we have weight gain!

Just a quick update. I was worried about the kittens, they cry constantly and feed constantly and I beginning to worry if there was any milk there. Just turns out that Smitten is the sort of mum that puts superheros to shame. Feeding her kittens non stop for what feels like hours? not a problem, endless supply of milk? not a problem, eating anything except Whiskas o so meaty chicken flavour and Nature's Menu chicken and salmon flavour? err slight problem there. Fussiest eater ever.

The kittens all gained between 15-20g today so I'm very happy about that. I've also renamed them with the help of my ever useful assistant, my husband. So we now have a black and white girl called Tulip, a dark tabby boy called Cesc, a lighter greyer tabby boy called Percy and a tabby and white girl (apparently because her paperwork says girl but I'm not convinced!) still called Jasmine but might need to change it to Jermaine in the future!

First picture of Smitten plus four

Well this is Smitten and her kittens. They're currently named after characters out of Aladdin. I didn't even know there were four characters in Aladdin. So I've got Aladdin (obviously), Jasmine (maybe a princess?), Abu (apparently a monkey) and Iago (after a google search I've found him to be a parrot!). No sign of the genie though... I love naming kittens and have been given the go ahead to find them some new names. I just need to get to know them a little and their at that age where they all look the same sex which doesn't help.

Last night I weighed them for the same time. Again problems with the fact there's three tabbies and they all look the same sex! But I've clearly got a black and white girl, so at least I can be sure which one she is! Then there's a all dark tabby, a tabby with white paws and a tabby with no white paws which is slightly grey. Their weight differences are about 20g which isn't too bad and I'll keep up the weighing (despite their protests) until they're all on solid food and eating well.

Smitten is very particular about her food. Yesterday we struggled through about three sachets of cat food, a handful of cat biscuits (which I think she only ate because they're Royal Canin and it's got Canin in the title), some ham and some kitten treats. She eats about two mouthfuls of food and then walks off. So I have to keep showing her the bowl, holding the bowl in front of her mouth in the air and just keep encouraging her. At least she is eating but her focus is overwhelmingly on the kittens. Usually it's the other way round, the mother gets distracted from her kittens to food, not distracted from her food to her kittens. But I'll keep trying.

Smitten plus four arrive

Today I went to pick up my new foster mum cat and her kittens. Smittenis about one and a half and she's something like a Ragdoll or Birman but my money is on Ragdoll. I went to the shelter to collect her and the first thing that hit me was how tiny she was. She's about the size of an eight month old kitten, she's very thin. Despite that, she let me pick her up straight away and let me have a look at her two-week-old kittens.

Whilst I was at the shelter I got some background on her. Dear Smitten came from a house a bit overun with cats and kittens, she came in with four other mum cats and about 15 kittens. It doesn't look like Smitten has had the best life and it's not unlikely she's been having kittens her whole life. I get a great sense of happiness knowing that I am fostering any cats' last litter of kittens and that they'll be spayed when they leave me, especially for cats like Smitten.

I got Smitten and her kitts in a carrier and back home and settled them into their room. I have a small box bedroom which I use for fostering. It's perfectly big enough for a mum and her kittens. I quickly constructed a cardboard nesting area so the kittens so get lost in the room and are secure until they are bigger. Smitten investigated the room and found a catnip candy cane and played with that.

For now I have left them to settle down and rest as it's no doubt been a stressful week for Smitten and her kittens are still young.