Hello all,

Firstly thank for all the help with my cat Chips, before and after her giving birth.

After sadly losing her first litter earlier this year, things are going great this time.

The kittens are 18 days old today, at 2 weeks old the boy had trebbled his birth weight, and the girl was not far off (As of this morning she has more than trebbled it now too). They opened their eyes at 8-9 days old, and have started walking about, and falling over a lot! I have heard them purr, and this morning I saw them both licking and cleaning themselves! They seem a little more inquisitive now, and I think they will be a lot more active soon. Does this sound right for this age?

When they were a few days old Chips moved them from the nest box on one side of our room, to the bottom of my wardrobe, which was empty for her anyway (She was rooting in there before the birth so I was prepared!) they stayed there until they were almost 2 weeks old, when we put them ina cat bed right outside the wardrobe...Chips seemed to like it, so over the next few days we moved it a few feet at a time until she was in the spare room with them! And thats where they are now. Lots of room to themselves, with a baby stair gate up to keep my 2 yr old away!

So I have some questions now, we think we need to put a litter tray in about now? There is one in there for Chips, but its a big roll over enclosed one, which will be hard for them to get in, so we have bought a bog standard shallow tray. We use Cats Best clumpng litter, but I am sure I read somewhere we cant use that with kittens so we bought some cheap clay based stuff, is this right? Ive not set the tray up yet, but I really need to do it tonight I think.

Chips is being VERY fussy with her food, we moved her onto Felix kitten (She normally had felix) but she didnt like. We tried Hi Life, which she ate for a day, but wouldnt after that. We tried Natures menu, which she ate half of. I have tried about 10 other different foods (Seriously!) but she doesnt seem too fond on anything. She has dried too and is eating that, but I am worrying she is not eating enough. She will eat some normal Felix, but not always. Its so odd. Also her brother is being a complete nightmare and now refusing to eat any of his normal food, instead sneaking up to the spare room to finish Chips off.

Also, Hissing! From about a week old the boy kitten was doing something which we now realise is hissing! Its getting really bad, as soon as I approach them they both hiss at me! Sometimes no sound comes out, other times they are quite loud! Is this normal? If I pick them up they seem quite happy but hiss on approach. We are keeping one of them and I am worried he doesnt like me already!

I have some cracking pics, so I will post some as soon as I get a spare moment to myself (Ha, as if) to resize them etc.

Thanks in advance,

Lise x x x