A typical Sunday in a Furrydance kittens life. Kiki's babies at 13 weeks old.
They get spayed and neutered on the 7th and will leave their birth home
here in 2 weeks...
My, Teri has been busy! Today she is downstairs blogging, so we are having to entertain ourselves and you'll see, things have been purrty busy round the Furrydance house!
When he was a showcat, he weighed about 11# and being confined due to his spraying, he ballooned up to over 13#. Teri got him down to 12# feeding him only canned food (The Catkins Diet) but hoped that once he had free run of the house again and 3 levels to exercise in, that he could go back to eating dry food free choice again. Nope! He is very carb-intolerant and got up to 14#, so now he gets canned food twice a day and a few kibbles of dry a couple of times a day. 
Sonny, the cat formerly known as Keyser Soze, is being the purrfect Rehab cat, and has moved out of the Rehab cage to the guest bathroom and is consistently using the litterbox, not yowling, digging, scratching or otherwise acting out, so in another week, he will be able to move into the guest bedroom. 
To all the Mommycats and all the CatMommies out there...wishing you a day filled with lots to purr about! Here's the latest Mommycat photos from Furrydance! Coco and babies are doing great! Their sniffles cleared up quickly and their weights continue to gain each day just as we want. The aren't quite at the stage of climbing out of their kitten box, but I did bring out the larger one as they are starting to need a bit more crawling space!
And here's their latest video! You can tell, they are starting to play, nibble and paw at each other--the beginnings of their personalities starting to show. I will have to say that Clover "Loves the Camera" and Daisy is just the "Baby Sister" and Buttercup and Dandelion are very close in size now, with their coat color being the easiest way to tell them apart now!
And here's the first photo I have taken of the newly renamed Sonny (the cat previously known as Keyser Soze). I figured Sonny and Soze are two syllables, similar sounding to the kitty and with a much nicer connotation than his previous namesake! Easier to warm up to a Sonny than a Soze and he needs all the love and warmth he can get right now!
It's only been two days, but already he is head butting me and not growling and huffing like he was on Friday. He is in a 4' x 4' x 2' cage right now, with a cozy tunnel bed on a pet safe heating pad and he likes that. He is resting, not yowling and anxious like his previous owner reported and so far, has not done any urinating outside his litterbox, so he is already making headway!
I hope that going in to work with me tomorrow doesn't knock our budding friendship on it's rump, but if he is too stressed by it, we will just lightly sedate him and use a short acting gas anesthesia, so he isn't scared and so we can do a thorough exam on him, too. And while he is asleep, we can bath him and clean his ears and nailbeds, which he would probably fight if he were awake.
He is very handsome, not much coat right now but that could be stress or nutritionally related...or he could be just one of those Cornish Rex with a thin coat instead of deeply marcelled waves.
Well, we are sure all have been waiting for new pix and kitten news, and finally it's Friday, a day off and time for a photo shoot!
The babies are doing well. Wednesday, I was a little worried about Dandelion, the largest orange boykitten. He had a couple of days where he didn't gain grams like he had been, and he began to sound little snuffly. He was still nursing but I had a hard time falling to sleep worrying about him.
So, on Thursday I loaded mom and babies up in a travel tent and took them in to work with me. Everyone got examined and Coco was running a slight fever, so we drew some blood for a CBC, to check for infection. The results were fine, thank goodness. All the babies checked out ok too and by then the Dandi wasn't snuffly, but his lip under his nose was a little inflammed (like ours gets when our noses run). So my vet said, lets put mom on antibiotics and some with get into the milk and to start using an antibiotic eye ointment on the newly opening eyes of the kittens to help with any bacterial infection that might be going on.
I am pleased to say today that everyone is doing fine, and after the little bit of weight loss, Dandi isn't the biggest kitten now...it's Clover, the brown tabby and white boy! And little Daisy is the first one with her eyes completely open...and Dandi, will be the last...his are still tightly closed.
So, without further ado...here's the latest video! Enjoy!!
(and remember to click on the photos to biggify them!)
Good mews to report...the kittens are continuing to gain weight, in fact the three boys have gained 15 grams each day for the past 2 days and are right on target! The little brown tabby girl still worries me a bit, but she is eagerly nursing and active...but sooo small. She has only gained 24 grams since she was born (should have gained 40 grams). The first day she lost weight, but each day since then she has gained 9, 6 and 12 grams...so she is gaining more each day and that's a positive sign.
I am still not letting the other cats in the bedroom with us, as I tried it last night and every little sound and activity, like one of the cats jumping on top of the tent to snuggle in the sleeping bag there, disturbed wary mom and she just doesn't need that right now. All the other cats are confused as to why they can't sleep with me...but I napped with them yesterday in the warm sun and told them soon all would be back to the usual routine, I was sure.
Here's a new photo of the kittens I took today. I usually take photos once a week, as it takes about that long to see much visual change in them...but I know you are all awaiting updates, and if you look at the photo similar to this one, taken on the day they were born, just four days ago, you can see a small change already.
The kitten stork arrived today! Coco said she was ready! So on day 63, not day 64, she became the proud mother of 4 little bebbehs!
Her labor began about 4:20am today, Tuesday April 14th. She had a very easy delivery, with only about having the first three kittens about 15 minutes apart and then needed a rest and the last one arrived after 30 minutes.
They all were nursing within an hour, and safe and secure in the kittening tent...so I had to go off to work. That was hard, but Coco is an experienced mom and I only worried a little, but was eager to get back home tonight to check on everyone!
The babies are a bit small, but are nursing vigorously. Kittens usually weigh between 90-100 grams (about 3 ounces) at birth, but since they were a day early, they are smaller; the tiniest one is 55 grams (she is brown tabby); the next one is 59 grams (he is a red tabby); the next kitten weighed in at 79 grams (a brown tabby and white boy) and the big one of the bunch is another red tabby boy, tipping the scales at 82 grams.
They should gain 10-15 grams each day, and I weigh them twice a day, which helps spot one that may not be eating as well, long before it is in any danger. I have never had to hand feed them, but will feel better when I see these little ones gaining nicely each day.
My petsitter's kids always pick out nicknames for the kittens, and they told me today they are thinking of Flowers, since it's springtime! So without further ado...here are the first photos of the new arrivals!
No, Coco hasn't had her babies yet.
But here's a photo of her I took on Sunday,
with her round belly and her milk starting
to come in.
And below, some past photos of the kittening tent, and then, at about 4 weeks when they are starting to use the litterbox, they make the transition into my master bathroom, bigger and easy to clean up--baby kittens are messy! The step in their food as they are learning to eat, the have lapses in finding the litterboxes til they learn, and yes, they get underfoot!
During this time, from 3 days of age to 21 days of age, I take them out of the tent at least three times a day, I bring the kitten bed up onto my bed and kiss and nuzzle each one. At first, they sometimes hiss at me, til they become familiar with my "scent". Sometimes, they will even hiss if I have just brushed my teeth...that's how important sense of smell is to a cat, it tries to protect them from intruders in their territory.
During those days 3-21, I also do what is called Early Neurological Stimulation, which has been shown to help them in learning situations or when introduced to strangers, to be more active and more exploratory than kittens not stimulated like this and much more willing to greet and play with strangers.
Here is a link to more info on this technique:
Early Neurological Stimulation
Ok...we missed ManCat Monday, Toesies Tuesday, Wordless Wednesday...Teri's been busy but we made her shuffle thru her photos for some thankful ones today!
We are expecting babies in a week...when they arrive and are safe and sound, then we will be really thankful!
It's Sunday but no sun in sight, so us cats are all napping under the blankets on the bed..
Well, we are in mom's bedroom cuz some home repairs are going on today and we would get in the way. But we're all cozy and wish that Teri would come back to bed and snuggle with us, but she's off to visit a friend to celebrate her kitties 15th birthday! Maybe she'll nap with us later?
Teri didn't have time to take a picture of us today, so this nap-time photo is an old one of a pile-o-furrydance kittens from a couple of years ago!
Saturday's are for naps.
Of course, cats nap about
15 hours a day, any day...
But on this chilly Saturday,
a blankie and a nap with
Teri would be nice!
This photo is from a couple of years ago, and promise
it wasn't posed, that is how I found the babies napping.
Well, Teri said her long 4 day weekend is coming to an end and back to work for her. We told her she needs to take time for a nap today, with us of course!
We think every day is Sunday, MOL like Easy we mean. We pace ourselves, work (hunting toys, foraging for food, grooming ourselves) and then nap (two-thirds of our day) and that seems like a nice ratio of work and rest.
Beans ought to be more like us, but Teri says something about that kind of lifestyle not paying too well. We wouldn't know anything about that as we have everything we need without any dollars. We earn our room and board with bunts and purrs.
We all got baths yesterday, including the kittens in the photo, which includes nail trimming, ear cleaning and nailbed cleaning. Most Cornish Rex need baths once a month to stay sweet smelling, and the Sphynx more often than that. So we are used to it and while we squirm and mew a lot, we really do appreciate how good care Teri takes of us all.
Well, back to searching for the perfect Sunday nap spot...
Oh my, we are having fun looking over Teri's shoulder while she looks for just the right white cat for our first White Cat Wednesday...we decided this was a twofer, mommy white cat Nonnen and her precious white baby, Blizzard.
It's our first T. T. and we have so many photos of adorable toes, that it was hard to pick one...but we decided on this one...titled "Smell my Feet", MOL
