4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Janepie33]

Help!

 

My daughter and I are cat sitting for a neighbour's cat and her 4 two day old kittens. She seems to be a really good mum, cleaning and feeding them properly and staying really close to them. We have taken food and drink up to near the nest (an old towel at the bottom of a wardrobe!) and she has eaten a small amount of food, but does not seem to have drunk anything.

Although she has a litter box nearby, she was desperate to go outside this morning, so I let her out to do a huge wee, she then jumped over a wall, but fortunately came back soon after and went straight back to the kittens. She looks quite fit and healthy, but she is very very very thin, a bit like one of those cats you see hanging around restaurants on holiday.

 

Does anyone know if it is normal for a cat to be so thin after giving birth and is it ok for her to go outside? My neighbours wanted to block up the cat flap in case any rouge cats get in.

Also, is it OK to handle the kittens when they are so young? I have read so many conflicting ideas about that topic.

 

Any advice from experienced cat midwives will be greatly appreciated.

 

 

 

Edited August 2, 2009 by Guest

[Couperwife]

oooh, I dont know but can we have some photos

 

someone with knowledge of this will probably be along soon

 

cathy

x

[Cinnamon]

From what I remeber, its fine to handle them,but if the Mum cat seems distressed by this,then you should stop. She will let you know if she is not prepared for you to touch them!

 

Be prepared for her to move her litter to a new spot in the next few days - its very common for them to do this.

 

My Pip was rake thin after her kits were born, so I upped her food (she ate a VAST amount) & gave her some conditioning tablets for nursing cats which I found in the Supermarket, & they did the trick really well.

 

Pip never would use the litter tray, & used to go out to do her abluotions,then come in again to be with the kits. As they got older, she stayed away for longer.

 

Shes a beauty,isn't she?

[Couperwife]

wow, what a proud mum

 

I assume your friend counted the kittens before she went away, and will count them again when she comes back

 

if she didnt....

 

cathy

x

[Chucky Mama]

She looks very proud of herself! It looks like all of her nutrition has gone into her kittens. She will need several feeds a day to keep her producing milk and in good health. You can move the kittens but as she doesn't know you well, I wouldn't bother her unnecessarily as she will get stressed and will move them all somewhere else if she feels they are under threat. Can you give her a litter tray so she doesn't have to cross her legs for too long?

[Chickvic]

Lovely kitty cats

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Gosh, what a responsibility - good for you . They are so gorgeous .

[Joojoo]

Ah they are absolutely gorgeous Bagsy the little black & white one with it's tongue poking out on the last pic

 

Auntie E would be a good one for advice as she has bred quite a few kittens. Hopefully she will be along soon.

[Groovychook]

Beautiful babies & Mum! Fantastic photo's too- especially the close up of the little tiny with its tongue poking out!!

[Aunty e]

Hi! Cute kittens!

 

It's perfectly normal for her to be thin, she will eat a vast amount of food in the next weeks, and won't put it all on again until she weans them really, but don't worry.

 

Let her go where she likes, some cats really aren't happy littering inside and she won't abandon her kittens. They don't actually need to spend all that much time with them after the first few days - Saffy is generally near hers, but not in the basket unless it's feeding time. Often, she just sits outside the room where they are, having a bit of a rest.

 

 

Re cat flap, other cats will not kill them, but we always keep them away for a bit in case they try to 'play'. If you haven't had any rogues in before, it's unlikely they'd start now, and mum would gut them if she thought her kittens were threatened.

 

 

I always handle my kittens every day, but my cats don't mind. Some do, but they will let you know if they object. Cleo used to take the kitten back when she'd had enough of me playing with it I'd just be observant of how mum is with you and the kittens and leave them alone if she looks distressed.

[Seagazer]

Ahh they are so gorgeous and mum is beautiful

 

My first cat Smudge had kittens and if I remember rightly she was very thin straight afterwards so quite normal I think.

[Griffin]

I wouldn't let her go outside. I've been handrearing kittens for Cats Protection for about ten years now. I've lost count of the number I've had to rear because mum has disappeared or been hit by a car. In those vital first few weeks her place is inside with them 24/7 wether she likes it or not. In my opinion it's just not worth the risk right now, there's plenty of time for her to go outside once she's finished the task of rearing her kittens. The saddest case I had was the cat who went outside with her owners with her keeping an eye on her. She got spooked by something and they saw her get hit by a van just yards from them. She wasn't killed instantly, they saw her run off and they never saw her again. As with most people, they didn't have the time to devote to handrearing so her four kittens came to me at less than 48 hours old. The family were devastated.

[Cooks]

oh my goodness they are cute!, she's a gorgeous girl herself isn't she!

[Aunty e]

If I didn't let Saffy go outside, the whole house would be covered in poo She hates litter trays and refuses to use them, so for the first few days, when she was locked in a lot of the time so the other cats couldn't bother her, I had to clean cat diarrhoea off the floor four times a day. So much fun when you're heavily pregnant.

 

I remember when Cleo's last litter was born and all but one died. I rang several cat charities, offering to foster any kittens they needed handrearing, as Cleo had tons of milk, and was used to cross-feeding Evie's kittens. Most of them were more interested in having a go at me for breeding cats than seeing if there were any kittens I could help.

 

I stopped calling places after the local CPL made me cry - I'd just lost five kittens and my cat had nearly died, and it made me very angry that I'd been spoken to that way. It still strikes me that breeders would be a useful resource for cat charities - all of my queens have been happy to cross-feed, and it makes such a difference to kittens to be raised by a cat rather than a human. I would never turn away kittens in need.

[chickencam]

That attitude stinks.

 

There are no hard and fast rules where animals are concerned, so long as their welfare is paramount, they should have been thanking you and bringing kittens round straight away.

 

We had a hand reared kitten from the CPL about 20 years ago and she cold never look after herself properly, we had to groom and bath her and she always had digestive problems, and only lived for 3 years, maybe her health would have been better if she had been brought up by a cat rather than a human.

 

I have had rescue cats for the last 20 odd years, and the CPL do a great job overall, but Ialso appreciate that there is a place for cat breeding. My dad was a head gardener on a stately home estate and until he retired they lived in a house in the grounds. When they moved in and wanted to get a cat they were told that if the gamekeeper saw it he would shoot it , so they opted for a Siamese so that the gamekeeper would know that it was theirs and not a ferral cat after the pheasants. She then fell in love with Siamese cats because they were so converstional ( I think that they are a bit wingy and demanding myself but it takes all sorts) so she has had several over the years.

 

Lovely kitties by the way, good luck with looking after them. I also had a cat that wouldn't use a litter tray, so if she wants to go out I think that you will have to let her and hope for the best.

[Aunty e]

My mum bred a litter of siamese - they are lovely, but very needy. My serengeti is a bit like that, whiny and attention seeking, but very lovable with it.

 

Saffy is not the most bothered mother I've ever had - I had to remove one of her kittens from its father's none-too-gentle clutches last night because she had wandered off. Nero wouldn't hurt them on purpose, but he does like to play rough and they're not quite big enough to make an escape yet if they don't like it. Silly moo. Handily, our retired queen is keeping an eye on them (can't have kittens any more, but still likes them) at the mo, so Saffy can pootle off when she feels like it and Cleo keeps an eye on the suddenly mobile kittens.

 

Some people feel very strongly about not breeding cats - I should have remembered that before calling really. Our hand-reared cat (Dilly) is very sickly and small, and never bathes herself really, but luckily she now lives with my mum who has another slightly brain damaged cat who LOVES grooming Dilly. Mind you, our singleton kitten had his own problems - never really got good at keeping his claws to himself, apparently this is something they pick up from littermates.

[Griffin]

Oh it definitely is, that and mum too I handreared a singleton kitten, Willoughby, from just a few hours old. He was growing into a real little horror and at about seven weeks I utterly despaired of him and couldn't see how he could ever be rehomed with behaviour as bad as his. I prayed we'd get some kittens of a similar age in so that he could learn some manners and as luck would have it a stray with her litter of kittens came into my care. Her babies were roughly the same age as Willoughby and fortunately she was happy to adopt him too. That little family were the making of him and he was eventually rehomed with one of his new brothers for company