Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Telling one kitten from the other

The two girls have been identifiable from their head markings for a long time. "Wiggle" has has a central wiggly stripe, "Star" has a broader diamond shape in the same place. Now the boys are becoming easier to tell apart. Not only is one bigger than the other, but he has a short sleek coat like his mother - shorter than other Abys I've had. In comparison the smaller boy looks quite fluffy. The kittens have free run of the house now while we are around, except for the kitchen, and interact with the other cats. Cold weather seems to have brought on a resurgence of suckling, but the attraction of a hot drink seems understandable. This isn't an easy house to keep warm. They've checked out the Christmas tree, but aren't overly interested.

Kittens playing

Lazy Sunday

The only time you can get them all in one picture is when they are sleepy

Development

The kittens soon learnt to climb out of their pen. If we net over the top we could keep them in but we would also keep Hattie out. So the Lindam type pen with bars would have been better. On the other hand they get plenty of exercise climbing up the mesh. So they are free range in my office, and are clawing round my ankles from time to time as I type. Every day they find a new trick, a new height to scale. I have blocked the chimney........ Quite fussy about food. I've been feeding Cimicat milk powder to mother and kittens. Just nearing end of second tub, and not sure if I'll buy another, though that always goes down well. Have been trying to give a mix of cheaper and more expensive kitten food, but, like their mum, they are prepared to leave the cheap stuff for a day rather than eat it. Weighed them yesterday, and it's still a straight line graph, with them around 800 gms each now

Feeding time looks very different now

Hattie feeds the kittens much more rarely now they are on solid food, and often it's just the one slightly hungry kitten. However this is what the entire crew look like

Fun with a small box

More cute pictures.

On the box.................

Bigger file - let's see if the quality is better

Hattie and Wiggle discussing the best way down

New skills

We hadn't anticipated the kittens would rapidly learn to climb on to their box. The girls actually did it first - they are steadier on their feet, but they can all do it now. Getting down is fairly unplanned, even with mother's advice. Three feed from a saucer now, and two have used the litter tray for its proper purpose. No idea how they learnt that - their mother didn't show them and hasn't used the small tray in the pen herself.

November 19th

New film of the kittens - haven't quite mastered this yet, and reduced the file size, so it's blurred full screen.

New accommodation

News of the day - November 18th

J went back to his office and found 3 of the kittens had climbed out of their box. The last girl tried and tried but never made it. Hattie herded them back if they strayed too far. As a consequence they've all been moved to a pen we bought, which should keep them safe for the next few weeks.

Now that the kittens are 3 and a half weeks old I have been offering cat milk and a mush of weaning food and water. Mum likes both, and the biggest boy cat knows how to lick. The larger girl, Wiggle, will lick cat food gravy from a spoon, but also tries to eat the spoon. All of them put their feet in the food.

Hattie checks up on them whenever they squeak

New pictures - November 11-12th

The kittens are interested in what is going on beyond the box, and are beginning to make escape bids. They spend more of their time awake and sitting up, and feeding them takes mum a lot longer than it did. I offered them cat's milk in a dish today, but there was no interest.

November 1st

Kitten update: The boys' eyes are beginning to open, and their ears are more upright and mobile. They carry more of their weight on their legs, and do a little licking after feeding. One of the boys on J's hand, for scale.

Halloween

This is what happened to the pumpkin seen earlier