Elsa's Kittens at Three Weeks

COMA-INDUCING  SWEETNESS  ALERT

Elsa's kittens were three weeks old Monday.  They're playing, romping, and exploring.  Last night I let them out of the birthing box that's been their only home for their entire lives. 

 First, the requisite mama-nursing photo.  The kittens are outgrowing their box and need to be out in the closet running around.  I'll cut the door all the way to the floor tomorrow.

Cheri still says the five darker ones are girls and the three buff are boys.  Usually about 85% of orange cats are boys and 15% are girls.  It's rare to have a cat give birth to eight kittens, and to have all of them the same color, and 60% of an orange litter be girls is very, very rare, indeed.  Four times more than the average.  I'm honored to be a part of it.  And the best is yet to come.  In another two to three weeks, they'll be let out in the bedroom where they have the carpet for better traction. They'll be running, jumping, wrestling, and providing me with thousands of photo ops.

 Mama giving one of the boys a bath.

I'm sorry most of these photos are slightly out of focus.  The lighting isn't the best in a closet.  Even though the camera was set on auto, it focused in front of what I wanted.  They'd be a lot sharper if I didn't crop them down to a smaller section, too. 

There's 19 photos here, but I couldn't delete any.  I took 93 in the past two days, so this is just a small part of them.

I've been marking different paws with a red marker to identify them, but it doesn't last more than a couple days.  The colored velcro collars will go on tomorrow.  

All the kittens are on an antibiotic for sniffles and eye goobers.  As I gave each one their dose last night, I put them outside the box.  I had cleaned the bottom shelves, cleaned the floor, and put quilts down for them on the shelves and floor.  They were confused and stayed huddled together for a while, then gradually wandered off to explore.  Mom was there, so that was reassuring. I didn't leave them out because I didn't have a small litter pan ready, and it was late and I didn't want to start litter training.  They're still a few days too young, anyway.

 Obstacles are not a problem.  On top is the buff Front Right.  None have real names yet. There are buff and orange front lefts, front rights, and a back left or right.  Paperwork is in their room and I'm not.  The oranges also have Front Front and Back Back.

 After they were all out of the box, I changed the towel and put the old one on the floor till I left the room.  Someone thought it made an excellent bed.

 Even out of focus, she's still adorable.  This is the orange Front Left.

One of the five orange girls is slightly larger and has slightly longer fur.  That could be her on the right.  This is either Front Left or Front Front.  The other four are identical.  I can't see any markings to distinguish them from each other.  No spots, no larger stripes, no whorls - nothing.

 The one on the left is either Back Left or Back Back.

Last week I said in another week the kittens wouldn't fit in my hand.

Are you in a coma, yet?  I wish you could all see these guys in person.  It's just beyond words how cute they are.  Am I lucky or what?  One of those hardest jobs you'll ever love.

Elsa's Kittens At Three Days Old

 Elsa was out of her box this morning laying on the floor.  Her babies were in two piles.

 She hopped in the box, layed down, and all the babies swarmed to her for breakfast.  No, that's not blood on the kitten's feet.  Keep reading.

An hour later when everyone was napping and Elsa was out of the box again, I put all the kittens in a tub and changed the towel in the box.  Two days is about the longest I can leave the towel in.  Kittens start peeing and pooping from the first day.  Mom does her best to clean it up, but she doesn't get all of it.  As they get older, the towel will need to be changed daily.

 The next five photos were taken in less than 30 seconds.  I snapped one about every five seconds to see how they moved around.  The pictures are in order.

In the past post, I made and took off colored Velcro collars for identification.  Last night I remembered that on Minnie's litter, I painted different paws with fingernail polish.  One kitten would have red polish on his front left paw.  Another one had it on his front right paw.  After the first four kittens had one paw each painted, I could do the two front paw, the two back paws, the two left paws and the two right paws.  That's eight kittens.

 The polish dries pretty quickly - within a minute or so.  The hard part was keeping Elsa from jumping up on my legs and taking the kittens out of my hands and putting them back in the box.  She did this about half a dozen times.

The kittens were crying and didn't like me blowing on the polish to get it to dry faster.  And Mom didn't like them crying at all.  But, I eventually got all eight kittens polished, recorded, and weighed.  Whew!  I feel better, now.

I think this is the same wavy-haired buff from two days ago.  He's now "Front Right."  FR for short.  He will double his size in the first week.

FR on 3-29

FR on 3-27

FR on 3-27

FR on 3-29

Clean Elsa, a clean towel, and full bellies for everybody.  I do give about half the kittens a little formula about four times a day.  Mom gets some, too in a bowl, plus canned, plus dry, plus more canned.  She needs three times her regular amount of food every day while she's nursing.

I can tell they've grown so  much in just three days.  To paraphrase Chief Brody in Jaws, I'm gonna need a bigger box.

Elsa's Kittens Are One Day Old

Late last night when I checked on the babies, a few of them either weren't nursing or couldn't find a nipple.  I picked them up and they were limp.  I thought they were dead, but there was still a little life in there.  I opened a can of kitten formula, filled five 3ml medicine syringes (a little over 1/2 teaspoon), and gave a couple mils or more to the ones laying on the outskirts.  They wouldn't take the nipple, but did suck and swallow the formula.  I kept giving a little here and there till the syringes were empty.  All of the four or five I fed crawled to mom and found an empty spot to nurse, which surprised me, but I was very relieved and hopeful.  

I set my phone alarm for 4am to check on them, but I evidently slept through it and woke up at 9am.  I didn't know what to expect, but all eight were squirming around.  It looked a lot like when you first open a container of worms and they all get excited.  I was just as excited.  All eight of them were in a pile. I watched them crawl all over each other for several minutes.  The pile stayed the same width and in the same place, but all eight kittens were in constant motion - over, under, and around the next guy.  It finally dawned on me that they were exercising!  They were using their muscles and learning how to crawl.  Their eyes won't open till about day 10, and they can't hear for a while, but they sure knew how to work out.  Then, they all decided at one time to eat breakfast.  That's when I went downstairs and got the camera.

 This is a while later after they ate.  Everybody had a nice round belly and was ready for a nap.  This is when I got a carrier, put Elsa in it and gave her a much-needed shower.  I put a heater in the bathroom and ran my hair dryer, too.

 She didn't like it much, but she sure looked a lot better afterwards.  Before I let her out of her carrier, I changed the towel - Elsa was spotting a little - and tried to get some of the blood stain off the new box.  For all you CSI fans, blood does not come out of cardboard.

Being the anal type, I was going nuts not being able to identify eight orange kittens.  I couldn't record their weights, know who was eating when, and who was more active.  I need to know who is who.  I got my collection of Velcro out and made little collars.  As soon as I was done and took the picture, I decided the kittens were too little and took them all off.  I'm trying to chill.  Nobody is limp.  Nobody is skinny.  Everybody is active and eating.  But, didn't they look cute!


Three kittens are lighter, called buff, and two of the buff ones have a wavy coat.  So, I can identify ONE.  I can't tell you how much this bothers me.

This is one of the wavy-coated buffs. I'm going to try to document this same kitten throughout the nine weeks before they get neutered and vaccinated and available for adoption.  Mom's already been tested and is negative for feline leukemia and aids, so babies most likely are too.

I checked six of the eight and they are all boys.  The other two were eating.

He still has a little of the camel look.