Track the progress of current Moonspun Persian Cat litters as well as gain insights into the life of a cat breeder!

Tuesday 21 August 2012

9 Days Old, and Millie Rebels

Time has a funny habit of getting itself all over the place, doesn't
it? The first week of these kittens' lives seemed to pass in a blink.
One minute they weren't here, the next they were a week old and I was
shaking my head and wondering bemusedly just how exactly I seemed to
have misplaced a week of my life. Now they're 9 days old, and the last
2 have dragged in. I keep thinking they're 2 weeks old for some
inexplicable reason, which is making the time until they get to that
milestone seem ages away! However, we have progress.

Apache gained 15 grams in the last 24 hour period with only minimal
help! I'm so, so pleased! I'm not comfy enough to say she's totally
out of the woods yet. I want to see a few days of big weight gain like
that first before I breathe easy again.

Little Stripe and Bluecream managed to double their birth weights
today, with bluecream just breaking 190 and little fat stripey 2 grams
ahead of her. Red boy has now taken over as the elephant of the litter
and will be the first to break 200 grams. In fact, he's probably done
it already as he was 198 a few hours ago. Apache is still the
smallest, but is now at 165 which is very, very respectable
considering that she'd only just broken 130 a few days ago, 2 I think.

Kittens are beginning to learn to toddle now. This litter is so
advanced in comparison to Tia's who didn't really start to learn to
walk until about 2 and a half weeks or possibly even later. These are
all happily pushing up on their front paws now, and I caught little
bluecream taking a very wobbly walk to mummy's tummy just a few
minutes ago. She fell over with every other step which, of course,
meant that she had to scream and cry and generally tell the whole
world that little yummy fat kitten tummies were not made for falling
on, thank you very much!

I really do thik that their eyes are either opening or have opened.
Whenever they're awake now, they will turn their faces to me whenever
I talk to them. They seem generally more interested in what's going
on, and are happier to be stroked a little more. I've started tucking
them in under my chin and handling them all for a minute or so after I
weigh. Stripey was the only one who didn't tolerate this this evening.
She screamed and screamed and screamed, but I got 30 seconds with her
before putting her back. The others, even red boy, snuggled under my
chin and seemed relatively content. So, thus begins the campaign to
convince kittens that humans would rather love them and cuddle them
than eat them for dinner. So far, Stripey disagrees.

Millie's getting a lot more restless now. She was a little monster
most of last night, banging on the door to be let out, screeching at
me to talk to her, then, when all that failed, booting her litter all
over the pen (she knows that will bring me running), then trying to
dart past me when I open the door to clean it all up. I don't mind her
being out. In fact, I'd let her mix with the other cats very briefly
earlier last evening. Her mum hasn't been eating well and nor has she.
Both stopped when they were separated, and my suspicions as to why
they weren't eating were confirmed when they rubbed all over each
other, then filled their faces together. If it wasn't for Gabby, I'd
let Tia into the room as she really shows no interest in the kittens
other than talking to them, and this doesn't bother Millie at all.
Gabby, however, is another matter. Millie has decided that the kittens
need protecting from her, so I'm hoping that letting them all mix will
give Millie the break she needs and will also ensure that nobody
forgets her and she doesn't forget them.

The problem is letting her out at night. I'm not going to stay awake
to coax her back in with the babies, and I can't and won't leave the
door open as I firstly don't want any other big cats in the pen, and
secondly, I don't want her moving them, which I suspect she would. So
she got thoroughly ignored last night, then scolded for being naughty
on the third time that she up-ended the litter tray and the food bowl.
She's never usually such a madam!

So, that's all for now. Watch this space for further updates.

2 comments:

Alex and Chris Pea said...

Aww poor Millie, nice that the little ones are growing so well and developing fast (they'll be drinking and smoking by the time I get there!).

Can't wait to see the gang!

Ellen Whyte said...

Sounds good. Any pics?