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Griffin

Handrearing *Update 1 Year On*

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I've not had any newborns for handrearing from Cats Protection for ages now but one arrived last Sunday. She was born last Sunday morning to a very young mum, the only kitten in the litter, and mum decided straight away she didn't want to be a mother. So she was less than 12 hours old when she arrived here weighing a respectable 92 grams.

 

My eldest daughter was overjoyed. It's her 14th birthday on the 22nd and she's been saying for months that she wanted a kitten for her birthday. So I said that if this little one makes it, and our other cats don't object, she can stay :D Daisy has named her Marge :shock: I'm tying to convince her to change it to Florence :lol:

 

Marge took well to bottle feeding. Thankfully because she can take onboard so much milk the feeds every two hours were short lived :dance: I hate getting up in the night, I'd rather stay up ridiculously late and get up fewer times so for the first couple of nights I was up until 2am, feeding her again at 4am then getting up at 6am. Not nice! Now her last feed is at midnight, then again at 4am and breakfast at 7.30am followed by feeds every three hours or so during the day.

 

I weigh her daily. Today she weighs 157 grams :clap: Her eyes have started to open too. The sound of her purring is just amazing. She likes cuddles and for her face to be rubbed. Awwwww.

 

Fingers crossed she continues to do well. It's still a long road ahead. I must admit I am looking forward already to the introduction of solids and going to bed at a reasonable hour :lol:

 

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Well done for taking care of her. She is so sweet. :D

 

We had a hand reared kitten from the Cats Protection about 20 years ago, she came to us when she was 10 weeks old and she was lovely, but hard work, she was harder to house train, and she didn't know how to clean herself properly, we had to give her a bath once a week for the 2 years of her life. She grew into a large fluffy cat and was so affectionate, her health was never quite right, she suffered from tummy problems and unfortunately was run over when she was only 2 years old. We were so glad to give her a happy life for a couple of years that she might not have had otherwise.

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My experience of handreared cats is similar, they're never quite 100%. Hebe & Athena were handreared from two days old and they've both got digestion problems and both look old before their time. I've always said I am a very very poor substitute for mum, formula milk is awful stuff and they miss out on so much by not having mum and siblings to play with. That play teaches them so much, bite inhibition for one thing! I hope that having several other cats here to copy helps with her toilet training.

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Thankfully Daisy has seen sense and has decided to re-name her kitten Nancy :clap:

 

She's 22 days old now and doing very well. This week I'll be trying to get her to eat solids. She's got big feet and big ears :lol: And her long black fur is turning grey! Here she is earlier on today:

 

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Tuesday was a very very tough day for Nancy :cry: We nearly lost her :cry: She had diarrhoea and the bad pains in her belly made her not want to feed properly but she was hungry and distressed and getting dehydrated. It was a vicious circle. We ended up at the vets at 10pm to get a pain killing injection and sub-cut fluids. Thankfully that allowed her to sleep for a few hours before taking a good feed. She's still got diarrhoea, and from time to time it is obvious she's got a bellyache so she has a tiny amount of Metacam so that she is able to feed normally. She's still gaining weight thankfully and I hope to get her onto solid food as quickly as possible so that I can stop feeding her formula milk.

 

Today was a big day for her because up until this afternoon she lived cocooned in layers of vetbed in a cat carrying basket. Now she's moved to a big squishy bed in my rat cage that I use for brooding chicks in :dance: She LOVES her new bed and she loves the extra space she has to move around in and be nosey :D

 

She shoved THAT in my mouth, am deeply unimpressed...

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so much so that I'm running away....

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ooooh Sri Lanka looks nice....

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I bet they wouldn't try to force feed me there...

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only 699 what a bargain!

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Go away woman!

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Perhaps I'll go after a kip in my new bed.

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She's amazing and I love her soooooo much. Feeling quite nervous because I suddenly realised that if she's in her new bed she'll not be sleeping next to me tonight! I'll not sleep a wink and will be up with the birds to feed her and check she's ok :lol:

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