tristanichole
Well-known member
First and foremost, I didn't want to post this in the "other pets" section because technically these little monsters aren't mine 
I haven't done foster care in over a year and I just recently decided to start up again for the Humane Society here. During the summer we get massive amounts of kittens that come in either motherless, with a mother and they all need fostering, or with a mother who doesn't want them anymore...I got "lucky" and had the ones that got rejected by their mom. Their mother is GORGEOUS...a SH Dilute Tortie...but she just didn't want to care for them anymore. There are 7 kittens in total...6 of them are 4 weeks old and the one who was put in with the litter was apparently just found and he is 5 weeks old. He looks just like the rest of them. I'm hoping to get my hands on a camera (mine kicked the bucket :wacko and get some pictures up - the scanned photos I have of them wont do them a bit of justice.
So, they came to me on Friday...I hate writing things down, so instead I will just keep little updates on here and on my Facebook for people to see who are interested. On Friday I had a pen set up next to my bed where they were spending all of their time, but they were a bit secluded, so on Sunday I set up their pen in the back of my room and they are able to see more and interact more with us. Friday someone kept having accidents on the towel outside of the litter box (yes, I changed it every single time I saw it)...I couldn't find the culprit, but they got the hang of it by Saturday and *knock on wood* no one has done it since. Now I just have to deal with poopy behinds, due to a few of them with the longer hair...and messy bodies from the mush they are eating.
Speaking of eating...everyone is eating on their own except for little Webster...I call him Webby. He absolutely REFUSES to eat from a bowl and has to have his bottle. He likes to hold it and then keep suckling even after the formula is gone. Today I started mixing in Chicken&Chicken Gravy baby food with the formula in the bottle. He showed the slightest indication that he might start trying to eat from a bowl tonight, biting the sides of it...but to his dismay...no milk comes out of ceramic:banghead:
I'm hopeful that he'll start within the next week. He eats double the times in a day that the others eat.
So, that's Webster...he was 11oz on Friday and is now up to 13.5oz - making momma proud! He is solid gray - just the cutest! He's the odd man out because everyone else has markings of some sort. He is short haired and such a little hunny. You always get that special bond with the ones you have to bottle feed...and I have it with him...he has it with me.
Now to talk about the other ones. Pip is the odd man out when it comes to names...he is the kitten who isn't part of the litter by blood - so he was named with a "P" instead of a "W" like the rest of them...please keep in mind, I did not name these kittens...you'll see what I mean as you come to a few of the names:laughitup:
Pip is a light orange tiger baby with short hair. He is at the weight and maturity of a 5 week old kitten. He doesn't seem to need to eat as often as the rest of them, I didn't have to show him how to start eating...he just did it, and he uses the litter box like a pro. On Friday he weighed 22oz and is maintaining that weight as of around 7pm last night. I'm not worried about no weight gain at this point...I'd be worried if he lost. He's super spunky and eats when he's hungry...which is around 3-4 times a day. When he came here on Friday he was pretty feral. He was scared and hissy and jumped at everything. He wouldn't come to me on his own and wouldn't purr. By Saturday night I had him purring when I pet him. By Sunday night I would pet him, pull my hand away, and he'd come and nuzzle me for more. And finally, on Monday he was coming into my lap on his own, playing with me, and literally running circles around me. He is getting a lot of exposure to things that he wouldn't be getting at the shelter (for instance, dogs) and he is becoming better and better each day. He's also very independent; he can be seen either hanging out alone and playing or with the other kittens.
Then we have Waffle (see...here is a name I would have never thought to call a cat...) - he too is a light orange tiger baby. He has a thinner face and short hair. I had to guide him when it came to everything at first, but by the end of Friday night he knew what to do and didn't need my help. He weighed in at 12.5oz on Friday night and is now 13oz. I was hoping for a nice 14oz but he didn't make the cut. I'm not worried though, he's got a nice tummy and I can't feel his back bone. I'm confident he'll make it up there in the next few days.
Walrus is the other light orange tiger baby...He's fluffy though...I don't know if he'll stay like that or not. Now, Walrus may seem like a funny name, but if you SAW this kitten...you'd see. His face actually reminds me of a Walrus! He too needed a little help getting started, but quickly caught on. He weighed in at 12.5oz on Friday also, but as of Monday evening shot up to a nice 14.5 oz!! He's the third biggest boy in the litter and acts like he's starving *rolls eyes*...trust when I say, he is not...he has a permanent food beard....and on top of that he's a half an ounce heavier than I was hoping for. He's good.
Waverly is one of the two females in the whole group. She is a gray tiger baby and is almost unrecognizable from her brother Whistle. The only way you can tell them apart is their eyebrows...and their genitals of course...:hilarious: Waverly has two very dark markings that shoot up from her eyes and lightly join in the middle of her face to make a lightly colored "M". She is only 11oz and needed help at first, but quickly got the hang of things. She cries at me sometimes like she can't do it, but I don't want to baby her too much so I have to ignore it and get her to do it herself...which she does. Giving her a bottle will only get her dependent on that again and I need her to be a big girl. She unfortuately hasn't gained anything since being with me. I made her up her own food dish Monday night just in case she is getting pushed out. She ate some, but she really does prefer to eat with company. On top of that, I don't know what she weighed at birth, so it could be that she was just small to start and slow to gain.
Wysteria is absolutely adorable. Her hair is longer, but it isn't tiger like the others...she seems to have some Tortie spotting that may be more present if she ends up with shorter hair. She has a little white dash on her forehead. She needed a little coaxing to get things started also, but by the end of Friday night she was doing it on her own. She weighed in at 12oz on Friday and she too is still maintaining that weight. She also got her own dish Monday night...she stayed there for a bit but wanted to go by her litter mates and eat.
Whistle was 13oz large on Friday night and needed a little starting push, but by the end of the night was eating on his own with the rest of them. He looks almost identical to Waverly, but he has two light lines up from his eyes that don't quite meet. Also, if you flip him over he was VERY defined "leopard spots" on his belly. Monday night he weighed in at 18oz making him the largest of his litter! I don't know where he puts it because physically he doesn't look big. Walrus appears to be bigger, but that is probably because Walrus has longer hair than Whistle does.
Friday night I fed them and fed them whenever they wanted. At 3am fed them their last meal and I went to sleep and they, quite graciously, didn't wake me up until sometime after 10am...how thoughtful!! And trust me...they would have been able to wake me sooner if they wanted...7 kittens crying at once isn't something you can sleep through. After that they played and slept until 3pm when they wanted more. I'm keeping a minimum of 3 feedings a day and when they want more they let me know. I'm here almost the entire day unless I work for an hour or two in the morning and then a few hours at night. I'm trying to let THEM tell ME when they are hungry and get them to work out their own schedule. They are sticking to about the same time schedule, which is about every 5 - 7 hours.
Two of my dogs seem to think they are the mothers...
Libby (my Miniature Pinscher) whom actually seems to think that she is their Mom, was never a good mother to her own single puppy that she had, but when it comes to kittens, if she doesn't get to be near them she gets really upset. *Rolls eyes*
Leila, our Shepherd absolutely loves them. She spends as much time as I'll allow just laying next to the pen and watching over them. When we hold one she watches us. She'll lick their heads =) Today when Webster was having his morning bottle she crawled up on the bed next to me while he finished. When he was done she kissed his feet - I put him back and she went back to laying on the floor with them.
*Whew, I think this was the longest post of my LIFE*
So that's that! I'll keep updates on here as they progress.
I haven't done foster care in over a year and I just recently decided to start up again for the Humane Society here. During the summer we get massive amounts of kittens that come in either motherless, with a mother and they all need fostering, or with a mother who doesn't want them anymore...I got "lucky" and had the ones that got rejected by their mom. Their mother is GORGEOUS...a SH Dilute Tortie...but she just didn't want to care for them anymore. There are 7 kittens in total...6 of them are 4 weeks old and the one who was put in with the litter was apparently just found and he is 5 weeks old. He looks just like the rest of them. I'm hoping to get my hands on a camera (mine kicked the bucket :wacko
and get some pictures up - the scanned photos I have of them wont do them a bit of justice. So, they came to me on Friday...I hate writing things down, so instead I will just keep little updates on here and on my Facebook for people to see who are interested. On Friday I had a pen set up next to my bed where they were spending all of their time, but they were a bit secluded, so on Sunday I set up their pen in the back of my room and they are able to see more and interact more with us. Friday someone kept having accidents on the towel outside of the litter box (yes, I changed it every single time I saw it)...I couldn't find the culprit, but they got the hang of it by Saturday and *knock on wood* no one has done it since. Now I just have to deal with poopy behinds, due to a few of them with the longer hair...and messy bodies from the mush they are eating.
Speaking of eating...everyone is eating on their own except for little Webster...I call him Webby. He absolutely REFUSES to eat from a bowl and has to have his bottle. He likes to hold it and then keep suckling even after the formula is gone. Today I started mixing in Chicken&Chicken Gravy baby food with the formula in the bottle. He showed the slightest indication that he might start trying to eat from a bowl tonight, biting the sides of it...but to his dismay...no milk comes out of ceramic:banghead:
I'm hopeful that he'll start within the next week. He eats double the times in a day that the others eat.
So, that's Webster...he was 11oz on Friday and is now up to 13.5oz - making momma proud! He is solid gray - just the cutest! He's the odd man out because everyone else has markings of some sort. He is short haired and such a little hunny. You always get that special bond with the ones you have to bottle feed...and I have it with him...he has it with me.
Now to talk about the other ones. Pip is the odd man out when it comes to names...he is the kitten who isn't part of the litter by blood - so he was named with a "P" instead of a "W" like the rest of them...please keep in mind, I did not name these kittens...you'll see what I mean as you come to a few of the names:laughitup:
Pip is a light orange tiger baby with short hair. He is at the weight and maturity of a 5 week old kitten. He doesn't seem to need to eat as often as the rest of them, I didn't have to show him how to start eating...he just did it, and he uses the litter box like a pro. On Friday he weighed 22oz and is maintaining that weight as of around 7pm last night. I'm not worried about no weight gain at this point...I'd be worried if he lost. He's super spunky and eats when he's hungry...which is around 3-4 times a day. When he came here on Friday he was pretty feral. He was scared and hissy and jumped at everything. He wouldn't come to me on his own and wouldn't purr. By Saturday night I had him purring when I pet him. By Sunday night I would pet him, pull my hand away, and he'd come and nuzzle me for more. And finally, on Monday he was coming into my lap on his own, playing with me, and literally running circles around me. He is getting a lot of exposure to things that he wouldn't be getting at the shelter (for instance, dogs) and he is becoming better and better each day. He's also very independent; he can be seen either hanging out alone and playing or with the other kittens.
Then we have Waffle (see...here is a name I would have never thought to call a cat...) - he too is a light orange tiger baby. He has a thinner face and short hair. I had to guide him when it came to everything at first, but by the end of Friday night he knew what to do and didn't need my help. He weighed in at 12.5oz on Friday night and is now 13oz. I was hoping for a nice 14oz but he didn't make the cut. I'm not worried though, he's got a nice tummy and I can't feel his back bone. I'm confident he'll make it up there in the next few days.
Walrus is the other light orange tiger baby...He's fluffy though...I don't know if he'll stay like that or not. Now, Walrus may seem like a funny name, but if you SAW this kitten...you'd see. His face actually reminds me of a Walrus! He too needed a little help getting started, but quickly caught on. He weighed in at 12.5oz on Friday also, but as of Monday evening shot up to a nice 14.5 oz!! He's the third biggest boy in the litter and acts like he's starving *rolls eyes*...trust when I say, he is not...he has a permanent food beard....and on top of that he's a half an ounce heavier than I was hoping for. He's good.
Waverly is one of the two females in the whole group. She is a gray tiger baby and is almost unrecognizable from her brother Whistle. The only way you can tell them apart is their eyebrows...and their genitals of course...:hilarious: Waverly has two very dark markings that shoot up from her eyes and lightly join in the middle of her face to make a lightly colored "M". She is only 11oz and needed help at first, but quickly got the hang of things. She cries at me sometimes like she can't do it, but I don't want to baby her too much so I have to ignore it and get her to do it herself...which she does. Giving her a bottle will only get her dependent on that again and I need her to be a big girl. She unfortuately hasn't gained anything since being with me. I made her up her own food dish Monday night just in case she is getting pushed out. She ate some, but she really does prefer to eat with company. On top of that, I don't know what she weighed at birth, so it could be that she was just small to start and slow to gain.
Wysteria is absolutely adorable. Her hair is longer, but it isn't tiger like the others...she seems to have some Tortie spotting that may be more present if she ends up with shorter hair. She has a little white dash on her forehead. She needed a little coaxing to get things started also, but by the end of Friday night she was doing it on her own. She weighed in at 12oz on Friday and she too is still maintaining that weight. She also got her own dish Monday night...she stayed there for a bit but wanted to go by her litter mates and eat.
Whistle was 13oz large on Friday night and needed a little starting push, but by the end of the night was eating on his own with the rest of them. He looks almost identical to Waverly, but he has two light lines up from his eyes that don't quite meet. Also, if you flip him over he was VERY defined "leopard spots" on his belly. Monday night he weighed in at 18oz making him the largest of his litter! I don't know where he puts it because physically he doesn't look big. Walrus appears to be bigger, but that is probably because Walrus has longer hair than Whistle does.
Friday night I fed them and fed them whenever they wanted. At 3am fed them their last meal and I went to sleep and they, quite graciously, didn't wake me up until sometime after 10am...how thoughtful!! And trust me...they would have been able to wake me sooner if they wanted...7 kittens crying at once isn't something you can sleep through. After that they played and slept until 3pm when they wanted more. I'm keeping a minimum of 3 feedings a day and when they want more they let me know. I'm here almost the entire day unless I work for an hour or two in the morning and then a few hours at night. I'm trying to let THEM tell ME when they are hungry and get them to work out their own schedule. They are sticking to about the same time schedule, which is about every 5 - 7 hours.
Two of my dogs seem to think they are the mothers...
Libby (my Miniature Pinscher) whom actually seems to think that she is their Mom, was never a good mother to her own single puppy that she had, but when it comes to kittens, if she doesn't get to be near them she gets really upset. *Rolls eyes*
Leila, our Shepherd absolutely loves them. She spends as much time as I'll allow just laying next to the pen and watching over them. When we hold one she watches us. She'll lick their heads =) Today when Webster was having his morning bottle she crawled up on the bed next to me while he finished. When he was done she kissed his feet - I put him back and she went back to laying on the floor with them.
*Whew, I think this was the longest post of my LIFE*
So that's that! I'll keep updates on here as they progress.
