Sherbert, Donut, Bruce, Blaze & Lone Wolf

Hey again everyone!

My beautiful kitties are now 1 mo. 2 days old(all my other posts say 5wks sorry for the confusion!). And they're all pretty independant now. They run around and terrorize my whole apartment, get into things they know they're not supposed to touch, and wake me up in the middles of the night because they wanted to crawl on the bed and sleep with me, but mistakenly clawed me in the face. (but it's too cute for me to be mad at) :wink: And I've got lots of questions. First I'll divide them by kitty, and then I'll ask some general questions.

Sherbert: he's always crying, but it doesn't seem that there's really a reason! Why is he doing this? And is the rumor that all orange cats are male true? I'm positive he's a male, but I was just wondering. And, all the other kittens are eating atleast some solid food now, but Sherbert won't touch it and is constantly feeding off the mother. Also, sometimes when he feeds, he hurts the mother. I'm not sure how, is it because he's clawing/biting her, or is there something wrong with mum that needs to be checked out?

Donut: no problems here! All her recent issues have been discussed! She is a very happy kitty. And very observent. She always sits and looks around.

Bruce: When he was 3 wks old the mother was trying to re-locate all the kitties, because she thought the place she had them was dangerous (this little girl that is patrick's brother's girlfriend's kept going into the closet -where mum had the kitties- and touching the kitties and peanut -mum- didn't like this) So she took them to a very dangerous place and dropped Blaze down a 30ft hole and left Bruce between the floor boards for an entire night. He didn't even cry out once, nor have I ever heard him cry. And ever since then he's not very social, and all he really does is eat and hide himself in very tightly packed spaces. He was the runt of the litter and now he's very big! Is that healthy? Is there anything I can do to make him more sociable?

Blaze: She's stopped sleeping with the rest of the kitties, and now she only sleeps on the bed with me! Is this a problem? Because if not I love it! It's the most adorable thing! Ever since she fell down the 30 ft hole she's actually been MORE social! Do you think it's because I ripped the wall apart to save her and washed her up? She got a lot of dust in her eyes that day too and I've always been worried that he might be blind. She acts like it a little to me, she never plays with another kitten unless it jumps on her first.

Lone Wolf: precisely her name! She still stays in the closet all the time, while the others sleep in their kitty bed. She never feeds off of Peanut anymore, so I thought I should give her solid food, and she seems very content eating this, but I hear it's unhealthy for kittens to only eat solid food when they're only a month old, is that true?

And I also have a few general questions!

When is the proper time to start weening? (i read about it a lot online but i don't trust many websites! you never know who wrote them!)

They've been pooping all over Peanut's head so she gets all gross and smelly :lol: when do they need to get litter box trained? And do they all really need seperate litter boxes? or will they mind using the same one as long as I clean it a couple of times a day?

Lately when they've been sleeping, Peanut will start to whine and cry then she'll try to fit into the kitten bed with them and lick them all and wake them up then start biting on their necks (like she's going to pick them up, but she doesn't). And I heard that mum cats aren't supposed to spend so much time with their kitties once they're this age, but Peanut cries and whines whenever she's not with them and doesn't like it when they play or walk around so she picks them up and puts them back in the closet! She even tried to carry one out the window once!! So I've been taking her away from them for long periods everday, or trying to atleast, but after a little while she starts crying and rams the door open. Is her behavior okay? I thought they should be able to explore and play at this age. What should I do?

Thanks everyone! I would have done a million web searches, but like I said, I don't really trust web sites. And pretty much everyone here seems super smart!

 

Well I can attempt to answer some of these....sounds like you have your hands full!!

Sherbert: When my kitty was a baby he just meowed and meowed constantly and followed me around all the time. I figured out that when I picked him up and carried him on my shoulder he stopped. It was too cute.

And sometimes when they're bigger they will claw at the mother and sometimes accidentally bite her when feeding. She'll tell them when she wants them to stop feeding off her totally. I had one kitten who fed off his mom until 5 months! He was eating real food so I wasn't too worried. She eventually wouldn't let him anymore.

I dunno about any rumor about orange=male but I have had orange and white females so it's entirely possible. Maybe you heard the calico (black/white/orange) is always female?

Blaze: She sounds very sociable! It's not a bad thing that she's attached to you...probably because you did save her. I dunno about her being blind though. It could be possible, there's a lot of reasons kittiens could be blind. Do her eyes still dilate in the dark and get smaller in the light? If they do she still probably has her sight (or at least some of it)...the only real way to tell would be to take her to a vet. He might give you some drops to put in her eyes or something along those lines. But having a blind kitty isn't a big problem. They make excellant sniffers!

Lone Wolf & Bruce: Usually about that age kittens will be eating solid food and mother's milk. As long as it's good food for kittens I doubt it'd be a problem. And them growing up fast is a good thing!

Bruce: And some cats just don't cry. As to making them more sociable, just being around and playing with them a lot is all that's needed. If it's towards other cats you want them to be sociable, don't worry about it too much, some cats just like to be loners.


As for litter training, usually if the mother is litter trained then they will learn by watching her. Plus, it's somewhat natural for them to want to "bury" it someplace and all. I would suggest that after every intense play period and a few times a day just take them and set them in the litter box. If you can get some of their poo from the kitten bed and put it in there so they get the idea.

At this age they probably don't need separate litter boxes for every one of them. But I would suggest having at least 2 boxes with so many kitties using one litter box it could get a little unhealthy.

And kittens can explore and play at this age but the mother likes to watch. Her instincts seem very strong. She probably just wants to make sure that they are okay at all times. Just make sure she doesn't carry them out any windows and it should be okay for her to be around them a lot.


I hope some of that helps! I'm not really an expert like some of the people here but I have been through about 8 or 9 litters of kittens in my life so I've seen a lot. Good luck with your fur-babies! :mrgreen:

 

thanks much for the helpful advice!! i'm glad to know i don't have anything to worry about. after reading your reply i checked Blaze's eyes with the light test you suggested and she seems to be just fine! :y_the_best:

 

PilotKitten just gave you great advice! It's much better to get info from someone who's actually been through it. You can contact Bellack1 or read her thread for kitten care.
For weaning:
http://www.auspet.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=44987&highlight=#44987

Sherbert- sounds colicky and needy. He'll outgrow this phase.

Donut- :y_the_best:

Bruce- he will get good socialization especially if he's staying with mom and siblings and getting human handling. He's personality should change. I'd worry after he's 12 weeks old and is still anti-social. My Pumpkin was the runt of the litter but as soon as she started on the kitten chow, she got real big!

Blaze- a real sweetie pie! She thinks she's human. LOL's. She must have bonded with you.

Lone Wolf- sounds like a hermit. LOL's With time, her personality may change. Like Pilot Kitten said, with quality kitten food, she'll be fine. Don't worry. You can always suppliment the food with KMR2 and whatever else Mary_NH, Karen_80, Pilot Kitten, Nern and Chessmind and whoever else I don't remember the names recommend. They always seem to have good advice. You can PM them anytime!

Yep, mom will litter train her babies. But you can help them along with a shallow tray for easier entry and exit.

Peanut sounds like a great mom! Her babies are so lucky to have her!

 

Now would be a fine time to start weaning them but they should still also be nursing on their mother at least for about another week if she allows them to. My kittens started showing interest in their mothers food at around 3wks of age...this is when I introduced them to canned kitten food. They ate canned food and nursed on their mother until they were about 6wks of age. They also starting using the litter box at this time (3 - 4wks of age) which they pretty much learned on their own from watching their mother. It might be easier to litter train them if you restict them to one room of the house.
I don't think it really necessary to seperate them from their mother unless their is a medical or health reason for doing so. The mother will decide when its time for them to be more independent. She will stop allowing them to nurse and will stop letting them be so dependent on her. The mother cat that I had was very protective her her babies even after they were weaned but she did push them away more as they grew up. I think the behavior you decribe sound perfectly normal of the mother cat.
Good luck.

 

Thank you everyone for the good advice!

Now my question is, can anyone suggest a good cat food? I give them cans of tuna fish Alpo for cats (a website said I should get food that smelled like fish so they'd recognise it with their instincts or something...) and other than that I give them Meow Mix and put enough water on it to make is soft so they can eat it (got that off another site). But I'm not sure that I should be giving them this, some things I've read say that there's no difference between "Cat Chow" and "Kitten Chow"and that it's just a big scam to get more money for the companies who make them and what not. But other sites say there is a big difference. So what's the real story? I was thinking of making a trip up to the pet store and getting some of the Science Diet Kitten Chow samples until I get paid.

I'm going to try and see if I can stand having Peanut in with the babies whenever she wants, but she really makes me angry. I'm going to vent for a moment.

VENT: Peanut never lets them sleep!! Always with the licking them when they're completely asleep so they get woken up, then they stand around all drowzy for a minute and pass out again until she licks them. She did this SO OFTEN for a while that they were always too tired to play because they never had enough sleep!! So I got angry that day and when she went into the living room I closed the door and didn't let her in for a while. -Mean to do to your cat I know but I was sooooo frustrated- And of course, when I did let her back in the room she ran over to her sleeping kittens and licked them all until they woke up. And after that, she ate all of the food I put in here for them. I told her "no" and took her away from it but she still continues to do it. Not to mention when they actually do manage to get some shut eye -when Peanut goes to her litte box/sleeps- and come out to play, Peanut carries them off, and not the right way either. She puts practically their WHOLE HEAD in her mouth. She doesn't just bite the scruff where she's supposed to, she pretty much eats their head. How can this be normal?! I don't expect anyone to answer this is just helps me to know I let it all out somewhere.

Alright, sorry about that. Usually I love Peanut but not when she does certain things. Oh, and did I mention? About once a month there's a big gathering of drug addicts over here and Peanut actually goes out there when they're smoking dope and sits with them. Maybe that's why she's so weird? Peanut's a druggie.

I guess she's trying to be a good mom, but she's not even 2 yrs old herself. So I have to cut her some slack. Hopefully no one is going to think I'm an animal abuser after this! I love my kitties. Even Peanut. She is sitting on my lap as I type.

 

LOL's. Here's a site:
http://www.ragdoll.net/pagef.htm

If you can avoid getting kitten food from the grocery store, all the better. If not, my vet recommends Friskies.

About.com has neat info:
http://search.about.com/fullsearch.htm?terms=quality kitten food

Off topic- scratching furniture problems:
http://www.auspet.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=31008&highlight=#31008

From Auspet members:
http://www.auspet.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=35655&highlight=#35655

http://www.auspet.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=23173&highlight=#23173

 

wow...i feel a deja vu!!??!! it sounds just like bellack1...but with multiple kittens!!!!

good luck darkrabbit. ask me anything about diarrhea in kitties and i can tell you...ad nauseum...(hee hee) but...young kittens...no clue.... :0011:

 

The real story is that there is a difference unless the food is designed for "all life stages". Cat Chow has less calories, protein and fat than kitten chow....growing kittens have small stomaches and because they are growing they need lots of nutrients in a small amount of food. This is something that most foods designed for maintenance can not provide because a kitten simply can't consume enough food to get all the nutrients it needs. Hope that makes sense.
The litter of kittens I had ate Purina kitten chow soaked in water and Iams canned kitten food which a friend donated to me. I see that vene posted some good links to help you choose a good brand. Good luck.