feeding to litter tray use, sleeping and play and I think this is what will happen now. It must be a natural community living behaviour. Lie with elephants where the young watch, emulate & learn while the mother keeps a check that things are ok. 

I’m then expecting Prune to begin bringing them mice -Toy ones! She did it with her last litter & it has to be  instinct at work otherwise how would she know that this toy represents her natural prey & is what her babies need? She does not bring toy fish or birds, only mice. And it doesn’t even matter to her if the mouse is pink with a fluorescent yellow tail, it’s still recognised as mouse. All three more surprising really since she is 100% house cat, too nervous to be outside even with a harness. She has never seen a mouse or needed to hunt though I’ve gratefully seen her hunt and kill 8 legged visitors (which I LOVE her for)! What’s the trigger for this behaviour to begin? I think teeth. She will have felt teeth and surely this is the signal that it’s time her kittens to give up milk and instead eat meat. I’m expecting this in week 4-5 so not too long away now - then there’s los of new lessons for our sweet little cohort of Sphynx kittens to take on. How to eat and how to use the toilet facilities! 

Day 13 - a video treat

Oh these little darlings. It’s not going to be long before they’re tearing about the place and  creating havoc, but for now, butter wouldn’t melt. I’m

The video attached is a sweet moment of listening to how loud they are when suckling and how Pudding (the moniker I’m giving to the black boy for now) is grasping and spreading his arms so wide in joy & ecstasy or maybe hogging everything in his greed!

 

Day 11 “Freedom” day

Well, as the clock hit midnight last night, nightclubs flung open their doors, people welcomed the dawning of freedom discarding their masks & any attempt to social distance….  It is almost as if there’s no such thing as being in the 3rd wave of a global pandemic. What’s your view? Do you feel like freedom day made you feel free or, in fact, has it had the opposite effect making you feel much less confident to go about your normal life?

Closeted safe & sound in our soft, bouncy, cloud-filled world of kittendom we are doing well. Prune is svelte-like again, regaining all of her pre-pregnancy shape not a stretch-mark in sight. Yes, it’s true she has floppy skin on her underside but she is producing lots of milk for her brood. 

As week 2 progresses there are definite changes in her behaviour and indeed in the kittens. I’ve noted that now that they can go longer between feeds she makes that happen by spending more time away from them, though she stays very close & checks on them regularly. 

When she is with them, the kittens will immediately wake and mew for feeding & she is happy to oblige and will remain with them allowing them all to fill well. They’ll eventually doze off en-famile, but with their tummies still rounded as each will reawaken to begin suckling again she tired of this & gets up and comes away. The kittens full bellies allow them plenty of time to “sleep it off”. I’ve continued to support her food supply & have concentrated the milk offered to the lower weight individuals first. Though their tummies are milk rounded, evidently they get second sitting or are just much less demanding than their larger brothers. This litter has no scabs on their heads as I’ve seen happen in previous litters. This occurs when the scrabble to feed is boisterous and access to the nipple is eagerly jostled for with those sharp claws constantly scrabbling for purchase in the blind search for their survival. Kittens are cute & sweet but when it comes down to it, this really is survival of the fittest and in nature the most tenacious are the ones who thrive. It’s a good job I’m there with my Royal Canin Kitten Milk Replacer & syringe feeders! 

Now sighted, but still in their dimmed nest, kittens have noted that there is a door through which mum appears & disappears & where that arm reaches in to scoop them out. When getting hungry, rather than lay where they are yelling “I’m hungry” or snuffling blindly in ever decreasing circles in their search, now they come to the doorway, pushing themselves up tall using their front legs and call out to be fed. 

It’s great development. Their limbs are being used and as they do, those limbs get strong. Soon they’ll be pulling themselves up to standing wobbling about to get balance before taking their first tentative steps & from then on abandoning the commando-like drag/shuffle they do now. It’s effective mind you. They’re surprisingly mobile from day 0!

I so wish I had more hands and could video while I fed so that I could record & share with you the cuteness of watching their ears wiggle back and forth as they feed. I’d like to be able to focus and shoot a wonderful portraiture shot to their beautiful tiny faces. I’m sorry I can’t. But, I bave re-weighed the little chunky monkeys now that I can in order to give you an idea of the pace of change. In 11 days they are at least triple the physical size they were at birth.