The lady who had the kittens I babysat last weekend suddenly had to leave town (her father in Texas went into the hospital), and so she turned the kittens over to Challenger’s House.
Well, more specifically, to ME. When the shelter manager told me that the woman had to leave town, I said that I could take them for a few days, if need be, but didn’t have room for them long-term. Yesterday morning, I took possession of them, and I’ll have them until Sunday, when I’ll turn them over to their new (permanent) foster mom.
They’re awfully sweet. The woman who had them told me she’d tried to stretch their feeding time to every 4 hours, but they were losing their little minds at the 3-hour mark, so she’d been feeding them every 3 hours (last week when I babysat them, she had been feeding them every TWO hours). At nearly 3 weeks, I believed they should be able to wait four hours between feeding, and so I determined after their 10 am feeding that I’d wait until 2 to feed them again.
Yeah, right. At 12:30 – 2 1/2 hours after I’d last fed them – they started screaming. And they were not KIDDING, they wanted food RIGHT FREAKIN’ NOW, MAN.
So I fed them at 1. And then at 3:30 I was sitting at my computer (they were in a big carrier in the computer room), and I heard smacking noises, and so I went over to see what was going on.
When they’re this tiny, it’s instinctual for them to search for their mother’s nipple when they’re hungry or just want comfort. In the absence of a mother? They find other things, usually on each other. And that can be a problem, because these tiny kittens suck really hard, and they can cause some serious physical damage to each other. Not to mention that drinking each others’ urine is not a good thing.
After feeding them at 4:00, I separated them, put them in separate carriers, each with their own heating pads (that they could get away from if they got too warm) and warm fuzzy blankets, and each with their own stuffed momma kitty with a beating heart (only, in orange instead of gray. And thank god that I have two of them!). They griped a little bit, but each settled down pretty quickly and didn’t peep again.
I actually had to wake them up at 8:00 to feed them. I stretched their next feeding to 4 1/2 hours later, and they were fine.
I’m guessing that being in the same cage, one would wake up and be hungry, so root around and get the other one riled up, and they’d both start screaming to be fed. With them in separate carriers, they seem to sleep better.
I’ll only keep them separate for a total of a couple of days. Saturday afternoon I’ll put them back together and see how it goes. Usually (so I’ve heard), a couple of days is enough to break the pattern.
The little girl. They’re not named – I’m going to leave naming them up to their foster mother.
The little boy.
Little boy, with milk face.
Boy on the left, girl on the right.
We have located the complainer!
Blue (TimTam). Kind of looks like she has long monkey arms, doesn’t it?
::thlurrrrrrp!::
I’m imagining a Barry White voice, here. “Well, helloooooooo, laydeez!”
Veruca, concerned.
Violet, slurping.
Mike, considering.
I’m starting to think that the ear floof is taking on a life of its own.
Tommy, trotting across the yard for a snuggle.
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Previously
2008: Kittens have VERY sharp little teeth, in case you wondered.
2007: “Can’t a girl hide in a kitty condo without you flashing that thing at her all the time?!”
2006: You KNOW they’ll be showered with love as long as we have them, though!
2005: No entry.
Well, you have done it again! Here I sit with a smile on my face…although I am in a good mood to start with but still a smile on my face! Those little faces! I just wanna grab them through the computer and squeeze them! And I think that all the floof that Gus has is gonna turn him into a gorgeous cat with beautiful long hair, much like my old cat Hobbes was…I am partial to the long haired gray cats now.
Love your pictures!
Your pictures today are especially terrific – especially the Wonkas. You can really see their faces taking shape and their eyes starting to change colors.
Thanks for making my day 🙂
Great pics!
We are so going to have to get one of those cats for our orphaned fosters!
We actually had a kitten need vet care because he was suckled excessively. I have found that putting a furry pad (not the really long fake fur) in the cage, or a furry plush toy, distracts them and lets them suck on a furry thing other than their siblings. Sometimes you just need to separate them though. My partner actually made a “simulated mom” out of some furry material with rubber nipples sewn into it that poke out. You can buy these online, called “Catsifiers” I think. 😛
Gus is growing up! His little face is changing, isn’t it? Still a floofy mess, but you know what I mean. Aw, our little guy is growing up…
The boy and girl look so tiny! Love the milk face picture. Adorable as always!
Ok, that first picture of Blue is totall “can I help you”, but with an attitude. It is too bad you can’t name the newbies – they are adorable and it is so fun! But I get not wanting to confuse them. It is too bad they couldn’t stay with the first foster mom but family things happen like that.
At Forever Foster they had a sucking issue – Ron was sucking on his sibs and had to be separated – they were near each other but not reaching each other. He was fine after a few days but did cause a bit of alarm and I believe some minor damage to his brother (who also recovered fine). They are great now though.
The Wonkas are all loosing their kittenness now – they are turning into cats (boo hoo). I am starting to get the kitten urges visiting here – it both helps fill it and makes me want one!
Thanks, guys! I really enjoy taking pictures of the cats, and love to share them (obviously!), so I’m glad you’re enjoying them. 🙂
Lorene: I swear, I thought you were joking about the Catsifiers, but I was amazed to find that they really do make such a thing! I think I’m going to have to get one of those. 🙂 Previous bottle babies (Hydrox, in particular) would suck on the “Momma Kitty” we put in their cage, but these two don’t seem interested. I’m going to have to look and see what else I can try!
YDC: Hey, he works hard to get that ear floof just so! 🙂
Amy: I remember reading about Ron and his siblings (those new babies are killing me with the cute!), which gives me hope that just a few days apart will stop the sucking.
Could the cookies be any more beautiful? They could win a cat beauty contest I swear! I got an email from petfinder the other day (I’ve banned myself from looking). Well I ended up on the site and found two cats similar to Blue etc. One is adopted and the other is pending but if they had been available…The cookies get to me the most of any kittens you’ve had!