Samantha, you’re supposed to nurse your kittens for 6 weeks, not 2 days!

This morning, I found Samantha sitting totally outside the box on top of the cabinet by the window. I don’t know if she has been feeding her kittens all night. Or perhaps she is just relaxing for awhile. I certainly hope it is the latter.

Today is Day 3 after delivery.

For her previous litter whose whereabouts I do not know (she was still a street cat then), she also came back to our porch on the third day after having disappeared completely for two days.  From then on, she was back often for food, but would go off after that (I assume to nurse her kittens). But on the third week, she no longer went away. She just stayed in our porch all the time. Then she came into heat and mated with Gerald. All this happened on the third week.

So now, I’m worried she would do the same. The only difference now is that I’m not letting her out to lepak. I’m keeping her in the room UNTIL the kittens are weaned off breast milk and can be on solid food. Then and only then will I take her for spaying.

If she stops feeding her kittens while being confined in the same room with them, I guess there’s no way to force her and I will have to handfeed the kittens myself.

Hmm…let’s hope that does not happen because “breast is still best” for animals (I doubt we have the technology to duplicate animal breast milk as well as we do for human breast milk). If not, then “fed is best”!  I’ll have to buy pet milk to handfeed if need be.

I’ll have to monitor the kittens’ weight daily. Maybe twice daily, since she already allows me to handle her kittens without gloves now.

Date Time Kai Akira Indra
11-Feb 6pm 118 115 104
12-Feb 6.30am 125 123 114
12-Feb 5.30pm 133 131 123
13-Feb 5.30am 143 137 128

Indra only gained 5g in the last 12 hours, so that’s to be monitored.

When I picked up Akira to be weighed this morning, she was mewing in protest (no surprise there, she’s a feisty girl!) and Samantha came to her rescue. Good girl, Sam. Good girl!

I hope motherly instincts will kick in for Samantha. Never had any problems at all with Pole and Minnie; both were perfect mothers. In fact, Pole thought poor Bobby was a threat when he came too near, she chased him all the way through the house to the kitchen back door and I’d never ever seen Bobby THAT scared all his life. I’ve also never seen Pole that fierce all her life! That’s a protective mother for you!

And Daffodil gets “Mother of the Year” award, paws down. She looked after Rosie and Ginger until the end of her life at 17 years. Pole and Minnie both left their kittens after 4 months. But Minnie continued to come back to visit them. Now, Minnie has no choice – she lives with them in the catio! Pole totally disengaged after 4 months, but Cleo remembered her all her life.


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

2 responses to “Samantha, you’re supposed to nurse your kittens for 6 weeks, not 2 days!”

  1. Mas

    If this is the case, now we know where all the kittens went.

    1. chankahyein

      Sadly…yes.