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Here is our weekly update from Jackie, foster mom to the lovely Duchess and her 6 beautiful babies: Marie, Spooky, Berlioz, Mittens, Lily, and Toulouse. The kittens are weaned and getting very active!
Raising Kittens both Demanding and Rewarding
Week 6 of the AristoCats Family.
I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with the kittens due to illness this past week. During my convalescence I was treated to mothering by Duchess and regular nursemaid care from Lily. You know when you are home sick and all you need to do is rest and drink plenty of fluids, well, I found myself in bed with a litter of kittens and the mama as well. Lily liked to curl up near me and under the covers. Her little purr was enough to put me to sleep at times. The rest of the kittens slept at the foot of the bed with Duchess. I quickly found out that being in bed with a litter of kittens was more playtime than rest.
With the kittens new found freedom they are climbing onto the bed to join us for bedtime. Seven cats at one time crawling all over you and frolicking together can keep a person awake into the wee hours of the night. Duchess even adds to the ruckus. She is getting demanding in her freedom and wants to wander the rest of the house with her brood. Unfortunately the other resident cats are not as welcoming to the kittens. I think it is one too many confrontations with Duchess in mama mode that they are leery of having anything to do with the little family. Oliver is curious and has made his opinion known by swatting at the kittens and hissing. Buddy, the dog, will lie quietly and allow the kittens to crawl over him. It is when the kittens realize he is a dog they begin to hiss and spit. Little black cats doing the sideways crab walk are so adorable. They try to make themselves look bigger than they are. Buddy lays there and takes it all in as they are just kittens to him. Buddy was raised with a kitten and thinks he is a cat too. A little big for a lap cat though!
All of the kittens are eating soft cat food regularly. The donated food we were using has upset Duchess’ tummy so we visited the Metro Pet Market and purchased the Wysong line of soft food for the family as well as some pre-biotics. I spent some time discussing diet and the wee kittens and I found out some interesting things. If we go slowly with introducing the kittens to new things they will be more tolerant to a wide variety of foods and textures. Also, the majority of a cats diet is not fish but rather white and red meats so the tuna that the kittens so love may be loaded with salts that they do not need. We feed a raw diet to the animals we call family and I discussed introducing the raw diet to the kittens as well. We weighed the pros and cons to the raw diet and the fact that the kittens may not be with us long enough to reap the full benefits, but there is nothing to lose.
The cost of feeding canned food versus the raw diet is cheaper than the “junk food” of some other food brands. You may be able to survive on Doritos but would it be a well balanced nutritional diet, probably not. We want to give the kittens a good start and the more foods they try out the better they will be when going to their new fur-ever families. Lily our sceptical kitten is eating the soft food where she turned up her nose to the kibble we moistened for her last week. Even Spooky, the all grey kitten, is in his bowl chowing down.
Kittens are little machines, the more they eat the more mess they make. I clean litter boxes for the little family three times a day. The other cat boxes are done twice a day. With our busy work schedule we are not able to feed the Aristocats at lunch so we feed them a larger meal for breakfast and a larger meal at supper time. The pitiful cries of hungry babies is enough for anyone to rush to get the seven bowls ready to feed the little family.
I think we may have come to an end of the kittens staying locked up in our bedroom. Keeping us up late at night and walking all over us while we sleep as well as their quick sneaky escapes when we open the door has led to us allowing them more freedom in the household. The only cat most put out by the new animals is Duchess and it is more so when she is protecting her babies. I find if she is alone and out of the bedroom without the kittens she is not as defensive of the other cats.
Each kitten has a unique personality. Spooky who was our scared-y cat is the most brave to venture out of the bedroom and down the hallway to see what is beyond the doors of his room. Marie, an all black kitten, likes to scamper after Spooky and they investigate under the chairs in the living room. Marie is also the most tolerant of our two year old’s loving attention and will sit with her for what seems like forever. We still worry about her handling the babies too roughly. Toulouse loves to climb to high places and perch to see where he has been. He is a snugly cat too. Berlioz, another all black cat, is our little Teddy Bear. Bear likes to play with the little toy mice and hide them under the bed to drag them out again in a kind of game of fetch. Mittens is the tiniest of the litter and can hold her own. She is first to get to the food dishes and the fastest to climb the side of the bed to get her snuggle time. Mittens is also great with our two girls and I find her to be one of our favourites in the litter. She has very unique markings. I love the black dot of fur on her white belly that looks like a belly button. Both Mittens and Toulouse have what I call the soul patch; it is a dark patch of fur on their chins. Last but not least is my Lily. We will be keeping Lily as part of our family. She stole my heart by always being the first kitten to greet me at the door. Her little cries of attention have also captivated out girls and she is seen many times a night being carted around the house from room to room. We tried very hard not to get attached to any one kitten as our motto was to help the family find good homes and then we can help more when they are gone. Lily was a surprise as she picked us, funny how an animal can do that.
Counting down the days until the adoptions begin so if you have your heart set on a black or grey kitten now is the time to contact Alanna at
abanana71@gmail.com and get your pre-adoption screening done. We look forward to seeing our little family safely off to their new families.
Jackie Kruger
Foster Mom
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