Thursday, May 31, 2018

Life of a foster kitten




Two of the four cords have fallen off. A third is almost off and I contemplated helping it along but thought better of it. I have been weighing them and they are all gaining weight at a nice rate. I haven't been writing it down because I haven't been the least bit worried once I got past the first day.  Michaela is doing a much better job keeping them clean now which is very helpful and since she has stopped spotting I think I can go more than 12 hours without wanting to change the bedding..

Next milestone: eyeballs.. those eyes have to open sometime..

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

There were four in the bed and the little one said roll over




Everyone is doing well. They have put on half an ounce since being born. Michaela is still spotting a bit but it is minimal and she is doing well in all other regards. She is eating up a storm now that she has room in her stomach and the need for the calories.

She also eats quickly, like a young boy who has been called into dinner but knows he'll be let out to play again once his dinner is done. When the kittens get too fussy she immediately crawls back into the basket and curls around them, it is super sweet, but you can tell she wasn't quite done eating. I've put her food in the basket a couple of times so she can eat and keep them from fussing too much.

Because she is so reluctant to leave them, she leaves toileting until the very last minute. I am getting clumps that are bigger than her head! It is also reminding me how much I love Slide cat litter. I was given Cat Attract litter for her and it clumps hard and adheres to the side of the box so well that it broke my litter lifter scooper. Thankfully I have a metal scooper so I can deal with it.

Saturday, May 26, 2018

Birth Day for Michaela



The kittens are here.


We have three torti girls and one solid black boy so we won't have any problem telling them apart - well as long as there is good light..


Technically, Michaela gave birth to five kittens, but one did not make it. It is sad, but I am choosing not to focus on that.


I would also like to take a moment and be extremely thankful for the food that showed up at my door. Michaela didn't eat any of the placentas (nor did she detach them from the kittens, she left that to me) so she was quite hungry when she finally felt comfortable enough to leave the kittens and inhaled a cat in like two seconds.  I would love to thank whoever sent it to me, but once again Amazon failed to enclose a gift notification so I don't know where it came from.  But know you made me, Michaela, and Happy Bear very happy

Friday, May 25, 2018

Kitten Pool: Part two



Six people are still in the running for the kitten pool, but everyone else is right out.. so for fun, I'm going to put up a second chance.. but the six guesses that are still valid get the benefit of being super right - well, if they are.

So on 5/1 she went to the vet and I was told the vet could not feel any bones. On 5/6 I felt the first flutter on her belly. On 5/13 I felt the first distinct feeling of a kitten. So my guess is on Sunday the 27. I'm guessing she has four kittens, but I have no idea..

So, what do you think?


Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Michaela's weight


Several readers have asked about Michaela's weight


When she showed up at my house on 22 days ago she weighed 3.22KG which translated to just over 7lbs 1oz. Last night I weighed her and she weighed 4.33 which roughly translated to 8lbs 9oz.

I don't usually weigh in KG, but for some weird reason I think it is a bit more precise (which is silly as it is the same scale just different settings) and I was told she was not eating well when she was dropped off. Originally, her eating wasn't great so I would weigh her each day. Each day the scale went up a little bit so I was feeling more and comfortable so after almost a week of increasing weight, I stopped weighing her.

What was interesting was on day one she had no idea what I was asking of her and when I put her on the scale she wanted off immediately. Each day it was a little easier to get her weight because she would wait a little longer before stepping off. These days when I put her on the scale she just stands there waiting for me to praise her. She is so smart.

She is eating quite a bit these days. It is interesting because some days she eats three cans but then some meals she barely eats half a can. The shelter dropped off some 3 oz cans and I fed her the Weruva Cats fowl ball and she LOVED it. Inhaled it before I finished scooping her box. I threw a case of it on the Amazon wishlist on the off chance anyone wants to feed a poor starving kitty 😻

I'm also working with her to be carried around. Initially, she would hate it when I would pick her up. She would immediately start looking to get down and generally wasn't very nice about letting me know what she wanted. I would put her down the moment she asked and since she was generally calm enough to be placed on all four paws before I let her go, it was a fairly painless process. Now twice a day when I visit her I pick her up for a little snuggle and a kiss and she lets me. Each time I get just a few more seconds. Hopefully, once the babies come and she's a little more comfortable in her own skin she'll be a snuggly girl.

Monday, May 21, 2018

Kitten Pool update



Well, one-third of the people who entered the kitten pool has already been eliminated. I get the distinct feeling she is not going to give birth today either so that eliminates more than half of the guesses.

I did google how long after you felt movement, and they said two weeks, but maybe they didn't mean the subtle movements that feel a bit like a butterfly wing but more the distinct movement of a head *shrug* If so we are looking at another week of kitten watch. *sigh*

An update on her vomiting:  I couldn't get a handle on her vomiting, aka why she was doing it. At first, I thought it was a beef issue, but it happened after I fed beef foods. Turns out that it was the dry food (and the soy in the tuna?) that was causing it because once I eliminated the dry food it stopped. Now that she is on a canned food only diet, we are going through a ton of canned food.. fun fun.

Friday, May 18, 2018

Michaela's in the basket!



I brought the basket out into the room and Michaela immediately checked it out. We talked about birthin babies and she assumed the position and then...

I bet you want to see these babies.. 

yeah, well, so do I.. 

until they come out could you scratch my ears 
(I'm having a hard time with that right now)


Thursday, May 17, 2018

Day elebenty billion without kittens - playing with light


At this rate, I fear I am never going to have kittens ever again, I'm just going to get this kitty who has swallowed a nerf football and who likes to chew on my hair and splay herself all over me.

But like the saying goes, a watched pot never boils, so I decided to see what I could do with different light options available to me when trying to take Michaela's photograph in the late afternoon. There isn't much natural light in that room, to begin with, and even less as the sun sinks below the tree line.

Full flash

no flash

bounced flash

up in the window light bounced flash

up in the window no flash

She was so over my playing pawpurrazzi.. all she wanted was for me to rub her belly and scratch her ears.. so I did. 

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

More food for Michaela thanks to the #chewyinfluencer program



The other option from the Chewy Influencer program - where they offer a few items for bloggers to try in exchange for an honest review - is Purina Pro Plan canned food. Since she wasn't eating at the beginning of the month I liked this option because it is a variety pack of seafood options. Cats who aren't eating well often will eat fish flavors because they have a much stronger smell than regular cat food. The variety pack includes eight 3oz cans each of Seafood Stew Entree in Sauce, Salmon and Rice Entree in Sauce, and Tuna Entree in Sauce. Fish is also naturally high in omega 3s, which are good for growing kittens.

But would she like it?



She ate the can, which was nice because she was eating so little at the time. I've been shying away from fish flavored foods since because Michaela has been vomiting every couple of days and I don't mind cat vomit, but fish cat vomit.. *shudder*

I am happy to have a variety of foods to offer her. I wish I had a bit more turkey cat food for her because she seems to like that best, but I ran out of that pretty quickly.

Monday, May 14, 2018

A donation of Dr. Elsey's cleanprotein Dry Food to the Great Plains Kitten Shower thanks to #chewyinfluencer



If you remember, I had my April offerings from the Chewy Influencer Program (where they offer me several items to choose from in exchange for an honest review) sent to Kansas while I was at BlogPaws. Stilwell reviewed one product for me and I planned to bring the other to the shelter as a donation. Turns out they were having a kitten shower that weekend, which was even better!

The second item for April I chose was Dr. Elsey's cleanprotein Grain-Free Dry Cat Food. This is not a new food to me, I learned about it a little while ago and have meant to do a review of the canned version of this food for my own cats, but haven't gotten around to it. Knowing that most shelters prefer to feed dry food (because of the convenience) I thought a bag of good food would be helpful even if it was only two pounds.  Dr. Elsey's makes a few claims about this food which is interesting like: •Over 90% of protein is animal-based. •Primary ingredients are among the highest biological value proteins available. •Lower glycemic formula delivers just 4% of energy from carbohydrates.

I have to give kudos to any food that tells you upfront what the carb level is of their food. You also have to love a company that has a bit of humor about things



So, we went to the kitten shower..


The shower was at Great Plains SPCA Animal Shelter. They had a few tables of displays talking about enrichment for the cats while they hang out at the shelter like puzzle toys and laser games. They are also including some Christmas light displays that shoot out pins of light so the cats cat watch them as they sit in the cages. Not see is a table that had "make your own cat toy" out of cut up t-shirts (which I did) and other crafty type things you could do quickly. They encouraged people to give the toys to the shelter cats.


Speaking of cats, they did have one kitten there and somehow I didn't end up with it in my pocket.. Probably because I was being watched very closely. Jenny was there volunteering and knew I was prone to walking away with kittens.


They had a bean bag toss game for kids too, as well as refreshments


Their wishlist was on full display. I am sure more shelters have very similar needs and could use either a bag of food, a case of canned food (always in short supply) or any of the things above.

Thank you to Chewy for the donation and another chance to take photos of shelter cats - which you will see in another upcoming post


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