A landmark day!

 

Hoorah! And Hip Hip Hooray! Today all four kittens ate solid food unaided! Already in just 5½ days they know that when I appear food is imminent & they’re coming out of the den in order to greet me! What a change! Not only that but the litter trays also saw action today too (in fact the first was overnight!) ; I’m so impressed that these incredible creatures never need to be taught, instinct telling them that this gritty substrate is for them to poop /wee into & mostly they will instinctually bury it too (though I watched one today who was missing this action - I’m sure it will follow very soon though. 

What a result though!!! I’m thrilled as even Mr Stubbornpants ate with an appetite that was astounding especially considering his up until now point blank refusal to even look like he enjoys eating. It turns out he does, so what changed? I’ll tell you - I simply offered him a different food! Who would have thought that he would refuse his BARF food! And that’s certainly a first for a well cat (and he is most definitely not unwell!) 

Just look at him go! 

 

The food he is tucking into is a veterinary recovery food - let’s call it a “triple strength rocket fuel” packed as it is with tons of added nutrients & with an especially strong aroma which, being a recovery food is designed to entice a lacking appetite toward eating. I didn’t even dish it into a dish so sure I was that he would turn his nose up at even this! How wrong I was! Golly, I’d delighted to be wrong & so, so glad I had this sitting ready in case of illness in a cat or kitten in the supplies cupboard & that I thought to try it out! 

My aim then as we go forwards is to give him this on its own for a day or maybe 2 then begin to transition him to accept the other food by mixing a small quantity of the other food with this, then to gradually over the next few days continue to adding more of one while reducing the other. With luck he will once he has the hang of reliably eating solids he will more readily accept (& like!) the food he should be having. 

Hands more free today then, I’m so happy to have finally got some new food themed photos to share with you. This is how they look when it’s  “grub’s up” time! 

Weaning… is it only day ???

 It feeeeeeeels like more tbh. My fingers are going through it with one of the gents while we made a breakthrough today with some almost unaided dish eating. The 2 kittens who made some progress today have both required starting off & eating from the tips of  my fingers with their heads following the food into the dish, then the dish lowered to the floor. However, if their heads went up for any reason I needed to lead them again. The 4th is very reluctant to have the food in his mouth at all, let alone eat any… I’ve tried beginning with manuka honey even to see if he will get a taste for that and follow it to begin accepting the gruel but nope, he is, despite his very sharp teeth having none of it. Still, it’s early days yet. Prune is still feeding them patiently, they’re all getting loads of food, nutrition & fluid whether having meat or not. 

The litter trays have seen no action but tonight as I cleaned up after their final feed, & then renewed some of the blanket bedding in their den meaning they had to be “out in the yard” there was the first signs of interest with getting in & some of the instinctual digging I expect to see - while no wee or poop was forthcoming some noses had a cat litter frosting on them. Silly little things - they dip their heads to investigate it and is sticks to the moisture there. They then lick their noses to get it off & so it’s stuck to the tongue which means they sit comically try spit it off!  

I can’t wait to show you photos of them eating, it’s so messy getting going & both my hands are dripping with meaty soupy gloop that’s not what I want to get all over my phone! Sorry. I will aim to get some new images tomorrow so you can see the latest changes in their sizes! 

Meanwhile I’m just off now to rub Savlon cream into my latest puncture wounds! I’ve never had such a reluctant starter! Prune is doing too good a job evidently! 

Here’s a photo of the old matriarch of the household zzzzzz-ing away

Weaning day 2

Bedtime stories…

Or a lullaby? 

Dear sweet Prune. At regular intervals during the night she came to wake me, dropping on me a mouse (toy) to remind me not to forget to feed her babies! How cute! 

So, after a good start yesterday, today was another messy day, with my food giving fingers feeling the bite! That’s good though since the bite is not purposeful at all but instead is their over zealous wish to eat (& not knowing quite how).

Once again one kitten seems to have no issues at all at putting her head down to eat from the dish as soon as I start her off. Her siblings are just not cottoning on yet.. I reckon, I’ve used a just over 100grams split between the 4 of them - with of course some lost to wastage that is dropped or missed during this training stage.

Throughout the day I’ve tried different consistencies to see if any is preferred, and to be honest, I’m not sure any way it was altered made a great deal of difference. Room temperature, or room temperature with different quantities of warm water added to form a soupy were attempted every few hours. The consistency of warm gruel is usually best at this stage as first of all giving it cold after having been in the fridge would be very alien to them being as they’re used to having their meals delivered at blood temperature from mum. Plus the tongue is used to the suckling shape so gruel is sucked and they will, once they’re interested in the meat , quickly learn to follow it downwards until they’re eating from the dish on the floor level.

I won’t be giving them food that’s fridge-cold for some weeks yet as their little bodies can’t be expected to cope with the temperature drop that would occur when eating it cold.  

Meanwhile, this evening Prune has had her first bath in several weeks. She’s unfortunately is not a bath lover, & so to avoid risk to her or the babies inside her I stop bathing her toward the end of her pregnancy & only begin them again after the kittens are a few weeks old. This delay allows her kittens to use her scent while young & blind & it is their “safe place”. Considering the gap in service, she was very well behaved, and for her first sudsing she stood/crouched without wriggling at all however,  since she had had so long between her ablutions, I wanted to get 2 sudsings and a good rinse in in order to remove any soap residue from her skin. It was when she realised that a second scrub was coming her way that she thought to try to scarper. It took a couple more minutes is all, then she was snuggled in a warm towel, her ears were then cleaned (they needed it!) & her claws which she keeps very clean were wiped & then snipped. They’d got quite long.  Did you know that hair & nails grow faster in summertime than in winter? There’s the trained nail tech in me seeping out!

So now both adults are clean & they have had lovely fresh bedding to go with it. The kittens will not receive their first bath for a  couple of weeks. Besides, Prune is licking them so much every time they leave the food dish, making very sure that no scrap of food is missed or goes to waste & Noodle helps too sometimes by giving each kitten a second going over so I reckon I can safely rely on their attentions in that department for a while longer, plus I’d like them a little larger before I begin that process. Weaning & litter tray learning is enough for now. 

No news there though. No sign of a first use of a litter tray yet - but with solids going in it’s only going to be a matter of time before (a) they feel the need & (b) Mum no longer deals with them. 

And YAY 😁- it was worming day for everyone (with 4 legs) here today too. Noodle had her Termaworm pill which will see her sorted until September. Prune had a pregnancy & lactation safe syrup which was cunningly disguised by being mixed into not 1 but 2 strong smelling lickilix. That did the trick. She eagerly had the lot. The kittens received the same syrup, which was given in the mouth by syringe (they didn’t like it!)  before their 9pm feed. The worming for mum & kittens on this product is 2 weekly until 12 weeks.  

As I am writing this I’m in my bedroom, but am listening to Prune warbling away to them in the lounge. I wonder what she says… when she sits on top of the Den, I think she’s encouraging them to come out, but at bed time, is it a song, or a story? And if so, are the words to aid the in their future life preparation ?