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

Firstly congratulations xxx sounds like they're doing very well xx

Litter training - yes pop smaller litter trays down if you like now - my litter i have now are very forward and started litter training and weaning at 3 weeks of their own accord xx

make sure you have cimicat and some nice wholesome kitten food at the ready xx

secondly - clay based litter for kittens is very harmful if they decide to eat it - i use worlds best as it's wheat based and digests if they decide the litter looks tasty xx

as to her litter tray - by week 4-5 my lot were in hers more than in their own ones - if a kitten wants to do something you'll find they persevere until they do it lol xx

i hope they do well hun and congrats again xx

p.s mums can be picky at times - but you'll find her appetite should outway the pickiness and she'll eat as she'll be feeding kittens and needing the food for the milk xx

as for your boy aswell - he's just playing jealous as he knows sis is getting what she wants - he'll settle xx

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Thanks for your reply.

I cant believe that about the clay based stuff! Sooo glad I didnt use it!

The stuff we use at the moment is this.....I cant see anything online about whether its safe for little kitties or not...

Clumping OkoPlus Wood Pellet Cat Litter 10Ltr by Cat's Best-Clumping-Pets at Home: Buy Pet Supplies from our Online UK Pet Shop

Should I put them more than one tray down? I will leave Mums out then, I was going to remove it.

Also, with food, do I need to do anything specific with it or just serve it as it is?

Thanks again for your help (And sorry for all the questions!)

Lise x

the clay based stuff sits in their stomachs if eaten, hence best not to use it however not all kittens try and eat the litter obviously lol xx it's just precaution really as you can't watch them 24/7 (unless you have a cook/laundry worker and cleaner pmsl) i'd hazard a guess the oko stuff would be ok - but someone else would have to confirm they use this with theirs lol xx i stick to worlds best just in case xx

leave mum's out - the smaller trays are sometimes hit and miss with older cats and she'll rather her tray is there anyway xx the kittens will watch what mum does and start to copycat it xx

as with food - usual weaning starts from about 4 weeks (mine however were in the royal canin babycat from week 3! lol was funny to watch)

make up some cimicat/royal canin milk or whatever powdered milk for kittens you go for and pop in an amount of kitten food and smoosh it in - dip noses in it and let them lick it off and persevere each day until they get the hint and start lapping it up themselves and actually running to the bowls when you're putting it down lol xx

then just gradually add more kitten food to the mix (over a period of a couple of weeks) and less powdered milk until no milk at all and all going well you'll have weaned kittens nice and easily xx doesn't aways go completely to plan though lol xx 2 of mine preferred solid and wanted away with the cimicat by 4.5 weeks and the others would eat without cimicat lol xx you'll get to know what they want though and how they want to do it xx

good luck xx

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Thank you! Excellant! I shall continue with the OkoPlus.

I only have the one decent (And recent) pic at the moment, the rest are blurry (I didnt realise till now). This was a few days ago...



I was trying to catch the black one as he has the cutest face imagineable. He has a white bib and toes/feet, we're keeping him, he's called socks

I'm not sure what sort of colours the girl is! I thought she was grey, but she has ginger, brown and white in her two. With a pale face. I'll try and catch her on camera in a min, she is very inquisitive, her bro is a bit more lazy! She is going to my brother in law and girlfriend, and is named Iggle Piggle!

Great pic CS and they are very,very cutsie,they look in fine form tooYou and mum are doing a fab job between you both..well done love

wow gorgeous,,, what little sweeties,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

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i thought that too but wasn't sure - need more piccys for a proper colour diagnosis (hint hint lol - love kitten piccys lol) xxx

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