At
the Rogue's Gallery you can see their week-by-week development
without having to wade through the daily pictures
PLEASE
NOTE: This litter was born in Feb 2000 - I DO NOT HAVE ANY KITTENS
AVAILABLE FOR SALE AT THE MOMENT!
What
do I have under my desk? Kittens. This is where all my litters
are born. The desk is at the end of my bed, so day or night I
am on hand for the big event. The kittens stay in the big box
under the desk until they're about 2 weeks old (assuming the mother
is prepared to hang around that long without moving house), when
they start screaming and demanding more space to exercise, then
they move across the room, but still very close at hand for my
work and sleeping space. They don't migrate to the nursery (across
the passage) until they're 3-4 weeks old, when no box is big enough
to hold them, and they need a lot more space, and a cork-tile
floor which can be easily wiped! They're allowed the run of the
house as long as I'm nearby to prevent accidents, but the nursery
is a nice warm safe place to grow up, and I can see through the
mesh door from my seat at my desk.
You
can skip all the boring 'words' below and go straight to the pictures
of the babies now if you like!
If
you've never seen young kittens, you will never know just how
fast they develop and how much fun and WORK they can be! If you've
ever thought of breeding 'for fun' there are many many things
to consider, and an awful lot you have to know about feline diseases
and genetic problems before you start. Nobody wants to put their
precious girl at risk, but ignorance of breeding and the problems
you may encounter is the biggest killer of new queens. You need
to know your bloodlines and pedigrees before you can even choose
a queen or a stud cat for her, but the help of other breeders
is the best way of learning all this.
Most
of this diary consists of daily picture updates of Missie's first
litter (Rameses Kismet) with some brief progress notes, but immediately
below I have given a short description of the labour and birth,
which weren't exactly text-book!
(Missie)
Missie
started out by going into labour a day late (one sleepless night
lost - you must never leave an expectant queen alone in case she
has complications in labour which could kill her), then she started
having big contractions at 8 pm and didn't start pushing really
hard until 10 pm. It should all have been over by Midnight, but
Missie was having a lot of trouble and the first kitten was not
showing himself. After a while I decided she was struggling so
called the vet out. Picking up the phone usually shifts the problem,
but this time it didn't. When she arrived, liquid parraffin in
hand, Sarah had a quick 'feel' and to my relief found a tail (which
meant that though it was a rear-presentation, it wasn't a real
'breach' birth. About 40-50% of kittens are born feet/tail first.
A true breach is when the kitten presents his lower back first).
Sarah
watched for a while and we agreed that Missie was becoming more
distressed and exhausting herself. She was migrating around the
room trying to find a place to escape what was happening. Feeling
inside her seemed to have dilated her a bit further, and we began
to see a bubble of the anmiotic sac, and then a tail. However,
even pulling hard on the tail during contractions didn't shift
the kitten, and it looked as if his head was jammed further up.
Sarah gave a shot of calcium to try and strengthen the uterine
contractions, and we decided to wait for that to take effect before
taking the drastic step of deciding on a caesarian section. It
was evident by this time that Missie was being very brave, but
she was in a lot of pain.
A
c-section is not desirable because of the stress to the queen
and the delay in the milk flow starting. However, if you wait
too long, the queen is too exhausted to survive the operation.
It's a difficult decision to make. Sarah called up one of the
practice nurses just after midnight, and after persuading her
it wasn't a joke, asked her to get the surgery ready for an emergency
c-section.
As
if on cue, Missie decided that this was no longer a joke, and
'Cochese' as he came to be known, stuck his bum and ankles out
into the light. (Another reason for his name was that he appeared
to have a black tail with a white tip, like a red-indian head-dress
feather!) I managed to wiggle one of his ankles out enough to
get a leg out so that he couldn't get back inside, and from there
things moved much more normally. After such a long time coming,
Sarah and I didn't hold out much hope for this one's survival,
but once his body was out, though his head was still inside, Cochese
started waving his arms around, and it was clear he was planning
on arriving kicking and screaming, which he did at about 12.15
(am). It seemed that the Calcium did the trick (thank you Sarah!).
Cochese is a big strong kitten: within hours he had had a long
walk around his kittening box, and exercised his lungs well. He
has a slight depression about half-way up his tail which could
be damage caused by pulling on it. I'm hoping it is due to swelling
and will go down soon, though it could be more serious - perhaps
a break.
He's
not a huge kitten, certainly not large enough to have warranted
the trouble he caused, so next time Missie is pregnant I'll be
treating her with Red Raspberry Leaf (RRL) capsules to strengthen
her uterus. The other kittens were quite slow too, and it seems
that the internal contractions were painful but not really strong
enough to get the kittens moving. Some people use RRL with every
pregnancy, but I have concerns about its safety, and I also don't
believe in tampering with a process that should work well naturally.
Missie is old to be having a first litter as she was very late
to call, and that may have been another contributing factor in
the slow and tiring delivery. I was very relieved that she only
had 4 babies, as she was really too tired to have any more. She
had finished by 2.15, but I stayed up for another hour to make
sure she was really finished and not just having a rest. Poor
little mouse, she was so relieved it was over!
Born
9 Feb, 12.15, 12.30, 1.15, 2.05 am
Photographed 9 Feb 11.00 am
DAY ONE, 9 Feb
(thank
goodness!)
DAY
TWO, 10 Feb
Kittens
not gaining much weight, so it looks as though Missie is still
quite stressed by the birth, and her milk isn't coming down too
well yet. They suckle more-or-less constantly, so they're hungry
but not getting a decent meal.
Missie has eaten well, had a good drink and used the litter tray,
and I've given her some kitten milk supplement which is good for
encouraging milk production. I'm keeping her very quiet and warm
in the box under my desk. She is a bit anxious normally, and tends
to sit up if I look in, so I'm trying not to disturb her too much
and to keep the other cats quiet and out of the way, even though
she obviously misses their company and would be happier with them
here. They have other ideas ( " nasty aliens ... HISSS! "
).
DAY
THREE, 11 Feb
Things
are not going quite as smoothly as they could be. Although the
kittens feed almost constantly, a zero weight-gain over their
first 48 hours had me quite worried, so yesterday evening I did
hand feeds every 1-2 hours until 2 am. Missie seemed quite down:
she wouldn't purr, and stopped washing herself and the babies
for a while. The babies were VERY hungry and guzzled everything
I could get down them - more than I would have expected them to
eat. I got up to feed again at 6 am, and had another go at 9 am,
then took Missie in to see the vet, though she's looking a bit
happier this morning. He said she had no temperature and couldn't
find anything to suggest a retained foetus. However, he agreed
that her milk is not coming down so gave her a very small shot
of oxytocin (she could have used her reserves of this up as it
was such an exhausting delivery), and I rushed her back home to
the hungry beasts in the hopes that this would start the milk
flowing properly.
She
looked a lot more relaxed, and the kittens suckled and have been
doing a bit more sleeping than they were before when Missie is
in the box. However, tummies still look a bit small. I didn't
do any hand-feeding as I needed to find out if they were going
to gain anything from Missie and supplementing them would confuse
the picture. Missie was pulling at her bedding this afternoon,
which is odd. I waited until 4 pm to weigh, which is my usual
time, hoping desperately that the oxytocin had worked. Lack of
milk would mean hand-feeding every 2 hours day and night for a
while, and Missie would probably get mastitis because of the milk
not coming down. Weights at 4pm showed a 10 gm gain over the last
24 hours (in fact over the last 12 hours as there was no overnight
gain), so obviously the milk is improving. Huge sigh of relief,
but not out of the woods yet.
The
kittens are still very active and look fine, though I would prefer
their little tummies to be a bit fatter! The little
dark kitten now has brown nose-leather so he's obviously a brown,
not a blue. The others all seem to be developing blue nose-leather.
Only time will tell though!
DAY
FOUR, 12 Feb
The
Oxytocin has done the trick. Missie has masses of milk (her underside
looks like an eiderdown, all quilted), and overnight and 24-hour
weighing showed good weight gain. The kittens sleep far more of
the time, which means they're not hungry any more - they suckled
non-stop the first two days. As things went so well yesterday
and overnight, I was able to leave the house for most of the day
to visit a show. There was an ulterior motive to this: it meant
that Missie had a completely quiet and undisturbed day, which
I think she needed as she tends to try and follow me around the
house if I leave the room. Obviously this is stressful for her
because she also wants to be with the babies. She certainly looks
very relaxed tonight, and evidently didn't miss me.
The
little brown one is the smallest (and is getting rather a lot
of attention), then the smallest of the three 'whites' (who seems
to have brown nose leather now - probably a variant pointed pattern,
though he could possibly be a chocolate), and then the two big
fellas, who are getting blue nose leather. It's still too early
to tell for sure, and I still can't sex them properly, so they're
all boys for now.
DAY
5, 13 Feb
Wonderful
quiet day. Babies all put on 10-11 gms which is great. It looks
(at the moment) as if I have three girls (the white kittens) and
one boy (the little brown). Little brown is beginning to open
his eyes, so he'll be looking around before long. When they're
awake they're amazingly busy, rushing around the box and climbing
over each other.
DAY
6, 14 Feb
I
got up this morning to 4 bright pairs of eyes. Everyone had opened
their eyes overnight, and they are looking around at their semi-dark
world in the big box under my desk. They seem to be much more
active today too, rushing around seemingly for the sheer hell
of it!
DAY
7, 15 Feb
All
except the little brown have gained weight well again today. A
single day of insignificant weight-gain is not usually important:
at this age the weight is affected by whether they've just fed
or not, and also whether Mum has emptied their bladders! However,
it's an indication to keep an eye on his feeding. Missie is still
immensely happy and pleased with her family. This is the time
when most mothers decide to move the litter, so I'm keeping an
eye on her, but she's showing no signs of wanting to move house.
Rogue's Gallery (in order of birth)
