Scorch would like to remind you that he is beeeeeyoooootiful.
Scorch is bracing himself for what he knows is about to happen. Because it always DOES.
“My brudder cannot keep his paws to his ownself.”
“Does this paw taste funny to you?”
“Just a little like litter. Isn’t that what it’s supposed to taste like?”
Okay, so. I had never ever seen this happen before. I’ve been giving Khaleesi extra snacks during the day on top of the small dresser in the closet. I was hanging out with the kittens while she ate the other day, and then she started making a keening noise, jumped down from the dresser, and walked into the room with this wad of food in her mouth. She called and called, and eventually Puff and Scorch ran over and ate the food that she had dropped on the floor for them. I’ve never seen a mama cat do that before (but I suspect they do it all the time, just not when I’m around!)
Norbert, balancing on the scratcher. They all love to do this – then they hit a certain weight and the scratcher tips over!
“Pardon me, I’m having some quiet time with my baby sock monkey.”
Sometimes his brothers and sisters are racing around like wild things, and Norbert isn’t in the mood for racing around, so he hangs out under the doll bed with a toy or two.
“Paws up, y’all!”
Ember’s latest trick is climbing up the back of my shirt. It would be cuter if it wasn’t so painful. Time to trim those claws!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Hodor, checking out the edges of the blanket.
Jon Snow would like you to know that he is much better looking when he’s had a bath. He doesn’t want you to think that he still looks like he did in that first (blurry) picture you saw of him!
Rolling around after meal time. Nothing happier than a baby with an empty bladder and a full belly.
Arya, at the beginning of a yawn.
Hodor, checking out the floor. In the past couple of days, they’ve gone from squirming around on their bellies to actually getting their legs under them so that they can totter around.
Brandon, rolling around in my lap. Look at that fat little belly!
It’s possible that Arya just finished eating and is waiting patiently to go potty.
HUGS.
Jon Snow’s always the first to decide it’s time to go back to sleep, whereupon he hooks his chin over the back of the nearest sibling. Arya’s like “But I’m not ready to sleep yet!”
I have a video for you guys! The first couple of sections are of the kittens at the front of their carrier, letting me know that it’s time to EAT. The last three sections are of them actually eating. Look at those ears go! (That loud humming you can hear in the background is the bathroom fan – it comes on automatically when you turn the light on. It doesn’t seem to bother the kittens.) There isn’t a clip where Jon Snow is eating, because the camera chose to focus on my arm instead.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Kara in a rare inside-the-house picture. When Kara’s inside, you know it’s gotta be HOT outside.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Previously
2012: Pro Summer tip: line your windowsills with kittens to keep the cool air from seeping out.
2011: Macushla’s in charge of guarding the food.
2010: No entry.
2009: No entry.
2008: What a difference 10 weeks makes, huh?
2007: Is it just me, or do these look like weirdly posed scenes, like something you’d see in the JC Penney catalog?
2006: No entry.
2005: I mean, I have NEVER dealt with a cat in heat before.
Oh, the little earsies go in and out when they’re sucking on the bottle! ♥
And Khaleesi bringing her babies treats? How cute is that?
I love it when ears move when nursing..
LOVE
IT
!!
The Dragons are the cutest litter you’ve ever had.
Robyn – those little ears! OMG the cute is killing me!
Robyn – where in the world do you find nipples that small? I’ve never been able to track them down and end up using syringes for my bottle babies.
They came from the Pet Ag Nursing Kit.
It’s magical that you caught Khaleesi being such an excellent mum. Dragons and Starks, see how you can share the Kingdom of Crooked Acres without harm to the body politic (so long as Robyn keeps your claws clipped, that is)!
Do the Starks make biscuits while they are taking a bottle?
No, they don’t. That’s kind of surprising, isn’t it? Some of them lay there with their paws neatly folded while they’re eating, and some of them embrace the bottle. Depends on just how hungry they are!
Do you have to clean up after the kittens because they have no mum to clean them up after potty time?
I do! Luckily it’s not too bad, and I know that this part of it won’t last all that long.
Khaleesi is SUCH a good mama!!!
Both sets of babies are soooo adorable. This is the best way to start the day!
Those bottle-beebees are going to make some truly wonderful pets. They always seem more attached to their human than cats whose mama raises them. Or at least the ones I’ve known are like that… Cute video, and great how they are all enjoying their feeding time!
Hubby and I fostered a runt kitten that we got when the kitten was about 2 weeks old. It was quite the bonding experience. Hubby wasn’t too sure about us fostering the kitten, but the morning came that I heard my husband in the bathroom saying, “Come on, you can make a poop for me,” in a coaxing voice, and I knew we were keeping the kitten. 🙂 He is now 6 years old, fat and happy and spoiled.
Aaaaaawwwwwwww! 🙂
Sure sign of a keeper.
I would like to submit this question to the Fount of all Kitten Knowledge that is your readers. At what age do you think it’s appropriate for a kitten to be eating hard kibble? My Black Jack is about 3 months old, the same age as the Royals, and he just will not eat kibble. When I put down baby kibble for him, the adult cats love it and gobble it up, and he turns up his nose at it. He only wants canned food.
Noelegy – I’m having the same problem with my darling 4 month old kitten, Daisy. So frustrating! I’ve tried adding a little goat milk to her kibble and she ate a little of it that way, but then decided nope, not good. Someone told me to try adding a little chicken broth to the kibble, but I haven’t done that yet.
My vet told me to call her bluff and just leave the dry kibble out and not give her the canned food for a while. But, she’s a baybee, I don’t want her to be hungry! Daisy loves Wellness and Fussie Cat canned food, both high quality and both expensive. My, oh my, Daisy loves that canned food and my pocket book is feeling the pain.
Robyn – Daisy was bottle fed so I am VERY excited that you have four little bitties to bottle feed! It will be so fun watching them grow. You are going to be SO busy. I hope that Fred will rub your feet each night!
You might try leaving some kibble where the kitten can get it between meals and see if he gets to browsing on it between meals. If you put out a little and keep refilling, even the adults stealing it might be a good example for the kitten.
But of my three cats, one eats only kibble for the most part, one eats mostly wet, and the third never seems to eat at all.
He’s definitely old enough to be eating kibble at 3 months old. Some cats just prefer canned to kibble (or vice versa, in rare cases), but I’ve always been lucky that my fosters will eat both. I don’t have any suggestions on how to get him to eat kibble, so I’ll post the comment in tomorrow’s post, maybe someone will have a suggestion or two. 🙂
I know this is wrong of me to say, but I don’t think it is ever appropriate for kittens to eat kibble: http://catinfo.org and http://feline-nutrition.org spell it out better than I can, but it boils down to cats are obligate carnivores and do not have the digestive enzymes to properly digest plant based material. Cats who eat dry food have larger and much more odorous stools than cats who are canned fed and they get even smaller and less smelly when they are raw fed..
but.. that being said, if you are going to feed kibble, then once they are interested in the food I generally let them have access to it (I have to feed it due to my foster kittens belonging to a shelter who is very pro dry food) it generally is harder for kittens to get the nutrition they need to thrive on dry alone when they are in that in between stage, so keeping to a kitten dry food with small bits will help, as will supplemental nursing..
OK – so that’s scary info to read. But say I have 2 three and 1/2 year old cats who are used to kibble being present constantly. (I do try to buy the stuff that doesn’t have “corn” or “corn meal” as one of the first 3 ingredients listed) but say I want to switch them to the wet stuff. (which they gobble down any time I’ve ever given it to them). How do I go about it? Because I’m envisioning LOTS of unhappiness if they are only getting fed once a day (or even twice a day)
Sherry, what I’d recommend (I did this with my cats, going from kibble to canned, and then (at least for two of them) from canned to raw), is to firstly switch from having food always available to scheduled mealtimes. Twice a day (or three times, if that works for you), feed them a measured portion of kibble, with a bit of canned food. Keep that up for a week or two, then reduce the kibble and feed more canned. And so on until you’re just on canned food.
It might take awhile, and your cats may complain at first, but once they’re switched over, they should be fine. 🙂
You’ve probably already heard of Hamilton the hipster cat, ’cause he seems to be making the rounds of the interwebs, but I thought I’d post this just in case you hadn’t, because he remids me very much of Puff (which is a very good thing!): http://designtaxi.com/news/358396/A-Hipster-Cat-That-Has-A-Real-Mustache/
Oh good lord, that is SO CUTE!
Seriously, what would you call Scorcha’s fur coloring? Besides gorgeous. That pic of Norbert undert he bed is one of his best. So coy and sweet. Intimate almost in a non-creepy way.
My guess is that Khaleesi doesn’t have any half-dead mice or birds to bring home to train her kittens so she’s making due with treats. Funny how these things are hardwired in them. She is such a sweet mommy.
I bet Jon snow’s kind of snippy about keeping his white fur sparkling. He’s got that dandy vibe to him. Arya’s curled tongue mid-yawn is just coma-inducing sweet. Although that milk mouth is pretty cute too.
Oh Hodor, I’m always going to look at you and think Heat Miser. Brandon may have the most delicious kitten belly that I’ve ever seen. Those black eyes on all of them are just too much. I’m sure that there’s some scientific study out there about black eyes and enlarged pupils but dang, it’s just cute.
We call that color “buff”! 🙂
Its a dilute red or orange. Also called creme, especially when in a dilute tortie lady which is a “blue-creme” tortie
I haven’t seen a momma cat do that either, but it kinda cracks me up!! 🙂
Those tinies are just too cute. Love those first few days when they discover their legs – and gravity.
I had a cat that looked just like Ember, and she also liked to climb up my back onto my shoulders. Something in the genes that makes this kind of cat do that?
Could be! Actually, they’re all doing it at this point, but she seems to have a particular love for that move. 🙂
Dadgummit!!! I don’t know that I will be able to resist Mr. Jon Snow. And I really don’t want another little boy cat (there’s always the possibility of spraying and I can’t stand it!) – but dude! He’s so freakin’ adorable!!
I may have to stay away for a couple of months till he goes on off to PetSmart. Ha! Who am I kidding!?
Lady cats can spray too, actually.
INDEED they can. I’ve seen it myself, unfortunately (though not in a long time, thankfully!)
if neutered young enough – and Robyn’s kittens are – the chances of them spraying is very minimal. Boys and girls will urinate outside of the box to mark their territory if they are stressed by outside challenges (a neighbor cat or seven stopping by and peeing in the yard) or by health issues.
I’ve had four boys (and four girls) living in my house at one time and we had no spraying at all.. I had an occasional outside the box when a kitty wasn’t feeling well, but no territorial disputes.. because I kept stress to a minimum.
I second this. If your kitties are spraying, check for outside intruders, and take them into the vet. 🙂
I did not know that lady cats can spray! Huh. Learn something new every day!
Khaleesi, you are just the BEST mama ever! I bet she would nurse the new babies if given the opportunity, though I know her own dragons must be draining her dry since she has starting supplimenting them with kibble herself! But given her expression when Norbert showed up, you have to admit it would be hilarious to see her face if 4 screaming newbies appeared out of nowhere!! 😉
Oh, the new babies…I almost teared up watching the video…so small to be without their mama. Thank you, thank you for taking care of them Robyn!!
I second that Amy – THANK YOU ROBYN!
Love Khaleesi bringing her babies treats 🙂
I have terrible shoulder pain today, but the sight of tiny kittens being their cute kitten selves has lessened my pain. I wonder if a purring kitten poultice might have even greater healing powers. What was that dumb headache remedy, where the commercials shouted “APPLY DIRECTLY TO HEAD!”? Maybe that should be “KITTENS! APPLY DIRECTLY TO PAIN!”
Actually there is a scientific theory that purring sounds speed healing.
This doesn’t surprise me at all!
More than once this month I have used kitten therapy to get through my day.. I tend not to apply them to the head though, it tends to get a little ouchy bitey clawy.. I apply to the neck..
Today’s wonderful pictures are going a long way in bringing me back from a nasty dental appointment that involved drilling. No pain now – I am actually grinning!
Kitten therapy indeed!
And I love the thought of Mama K bringing treats for her babies!
Just a random not-related-to-kitties question: You know I know nothing about Game of Thrones. But when I stumbled across an internet quiz that assigned the taker to their Game of Thrones house, I took it because well, why not. It keeps telling me that I am a Tully. I am most certain that is not a complement. Should I keep trying until they give me something cooler?
No, nothin’ wrong with being a Tully. Lady Stark (Catelyn) is a Tully, and she kicks ass – but her sister is also a Tully and is a bit… touched. So, you know, your average family. 😀
Oh, you or Fred may know this already, but a lot of combo light/fan fixtures will let you disable the fan part. If you pull the fixture/fan screen down, there should be a plug that you can pull out, disabling the fan when the light is on. If you aren’t showering in there right now, you might want to do that. But I’m weird – I hate to hear a fan run unless I need it! 🙂
I did actually know this – but Fred disconnected the fan in the upstairs bathroom when we had kittens staying in there THREE years ago, and has yet to reconnect it. I’m afraid the same thing would happen downstairs, so I’m leaving it as is. 🙂
Just AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!
Everything about this post is AWWW! Arya has one hell of a set of lungs on her!
I would suspect that mother cats only do that if the kittens don’t have access to the food – which is probably why you’ve never seen it before. She’s such a good mom cat.. 🙂
Robyn, seriously, how hard will it be to take Scorch to be adopted? There’s something about his little face that just gets me. Please give all the little kittehs and residents of Crooked Acres a big ol’ hug, kiss and belly rub for me! 😀
I am fairly sure you’ve addressed this before, Robyn, but oh MAN you/CH could make some kitty-feeding money on ads for this blog! On the other hand, I bet it’s a pain! And I adore that you keep it up for us to enjoy! Because THOSE EARS slay me big time.
Aaaaand speaking of cute kitties, my cat just puked under my chair. Great. Aren’t they precious?
Why, I’m jealous. Cat barf NEVER happens to me! 😉
And yeah, I’ve thought about the advertising, but for some reason I’m resisting it. I don’t want any stinkin’ advertisers trying to tell me what I can and can’t write about! (Not that they would, but… they might!)
Where do all these kittens come from? When will people learn to spay/neuter?
Not that I’m complaining about the kitten pic/vids. I mean, come on – KITTENS!!
Could Kaleesi nurse these kittens or would it take too much out of her?
HODOR!
She could nurse them (if she’d accept them), but we opted not to try that, because they’re doing so well, and because we don’t know what sort of diseases they could be carrying (they seem perfectly healthy, but are too little to be tested yet, so it’s better to be safe than sorry.)
The woman who brought them to the vet’s office (where I saw them) said that she has a problem with people dumping cats near her house. Grrrr!
When I played the video of the Starks I had both my female cats come running into the room giving the ‘where’s the babies, where’s the babies must tend babies’ meow and the boy cat is all Whuuuuuuttt 0-0??? as they tackled him to groom since they couldn’t find itty bitties it was hilarious
Oh, I bet that was utterly ADORABLE!
so utterly adorable. 🙂