I like the way you moooooove!

 YES! Today, mid purr session I finally felt and saw little movements inside of Pru’s tummy, and once that happened once, later, it happened again! 

This is the bit where I start to get breathless with anxiety & excitement. To share the birth experience with my beautiful pet is a wonderful thing. I’m totally trusted as part of the process & it’s magical. At the same time, I’m terrified… full of dreaded what if scenarios playing at breakneck speed in the cinema of my mind. I try not to look, choosing those moments to take my eyes from the screen as if reaching for the popcorn bucket held two chairs along! Of course, cats (animals) have been birthing babies quietly very successfully, however, since my introduction to breeding began with two cesarean sections before I’d ever witnessed a labour and birth, I’m all to aware aware of what can go wrong. Prunes previous two litters have been born without a hitch - even breach births are handled with consummate ease - and without so much as a whimper - having birthed two babies myself, I know that we humans do not (often) do it silently - so the multiple births in one litter without a complaint leaves me in complete awe & wonder. 

Of course the silence & preference for a night birth is evolutionary in order to help safeguard her new generation of progeny against predation. The mother cat will clear up any evidence (placenta) of the birth & will move her kittens to a different area soon after birth. Even though safe, domestic cats will still do all of this today…. They spend a days prior to labour checking out birthing spots… an outdoor cat may well have found the most hidden little nooks & crannies to hide in.  As a teen my moggie Ziggy gave birth in the wall cavity of a store room only leading is to them days later when she wanted to move them. We made a hole in the thick panel board so as to reach inside to bring them inside. As a breeder of the indoor Sphynx cat though I am able to influence her choice of nestIng site. 

Many breeders have what they refer to as a kitten room. They install the mother to be inside this room with bedding and den, away from the rest of the household which may consist of other cats, and dogs as well as human family. I choose not to do this. For me it’s way too clinical & since I have only my pet cats & me  there are no issues with clashing personalities I simply provide a high sided, well padded out & comfortable  kittening bed (box) where she can birth & raise her litter. At first she stays with them 24/7 - except to use the litter box. I bring food & water into the room so that she need only leave the box a few moments. As they grow bigger to get peace she will often choose to leave them for short periods to sleep in her usual spot returning to them frequently to feed them. Once the little critters are mobile, and can climb, I do end up in the final weeks they are with me, co-sleeping as the entire crew made up of my adult cats and the kittens in residence all piled on top of the two heat mats on one side of my bed! It’s not for everyone I know, but as I live alone I am very happy for my cats to be on my bed. They like t be wherever I am. If I’m in the lounge they have a heat mat there in their cat tree, or have a tower condo of 4 units in which I’ve put cuddle pouches that they can snuggle into or most likely will seek out my lap. When I go to bed, they follow me and their 2 further heated mats are their very favourite place, they ask to be tented under a blanket & so they have no need to heat seek by getting into my covers. My kittens truly are raised underfoot, playing with my family including small grandchildren living with me fully which I hope helps make them into the best social, unfazed pets for their new families. Breeders with kitten rooms on the other hand do have hygienic rooms where only those kittens & their mother tread. And as time passes eventually the mother cat will come away completely from her kittens (once they’re fully weaned), but the kittens will continue to live completely within that one room - enriched though it will be with toys and scratch posts etc, and with siblings for company - I just feel that they are missing the element of socialising in the home environment with other pets and people. They’ll be meeting their human (breeder) mostly only at food and litter clean up times. This means they have so much less opportunity to take part in ordinary household life, to run about & play to gain courage. This of course is just my own take on it. And others will have their own strongly held views. I realise too that those who breed on a larger scale than I may need to segregate cats - particularly if there are jealousies and litters come at the same time (2 kitten rooms?), but for me it is just too remote, too disconnected from them being pets - it fails to allow these kittens who after all are bred to be valued pets to be learning how to be pets from the get go. 

It’s unlikely I’ll manage to get video of Prunes babies wriggling in her tummy. She doesn’t lay still all splayed out long enough, however some years ago I got a fairly good short video of Noodle’s babies wriggling away inside as she slept soundly… this is on my Sphynx Cat Cam You Tube channel. Enjoy 

https://youtube.com/shorts/Q1oPmkOMjO8?feature=share

Tick - Tock count down time!

 

Look at the swell of this tummy as a heavily pregnant Prune takes a peek out of the window! Her natural svelte shape is still very evident despite the tight balloon of her tummy. In this image she is stood on top of the kittening box I’ve set up for her on top of which I’ve placed the storage box that the kittening box folds down into. Over it I’ve draped a throw to make the kittening box into a cosy little cubby den. While it is all standing ready for her & her new brood, for now it’s providing a great staging area from which Prune has become a “peeper”! Yes, she Peeps! 

Meanwhile, when not engaged in Peeping I’ve noticed that at the same time as the skin of her ladybits & anal area have again become dark black (as happened in previous pregnancy) she’s also spending an inordinate amount of time grooming said areas.

I’m guessing that the colour & shape change she experiences in her private areas might also come with a change in sensation too which might be at least partly responsible for driving her to want to groom those areas more, or perhaps the attention she is paying to cleansing is simply due to an influx of a maternal brain chemicals at this late stage to ensure that when Labour begins the areas are hygienic. She is very sweetly comical in a way though as clearly she is finding positioning herself & reaching around her belly to undertake her work more & more challenging. In the picture below, she had crept under a blanket I’d covered myself with feeling a little chilly. She is using my lower legs and ankles as props! 

The clock is ticking…..We have around 10 - days to go so I’m expecting to be able to see & feel little arms, legs, heads below her skin at any moment. I do try to place my hands at her abdomen during her cuddles to see if I feel a kick or a repositioning baby. No luck yet though. Space inside will be at a premium as the kittens begin to reach the peak of their pre-birth size (around 65-90g each). I’ll see a change in her tummy at some point soon as things get ready for Labour. She’s not overly huge & historically as she’s had litters of 5 & of 4, I don’t expect a huge litter, but am getting excited to be meeting them very soon. It’s like that Christmas is coming feeling you have inside as a child. The difference here being that I don’t know the exact day this particular‘Christmas’ will be! 

Cuddles-a-plenty

Dear Prune… she has wanted nothing more than to be a lap cat during this pregnancy… luckily - other than when I knitting  - I’m not adverse to this. 

Since my last post, the kittening box came… and forced a change of routine/plan.. because it was advertised in inches I didn’t fully appreciate its size and honesty 30x30 inches is much larger than I had pictured it - I won’t make the joke about all women being told all of their lives about 6 inches! Anyway, it arrived and I immediately assembled it, screwing the wooden rails into position. The change of plan is in the usual placing of the birthing box into pet crate. I have two, and the box won’t go in the large one not by some margin. Hey ho. It’s a great box with nice deep sides. In its bottom I’ve laid down both of my lengths of vet bed, though I’ll take one away when she births so that I have one in use & the other one being washed/drying. After the births I’ll place Pru’s food & water into the extra space. Because it’s so roomy, and high sided it will happily contain the kittens. I’ve even lined it with the cot bumpers, attaching them with cloths pegs since I’ve now got no bars to tie up to. I’ve put a he y throw over the top (just as I would have done with the crate) to form a den so it will still be very cozy. 

I have the bag of 10 Miracle Nipples & unearthed all of my kittening & neonatal kitten rearing supplies. A good job I checked now as the Hartmanns veterinary fluid was found to have an expiry date as May ‘22, so I’ll get that replaced asap. Hopefully, as I said the other day, I won’t need to resort to using it but I’d rather not ( if it were needed) use this one with its expiry date being right now. Better a newer one. 

That was the only item that had expired, The only other item  leith a date coming up soon Kitty Stim (a colostrum & vitamin paste useful for boosting a fading kitten) . Thar was unused last time and if it’s not needed this time round I’ll chuck it out as it expires in July. It’s not cheap to buy (at around £18-20) but it’s a handy go-to item, as is No 15+ Manuka Honey with its antibacterial & energy boosting properties - and I am happy to go ahead and use that myself it if that’s not needed so no change of expiry there!  

All I need to do now is freshly wash and sterilise the birthing bits (just in case I need to use them during births) & the feeding equipment to make up formula. 

So, I was happily knitting (just begun another dress for my littlest granddaughter for the Autumn/winter) when this little lady came & took up residence….. look how she has her soppy half closed eyes & head turned in so that I am somehow fooled into thinking she is immediately asleep having dropped in my lap (actually on my chest) … then a few seconds later, seeing I’m putting my knitting aside she’s all wide eyed ! I do love how she curls her toes in too. Sweet girl. Night night